Photo gallery: The Lead’s Fourth on the River photos since 2022

Since 2022, The Kerr County Lead has covered Fourth on the River from the crowd at Louise Hays Park — the bands, the fireworks, the kids splashing in the Guadalupe, the whole town turning out for the Hill Country’s biggest Independence Day party. Four years in, our camera roll tells its own story of the celebration’s growth, from a single headliner and a handful of openers to a stacked, day-long lineup. That growth ended abruptly in 2025, when the same river that gave the festival its name and its stage rose and swept both away. Here’s a look back at who played, year by year.

2026 Fourth on the River

Fourth on the River returned to Louise Hays Park for its 16th year — and its first since the flood swept the grounds away. The comeback lineup: Los Juanos, Jamie Lin Wilson and Junior Brown, with William Beckmann returning as headliner. Music started at 3:15 p.m. with a beer garden, water station, food trucks, a cornhole tournament and a kids zone, building to fireworks at 9:45 p.m. The 2026 event doubled as a commemoration of America’s 250th birthday and the 2025 Hill Country floods, with organizers framing the day around resilience and honoring national and local heroes.

2024 Fourth on the River

A four-act, all-afternoon-into-night lineup: 80H Project opened at 3 p.m., followed by Bri Bagwell at 4:30, The Wilder Blue at 6, and American Aquarium closing it out at 8 before the largest fireworks display in the Hill Country lit up the river.

2023 Fourth on the River

The lineup got bigger and more eclectic. Randy Rogers Band headlined, but the standout pairing was Los Texmaniacs with conjunto legend Flaco Jimenez, alongside Allie Colleen and Dawn and the Rising Tide. It remains one of the most musically diverse bills the festival has booked.

2022 Fourth on the River

Robert Earl Keen headlined the first Fourth on the River The Lead covered — the last time he would top the bill — backed by a lineup of regional Texas talent: Flatland Cavalry, Jesse Daniel and Kylie Frey. The show set the template for what the festival would become: free, family-friendly, and built around Texas Country and Americana acts with genuine Hill Country ties.