FloydFest 2026: FestivalPark Is Starting to Feel Like Home

https://youtu.be/b6ZEKvu_qvo

Another FloydFest 2026 DayDream is in the books and we got to talk to John McBroom, Co-owner of Across the Way Production, FloydFest and Owner of FestivalPark about it and more!

For most people, that means heading home, unpacking the camping gear, washing off the mud and starting the countdown until next year.

For the people behind FloydFest and FestivalPark, it’s a little different.

As FloydFest co-owner John McBroom explained when he joined us on the Omnibuild Podcast, there isn’t much of an offseason. Planning a festival of this size is roughly a 15-to-18-month process, which means the team is almost always finishing one FloydFest while simultaneously building the next.

But coming out of FloydFest 2026, there was something worth stopping to appreciate:

A Different Kind of Year at FestivalPark

This wasn’t the first FloydFest at FestivalPark, but it felt different.

Despite roughly seven or eight inches of rain around the event, John said the property held up well. People seemed more comfortable navigating the grounds. Transportation around the site improved. Staff knew where things belonged. Attendees knew where they were going.

Most importantly, the newness was beginning to wear off.

John said the comment he heard more than anything after this year’s festival was:

“We’re home again.”

That’s a meaningful statement when you understand what it took to get here.

In the first years at FestivalPark, everyone was learning the property while simultaneously trying to operate one of Virginia’s largest music festivals. This year, the conversation had changed.

As John put it, they knew where the “closets” were. The team knew where things could go. The site build went more smoothly because, for the first time, there was a developed site waiting for them instead of a site that still had to be built before the festival itself could even be constructed.

For us at Omnibuild, seeing that transition has been pretty special.

Building More Than a Festival Site

When John and the FloydFest team originally approached Omnibuild about FestivalPark, they already had a vision.

Our role was to help determine how that vision could actually be built. That meant walking the property together, studying how thousands of people would move through it, figuring out where structures could go, determining how roads would cross the property and solving problems as conditions changed.

Some decisions required major pivots. One early road plan, for example, had to be substantially redesigned when proposed water crossings changed from culverts to full bridges.

And then there was the gravel.... A lot of gravel.

Enough that someone involved in the project eventually earned the nickname “Gravel Daddy.”

It’s funny now... It wasn’t always funny while we were building it.

There were plenty of days spent working through roadblocks and wondering whether all of the pieces would ultimately come together the way everyone imagined. That’s why FloydFest 2026 felt significant.

Standing on the finished property, watching thousands of people experience it and hearing attendees describe FestivalPark as home provided an answer.

Building a City for Five Days

One of the things that makes FestivalPark such an interesting construction project is that it isn't really comparable to a traditional venue.

For a few days every summer, it has to function almost like its own community. Stages, roads, bridges, camping, vendors, utilities, backstage areas, pedestrian routes, transportation and gathering spaces all have to work together while thousands of people continuously move around the property. And unlike a permanent town, the way people use FestivalPark changes throughout the day. One stage fills up. Another empties. People head back to camp. Crowds move toward food and vendors. Another performance begins somewhere else. The property has to absorb all of it. That means building for more than structures. You have to build for flow.

That was part of the challenge from the beginning. FloydFest had the vision for how the property should feel and function, while our team helped work through what could physically happen on the land and how to make as much of that vision possible as we could.

FestivalPark isn't finished evolving.

One of the most interesting things John discussed on the podcast is just how much potential remains within the property.

There are effectively multiple venues within the larger venue, enough that FloydFest has often been described as six or seven smaller festivals happening inside one festival. Different stages and areas develop their own audiences and personalities. And the planning horizon stretches well beyond next summer.

Even immediately following FloydFest 2026, John and his team aren't only thinking about 2027. They're already considering artists, programming and possibilities for 2028. That long-term thinking is something we understand well in construction. The finished product people experience is usually the last chapter of a much longer story. Before the crowd arrives, somebody has to imagine it. Then somebody has to figure out whether it can actually be done. Then a lot of people have to build it.

From a Guitar in the Basement to FloydFest

Toward the end of our conversation, we asked John to look backward. Long before FestivalPark, he was a kid sneaking around with his brother's guitar. Now he's helping create a festival and a permanent home for it. His response?

“Be careful what you wish for.”

But the story that followed says a lot about what FloydFest ultimately represents. John explained that his earliest experiments with creating live music experiences were remarkably simple: take a generator, a band and a keg into the woods, and people would show up. The scale is obviously different now. But maybe the underlying idea isn't. Bring people together. Give them a place to experience something. Put enough care and effort into it that they'll want to come back.

After FloydFest 2026, FestivalPark feels one step closer to becoming exactly that kind of place.

Not simply the property where FloydFest happens. Home.

Also, big congratulations to our Omnibuild Canopy Stage Giveaway Grand Prize Winner - Who won 2 Cannondale Electric Bikes! Super pumped for you, Devin!

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