Overview Outlaws and Legends is a two-day country music festival on a single stage in Abilene, Texas, whose alumni run from Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson to Cody Jinks, Koe Wetzel and the Red Clay Strays. Backporch Productions puts around 15 bands on that one stage over a weekend each March at The Back Porch of Texas and bills it as the largest one-stage event in Texas. The pairing is the plan: the festival says it sets country's legends beside its modern outlaws on the same bill. Ticket proceeds go to Boots and Salutes, a nonprofit for veterans, Gold Star families and first responders. On site The stage faces a concrete dance floor that runs 70 feet out in front of it, with a sundeck behind the crowd and a jumbotron on the stage cover. A swimming pool with two bars and swim-up patio suites sits to the right of the stage, private skyboxes line a balcony at stage left, and a two-level event center pavilion holds VIP tables with a live feed of the show. Built-out shipping containers hold the named suites: the Outlaws and Legends upper decks and lofts, the Highlands suites and the Eagle's Nest above the artist merch building. The Back Porch of Texas Tipi, which the festival calls the largest tipi in North America, stands 60 feet high in the middle of the grounds and opens at 11 p.m. as the after-party, with its own stage inside. Tailgaters park on Music Row, and it is rain or shine. Audience People come to stay: more than 480 RVs roll in during the days before the gates open. Fans bring their own coolers, banded at the gate, and the festival prints 3,500 cooler bands a year; glass is out except for sponsored brands. The festival says its 2026 crowd came from all 50 states and 15 countries. It is open to all ages. Talent and Influencers The alumni list mixes the Texas and Nashville old guard with red dirt and outlaw acts: Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam, the Charlie Daniels Band, Jerry Jeff Walker, Clint Black, Lee Ann Womack and Kevin Costner and Modern West on one side; Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Carly Pearce, Whiskey Myers, Randy Rogers Band, Shane Smith and the Saints and Midland on the other. The festival also runs a songwriter competition, with preliminary rounds on Facebook video and a final. Track record Attendance: 6,102 in 2011, 8,104 in 2017, 12,322 in 2019, 16,000 in 2023 and 14,500 in 2026, as RVs grew from 40 to 480. The Texas Regional Radio Music Awards named it Festival of the Year in 2021 and 2023, and in 2012 it became the first Texas festival carried in national syndication, through Texas Roadhouse Live. The festival counts $850,000 given to the Ben Richey Boys Ranch across its first 15 years, and Backporch Productions says it has raised more than $4.6 million for charity. Brand presence A stage partner's name goes into the festival's own title, as the festival on that partner's stage, and it is read out in radio spots across 14 Texas stations and shown in Texas TV spots; the two pavilion levels, the skyboxes and the tipi are named the same way. The swim-up partner pours its own drinks from the pool's two bars, and the dance floor partner brands the sundeck faced by both the stage and the crowd. Sponsored brands ride into the coolers too: from 2025, a cooler packed entirely with sponsor beverages earned $20 cash back at the gate. Artist sponsors send a representative on stage with a radio affiliate to introduce the act.