Sips & Sounds Music Festival wraps up its second day at Auditorium Shores, featuring Calvin Harris, Flipturn, Foster The People, and more.
Another gorgeous Austin evening at Auditorium Shores brought out a crowd ready to see the weekend through to the end, and the lineup was happy to oblige. From a local Longhorn making her festival debut to one of dance music’s biggest names closing the night, the second day of Sips and Sounds 2026 was as varied and satisfying as a festival day can get. The two stages kept the energy flowing from afternoon through night.
Caroline Hale
There’s something especially fitting about a Texas Longhorn opening the festival’s final day on home turf. Caroline Hale, the San Antonio-born, Austin-based singer-songwriter, took to the SXSW Stage for her very first festival appearance with the kind of easy confidence that belied her newcomer status. Her sound sits comfortably in that warm zone between country and indie folk: acoustic guitar-driven, melodic, and easy to fall into, with occasional flashes of a guitar solo that reminded the crowd there’s real chops behind the approachable songwriting. Hale has been building her reputation through Austin’s local scene, and performing at Sips and Sounds in front of this crowd felt like a natural next step.
Mallrat
Australian singer-songwriter Grace Shaw brought her signature sound to the Coca-Cola Stage fresh off the success of her sophomore album Light Hit My Face Like a Straight Right. Mallrat’s live show is a study in contradictions that somehow work: the vocals are stylized with intentionally heavy autotune, and yet the emotional core of her songs cuts right through all of it.
Drawing from influences as wide-ranging as Lana Del Rey, folk music, and dance producers like Hudson Mohawke, she’s built something genuinely original. The Brisbane native has accumulated over half a billion career streams across her catalog, and the crowd responded to the music with the kind of recognition that only comes when the songs are good enough to follow you across hemispheres.
Jade Lemac
For Vancouver-born pop singer-songwriter Jade LeMac, stepping onstage at Sips and Sounds marked her first time performing in Texas. LeMac, who first broke through at 17 when her debut single “Constellations” racked up over a million Spotify streams in its first month, has since signed with Arista Records and built a devoted following on TikTok and Spotify for her blend of warm indie pop and emotionally direct songwriting. She’s a self-taught pianist and guitarist with a voice that leans into vulnerability rather than away from it. Her set drew from across her catalog, including her album Constellations and EPs Confessions and It’s Always at Night.
Stephen Sanchez
The California-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter is obsessed with the sounds, styles, and storytelling of 1950s and 60s music, and this has defined every aspect of his career: from the slicked-back hair to the concept-album mythology of his debut Angel Face. But above all else, he’s a showman.
Stephen Sanchez worked the stage like a man born to it, all theatrical gestures, magnetic presence, and a baritone that sounds like it was pressed on vinyl somewhere around 1958. The trumpet added a layer of big-band showbiz energy that fit the whole vibe perfectly. He drew audible delight from the crowd with a cover of “All My Exes Live in Texas” and rounded things out with an Elvis cover that felt completely in his wheelhouse.
The Runarounds
The Runarounds arrive at every show carrying one of the more unusual origin stories in live music right now. The five-piece alt-rock band (William Lipton, Axel Ellis, Jeremy Yun, Zendé Murdock, and Jesse Golliher) were selected from more than 5,000 musicians who responded to a casting call for Outer Banks, where they first performed together for creator Jonas Pate ahead of their appearance in season three. That appearance eventually grew into The Runarounds, Pate’s 2025 Amazon Prime series about a group of recent high school graduates who form a band in hopes of escaping the mundane futures laid out before them. But make no mistake: these are musicians first, and they turn every stage into a wild, full-throttle rock show.
The band’s performances in the show were all filmed live, and the quintet’s musical chemistry is undeniable: “Ghosts,” the track that sparks the band’s virality in the series, is a classic garage rock banger, while “Shoelaces” is a punchy two-minute track with elements of surf rock and high-energy yearning. Live at Sips and Sounds, all of that translated beautifully- loud, sweaty, and completely genuine. The TV show allowed for an insight and connection that most fans don’t get with their favorite bands, and the result is one of the most dedicated fanbases of the festival.
Foster The People
Some of Foster The People’s first-ever shows were right here in Austin for SXSW. Mark Foster took a moment during the set to share a memory from those early days: a 9:30 AM show in 2010 for an audience of seven people, which he described as one of his favorite memories from the band’s history. Standing in front of the sold-out crowd at Auditorium Shores sixteen years later, the distance traveled was hard to overstate.
Foster the People, the LA-based indie pop band that founded in 2009 and broke through with the viral success of “Pumped Up Kicks,” have been a fixture of the SXSW circuit ever since, and returning to Austin always seems to carry a particular weight for them. The set drew from across their catalog- from Torches all the way through to newer material- with all the propulsive energy that made “Helena Beat” and “Sit Next to Me” festival staples. The live band sounded enormous, and Foster himself was in an expansive, generous mood, clearly grateful for the crowd and the city that gave them their first break.
flipturn
Flipturn, the five-piece from Fernandina Beach, have become one of indie rock’s most reliable live acts, and their Sips and Sounds set was a reminder of why. Formed in high school by founding members Dillon Basse, Tristan Duncan, and Madeline Jarman, flipturn built their reputation the old-fashioned way: through college house shows at the University of Florida, endless van tours, and a debut album Shadowglow that gradually expanded their fanbase through sheer quality and word of mouth.
Basse’s powerhouse tenor, VonBalson’s kinetic drumming, and the band’s atmospheric, synth-tinged indie rock created a genuinely immersive experience. Drawing from Radiohead’s art-rock ambitions and 80s New Wave mood with synthesizer player Mitch Fountain, they’ve built something that feels timeless and urgent at the same time.
Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris has been doing this for over twenty years, and the man has not lost the instinct for the perfect crowd moment. The Scottish DJ and producer behind megahits like “Feel So Close,” “Summer,” and “This Is What You Came For” brought the full production to the Coca-Cola Stage. Lights, lasers, enormous drops, and a setlist loaded with crowd favorites and well-chosen remixes had the entire field dancing in unison for the final hour and a half set.
Harris is a master of building and releasing tension across a long set, and on this night he played it perfectly. The set closed with “Levels”- Avicii’s iconic 2011 anthem, and one of the most beloved dance tracks ever made. Coming from Harris, who counted Avicii as both a peer and a friend, it felt like a genuine tribute: hands in the air, the crowd singing every word back, the skyline behind the stage lit up with a fireworks show. As a final image for the weekend, it was hard to beat.
Sips & Sounds Day Two: Overall
Sips and Sounds 2026 closed out with the same energy it opened with: broad in its musical range, consistent in its quality, and rooted in the kind of live music experience that can only happen in Austin. Between both days, the festival served up everything from bedroom country to hyperpop to full-scale EDM spectacle, and it all felt like it belonged in the same place. The two stages meant the music never stopped, the crowds were deep but manageable, and the ever-growing Austin skyline shimmered as a panoramic backdrop to every set.
I am an Austin, TX-based photographer and filmmaker. I moved from Houston to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated in 2022. I'm a lifelong music lover and spend tons of time attending shows and making music. Some current favorites are Sophie May, Farmer’s Wife, and K. Flay.
