National Fried Chicken Festival 2026 Adds EDM to the Lineup | NOLA EDM

NOLA EDM: The National Fried Chicken Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. For people who may know the name but have never experienced the festival, how would you describe what the festival has grown into over the past decade?

FCF: I think the biggest thing we’d tell someone who’s never been is: don’t let the name fool you. Yes, the fried chicken is incredible, and food will always be at the heart of what we do, but FCF has grown into a much bigger festival experience. I think the biggest thing we’d tell someone who’s never been is: don’t let the name fool you. Yes, the fried chicken is incredible, and food will always be at the heart of what we do, but FCF has grown into a much bigger festival experience.

For our 10th anniversary, we’re taking over the New Orleans Lakefront for three days with more than 40 restaurants, three stages, national and local artists, five lounge experiences, the 5K, the Merchant Marketplace, interactive experiences and a lot more. You can come out in the afternoon, eat your way around the festival, discover artists you’ve never seen before, hang with your friends on the Lakefront, and then end your night at a major national headliner.

That’s really where we’re taking FCF next. We want this to be a true food AND music festival — something where the lineup alone gives you a reason to buy a ticket, and then everything else you discover once you’re inside makes you want to come back.

And there’s a bigger reason behind that investment. The more people and different communities we can bring to the festival, the more impact we can create for the restaurants, small businesses, artists, and community partners who are part of it. Growing the music ultimately helps us grow the entire FCF ecosystem.

NOLA EDM: This year marks a major first for the festival with EDM officially becoming part of the music programming. What led to the decision to bring electronic music into the lineup for 2026?

FCF: Honestly, it felt like the right time.

New Orleans has never been a one-genre music city. This is a place where jazz, brass, funk, hip-hop, bounce, R&B and so many other sounds live alongside each other. And right now, there’s clearly an appetite for dance music here too.

As we started thinking about what the next 10 years of FCF could look like, we knew the music needed to get bigger and broader. If we’re going to call ourselves a true food and music festival, we want the lineup to give different kinds of music fans a reason to say, “Okay, now I need to check this out.”

We also know there are probably a lot of people in the New Orleans EDM community who’ve known about Fried Chicken Festival forever but never necessarily thought it was their festival. That’s exactly why this is exciting.

We’re basically saying: come see what we’ve been building. There’s a place for you here, too.

And we didn’t want our first move into electronic music to feel tentative. Booking Dillon Francis and A-Trak is us making it clear that we’re serious about exploring this space.

NOLA EDM: Dillon Francis headlines Saturday and A-Trak performs Sunday. Why did these two artists feel like the right introduction to EDM for the National Fried Chicken Festival?

FCF: Because both of them can absolutely throw a party, but they’re also artists with a ton of range.

Dillon is such a natural fit for a festival like ours because his music has always crossed boundaries. You can hear moombahton, house, trap and hip-hop in his sets, and he’s played basically every massive festival stage you can think of — Coachella, Tomorrowland, EDC, Lollapalooza. If you already love dance music, you know what kind of energy that can bring to the Lakefront. And if you’ve never been to an EDM set before, Dillon is a pretty great introduction.

Then, Sunday, you get A-Trak, who’s just a legend behind the decks. He’s a world champion turntablist, one-half of Duck Sauce, and someone who can move between house, hip-hop, disco and classic turntablism without it ever feeling forced. Watching him actually DJ is part of the experience.

That’s what we loved about this pairing. We’re not asking EDM fans to come out for a watered-down version of electronic music. These are two artists with real credibility in dance music who also make sense alongside everything else happening at FCF.

You could go from Dillon Francis to Nelly, 2 Chainz and Keri Hilson to Big Freedia with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra over the course of the same weekend. Where else are you getting that lineup with 40-plus restaurants on the Lakefront?

NOLA EDM: Music is only one part of the Fried Chicken Festival experience. For someone coming specifically because they saw Dillon Francis or A-Trak on the lineup, what else should they make sure they experience while they’re there?

FCF: First rule: do not eat before you come.

Seriously. Show up hungry and give yourself a few hours before the artist you came to see, because there are more than 40 restaurants to explore. And despite the name, it isn’t only fried chicken. You’ll find seafood, vegetarian and vegan options, globally inspired dishes and restaurants doing some really creative things.

Then wander. That’s part of the fun.

There are three stages, so go catch somebody you’ve never heard before. Check out the Merchant Marketplace. Grab your crew and explore the activations. Hang out by the Lakefront. Check out one of the lounge or VIP experiences. And if you’re really committed to the weekend, run the 5K Saturday morning and then reward yourself with fried chicken and Dillon Francis later that night.

Our biggest piece of advice to someone coming for Dillon or A-Trak would be: don’t just treat it like a concert.

Come early. Bring your people. Make a day of it. Find something you didn’t know you were coming for. Then when it’s time for the set, meet everybody at the stage and dance.

NOLA EDM: This is the first year EDM has had this kind of presence at the festival. If the response from the New Orleans dance community is strong, could you see electronic music becoming a continuing part of future Fried Chicken Festival lineups?

FCF: 110 percent.

This is our first year really stepping into the EDM space, so we’re excited to see what happens when the dance community gets out there.

If people show up, bring that energy and tell us they want more, we’re listening.

That’s actually a big part of what this next chapter of FCF is about. We don’t want the festival to stop evolving. We want the music to keep getting bigger, more interesting and more representative of the different communities that make New Orleans such a great music city.

And this isn’t about replacing anything that’s already part of FCF. It’s about expanding what FCF can be.

There’s plenty of room on the Lakefront for hip-hop, R&B, bounce, brass and electronic music to exist together. If the EDM community embraces this, we’d love for Dillon and A-Trak to be remembered as the beginning of something much bigger.

NOLA EDM: What do you hope people walk away saying about the 10th anniversary weekend after the final set ends on Sunday night?

FCF: “That completely changed what I thought Fried Chicken Festival would be.”

Especially from the person who bought a ticket because they saw Dillon Francis on the lineup and maybe hadn’t given FCF much thought before. We want them to get out there and realize, “Wait — there are three stages? There are 40-plus restaurants? I’m on the Lakefront watching this set with thousands of people? Why haven’t I been coming to this?”

We want the EDM fan who came for Dillon or A-Trak to leave with a new favorite local restaurant. We want somebody who came for the food to stumble into a dance set and become a new fan. That’s when a festival gets really fun — when different communities start discovering each other’s worlds.

If people leave Sunday night feeling like they experienced something they didn’t expect from Fried Chicken Festival, then we’ve done exactly what we wanted to do.

NOLA EDM: Anything else you want the New Orleans EDM and dance music community to know before National Fried Chicken Festival takes over the Lakefront October 2–4?

FCF: Yes: this event is very much for you.

If you’ve seen Fried Chicken Festival come and go every year but never thought it was your scene, give us a shot in 2026.

We’re making the biggest entertainment investment we’ve ever made because we believe the future of FCF is bigger than any one type of food fan or music fan. We want people who love hip-hop there. We want the bounce crowd. We want families. We want the people who plan their entire year around festival season. And yes, we want the New Orleans dance music community out there.

GRAB YOUR RAVE CREW. COME HUNGRY WITH SHOES YOU CAN DANCE IN. GET THERE EARLY TO EXPERIENCE EVERYTHING THE FESTIVAL HAS TO OFFER.

And then when Dillon or A-Trak gets behind the decks, show them what makes the New Orleans EDM community so special.

We’d love for this to be year one of something that becomes a real part of FCF.