Palm Tree Music Festival Returns to Montecito Bigger Than Before

After making its Montecito debut only a year ago, Palm Tree Music Festival is already doubling down on the California coast. The festival returns to the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club on Oct. 10 and 11, expanding from a single-day event into a full weekend built around Kygo, The Chainsmokers, T-Pain and Zedd.

Last year’s inaugural edition paired Kygo with John Mayer, SOFI TUKKER, Austin Millz and Victoria Nadine, establishing Montecito as one of the newer stops in Palm Tree Crew’s growing network of destination festivals. The setting was an important part of the appeal: an open polo field tucked between the coast and the Santa Ynez Mountains, with a scale that felt deliberately smaller than Southern California’s sprawling festival grounds. This year, the same setting returns with a lineup that stretches much further across generations and genres.

Saturday leans toward the festival’s electronic and pop-rock sides, with The Chainsmokers, Zedd and The All-American Rejects joined by Natalie Jinju. The combination should make for a particularly nostalgia-heavy evening, moving between the mid-2010s EDM-pop catalog of The Chainsmokers and Zedd and the pop-punk staples that made The All-American Rejects a defining band of the 2000s. The Chainsmokers also arrive with new material in circulation, including their 2026 Love Is Kind EP and tracks from CTRL ESCAPE.

Sunday shifts the center of gravity back toward Palm Tree Crew itself. Co-founder Kygo headlines alongside T-Pain, with Loud Luxury, Frank Walker and Myles O’Neal rounding out the main bill. Kygo has continued releasing new music throughout 2026, including “Take Me Back” with Max McNown and “Heaven On My Mind” with Dan Tyminski, while T-Pain gives the weekend one of its biggest departures from the otherwise dance-focused lineup.

That mix is what makes Montecito more interesting than a conventional EDM festival. Palm Tree still carries the polished dance-music identity associated with Kygo, but the addition of T-Pain and The All-American Rejects pushes this year’s edition closer to an all-purpose weekend party than a genre-specific gathering.

The experience surrounding the stage is equally central to the Palm Tree formula. Organizers are again pairing the performances with food vendors, bars, sponsor activations and a hospitality-heavy setup. New for 2026 is a GA+ tier with dedicated entry, its own bar and upgraded restrooms, while VIP and the Palm Club place a heavier emphasis on front-row viewing and lounge-style service. GA and GA+ are all ages, while VIP and Palm Club access are restricted to guests 21 and older.

With two days instead of one and a lineup that moves freely between EDM, hip-hop and pop-rock nostalgia, Palm Tree Music Festival’s second Montecito edition feels less like a repeat of its debut than a substantial expansion of it. The polo grounds may remain intimate, but the festival surrounding them is getting considerably bigger.

Palm Tree Music Festival Montecito takes place Oct. 10–11 at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club in Carpinteria.