The 2026 season at Levitt at the Falls was a summer of music, connection, and exciting new beginnings. From packed lawns and community festivals to expanded youth programs and outreach, Levitt continued to bring people together through the power of free, live music in downtown Sioux Falls. The season also marked a major milestone for Levitt at the Falls with the opening of the T. Denny Sanford Hospitality Center, featuring upgraded dressing rooms, a new Paulson Family Greenroom for bands and artists, and more accessible storage areas for Levitt production equipment.
Two large-scale mural art installations were also completed on-site. With the west side of the Sweetman Atrium expansion nearing completion and a ribbon cutting planned for early October, the vision for Levitt’s next chapter is taking shape.
Presented by MarketBeat, the 2026 season featured 45 concerts and festivals, welcoming 103,326 people to the Levitt lawn, with an average attendance of 2,157 per concert. An additional 1,705 people participated through outreach and education programs, bringing Levitt’s total in-person reach to 105,031 people.
“We are incredibly proud of what the Levitt community accomplished this season,” said Nancy Halverson, President and CEO of Levitt at the Falls. “This year was about so much more than what happened on our stage. We welcomed thousands of people to the lawn, reached hundreds of young people through music education, brought artists into neighborhoods and community spaces across Sioux Falls, and opened the doors to a new building – the Sweetman Atrium – that will allow Levitt to do even more in the years ahead.”
Despite five weather-related cancellations during the 50 concert season, audiences continued to show up in big numbers. That Sounds Decent Festival welcomed 6,407 people to the Levitt, while KORY and the FIREFLIES drew an estimated 6,000 audience members. The All My Relatives Festival, offered in partnership with the Wokini Initiative of SDSU, welcomed 5,126 people for a full day celebrating Native American art and culture through musical performances, dance, fashion, visual arts, and youth spotlights. In its fourth year, the All My Relatives Festival at Levitt at the Falls was honored to be selected and highlighted as one of 40 festivals nationwide in Of the People: The Smithsonian Festival of Festivals.
The 2026 season also set a record for the number of individual artists performing on the Levitt at the Falls stage. Across the summer concert season, Levitt welcomed 109 performance groups and more than 649 individual artists to the stage. Half of the performance groups were South Dakota-based, highlighting Levitt’s commitment to showcasing the talent in our region.
Beyond the lawn, Levitt significantly expanded its education and outreach programs. Four week-long Levitt Jam Camps served 133 students, compared with 46 students across three camps in 2025. Programs included jazz, vocal and choir, hip-hop, and songwriting, with more than half of participating students receiving full or partial scholarships. Levitt also presented 20 Levitt in Your Neighborhood events, reaching another 1,572 people through artist-led programming in schools, community centers, libraries, care facilities, and other community spaces. Headlining All My Relatives festival artist Mato Wayuhi also brought Levitt outreach to Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Brookings, in addition to students in the Sioux Falls School District.
This expanded community reach was made possible by an equally dedicated community of volunteers. 225 volunteers contributed 5,140 hours throughout the season. Levitt’s community continued to grow online as well, with 149,122 concert livestream views across Facebook and YouTube.
Looking Ahead
The final concert may have marked the end of Levitt’s 2026 summer season, but it is just the beginning of what comes next.
With the Sweetman Atrium expansion continuing to take shape, Levitt is entering a new era—one that will create more opportunities for artists, students, community partners, and audiences to gather throughout the year. After seven years of free concerts on the lawn, Levitt at the Falls continues to grow not only in the number of people it reaches, but in the ways it serves the community.
The 2026 season showed what happens when music moves beyond the stage and into schools, neighborhoods, community spaces, festivals, and new spaces built for connection.
Thank you to every artist, volunteer, partner, sponsor, donor, food vendor, and audience member who made the 2026 season possible. Most of all, thank you to the Sioux Falls community for continuing to show up, dance, sing, listen, connect, and make Levitt your own.
We can’t wait to see you in the next chapter.