Jacksonville, Oregon, is small. The music is not.
There is a hill in southern Oregon where ponderosa pines stand like sentinels, and the summer air smells of warm grass and possibility. The town of Jacksonville has 2,800 people. The amphitheater seats 2,200. Do the math. This is not a festival that happens to have a town. This is a town that exists, in large part, because of a festival. That distinction matters.
Britt Music and Arts Festival is the Pacific Northwest’s premier outdoor summer performing arts festival, set on the historic hillside estate of 19th-century photographer Peter Britt, inside a naturally formed amphitheater ringed by ponderosa pines and native madrone trees. It is not Coachella. It is not Glastonbury. It is something rarer: a festival with actual soul, in a place that earned it.
The 2026 Lineup Slaps
Founded in 1963, Britt draws approximately 100,000 visitors each year to its Pavilion and surrounding gardens. This summer, the programming swings hard across every genre a thinking adult might actually enjoy.
The season opens in July with the Britt Festival Orchestra performing Mozart and Copland under the stars, followed by Elle King, KALEO’s Way Down We Go Tour, and the Marcus King Band. Modest Mouse takes the stage in August. Greensky Bluegrass brings their high-energy presence. Chicago returns for another night of timeless material. Comedy fans get Jeff Dunham and Gabriel Iglesias. Bonnie Raitt is on the calendar. Alison Krauss and Union Station. Pink Martini. Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys are sharing a bill, because someone at Britt understands that music should be an event.
The Britt Festival Orchestra presents a two-night run of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert, with the orchestra performing John Williams’ score live as the film plays on screen. Yes, really. Yes, it sells out.
Norman Huynh makes his debut as music director in 2026. That is a significant moment. Pay attention to it.
Where to Stay: McCully House Inn
Fly into Medford. Drive fifteen minutes. Check in somewhere that has been operating since 1860.
Built by Jane and John McCully, the McCully House Inn is the oldest home in Oregon currently operating as an inn, designated as a National Historical Landmark. That badge is not a marketing line. The bones of this place predate Oregon’s statehood. You feel it the moment you walk through the door.
The Inn offers five distinctive guest rooms and four luxurious suites, each individually decorated. No two rooms are the same. That is the point. You are not sleeping in a room. You are sleeping in a chapter.
Complimentary bicycles, backpack picnic baskets, and a 24-hour guest pantry stocked with fresh-ground coffee, tea, and fruit come standard. These are not amenities. They are a philosophy about how guests should feel when they wake up.
The location is surgical. The Britt Festival Pavilion sits five blocks from the inn, accessible on foot. Walk to the concert. Walk home. No rideshare, no parking, no drama.
The McCully House Inn also holds a partnership with Applegate Vines wine tours, allowing guests to book customized tours of the Applegate and Rogue Valley wineries. Use this. Southern Oregon’s wine country is drastically underrated, and the locals want you to know it.
Wine in the Garden: McCully House Pub
Here is the insider move most Britt visitors miss entirely.
Before the concert, or after, or instead of anything else you had planned, go sit in the garden at McCully House Pub and Lounge. Order a glass of something local. Do not rush.
The Pub and Lounge offers pioneer-inspired pub fare, local brews, Guinness, and craft cocktails. This summer, a new restaurant will open with seasonal menus built around locally sourced ingredients from the Applegate Valley, a GMO seed-free zone designated as a dream destination for serious food people.
The Hyland Vesper, the pub’s signature cocktail, earned recognition in Forbes. It is crisp, smooth, and balanced. Order it once and understand why.
Imagine a warm Oregon afternoon, with a glass of Applegate Valley wine, surrounded by an English-style garden that has seen over 160 summers; this is what slow travel actually feels like.
After a day of tastings on the Applegate Wine Trail, guests return to McCully House Inn and the pub and lounge, with an outdoor fireplace to share a bottle brought home from the road. That is not a description. That is an itinerary.
The Real Reason to Go
Most travel is consumption. You arrive. You photograph. You leave with full memory cards and empty pockets and no particular sense of having been anywhere.
Britt is different. Jacksonville is different. Britt is a community where people from all walks of life explore music, art, and nature together. That language sounds like nonprofit copy until you are actually sitting on the hill with 2,000 strangers who all chose the same obscure Oregon town on the same summer night. Then it sounds like the truth.
The Rogue Valley earns your attention. The wine is honest. The music is serious. The inn has been standing since gold was still being pulled from the ground nearby. And the garden behind McCully House has weathered enough Oregon winters to know what endures.
Go for the music. Stay for what the music reveals about a place. Come back next year.