Horseshoe Bay Resort is about to prove for the thirteenth summer in a row that a lakeside golf resort in the Texas Hill Country can throw one of the state’s better country music weekends. Beer By The Bay Music Festival returns August 7 and 8, 2026, two nights of live country music, Texas craft beer tastings, and an all-you-can-eat, chef-prepared spread set against the shore of Lake LBJ.
This year’s lineup is stacked with names that have carried Texas country radio for the better part of two decades: Chris Janson, Wade Bowen, Kevin Fowler, William Clark Green, Asleep at the Wheel, and Cory Morrow. It’s a lineup built for people who grew up on Texas dance halls as much as arena country, and it fits the setting, an open-air stage with the lake at your back and a beer in hand rather than a stadium seat underneath you.
Where this festival separates itself from a standard outdoor concert is in how the resort has built out the weekend around it. The standard Beer By The Bay stay packages bundle one- or two-night resort accommodations directly with festival admission, so there’s no separate hunt for a hotel room once tickets are locked in, just one booking that covers both the show and the bed. For anyone who wants the night to feel a little more elevated, the Festival Plus package unlocks a private lounge with beer and wine service starting at 6 p.m. and select festival liquors flowing from 7 to 11, a real upgrade from working a general admission line for every round.
The VIP Package is where the weekend turns into something closer to a proper night out than a festival. It includes covered seating right off the side of the stage with its own bar service, so there’s no standing in the grass for six hours to hold a sightline. VIP parking cuts the walk from the car, Festival Plus Lounge access carries over on top of the seating upgrade, and resort accommodations are built into the package rather than booked separately. For two people who want to watch Chris Janson or Asleep at the Wheel from a covered seat with a drink already in hand, it’s the version of the weekend worth paying up for.
Beer By The Bay isn’t the only reason to book the weekend at Horseshoe Bay Resort, and the resort has built itself to justify the extra nights either side of the festival. The property sits on more than 7,000 acres along Lake LBJ, roughly 45 minutes west of Austin, and carries four championship golf courses, three from Robert Trent Jones Sr. and a members-only Jack Nicklaus signature course at Summit Rock, along with an 18-hole putting course for anyone who’d rather skip the full round.
Off the course, the resort runs 16 tennis courts across grass, clay, and hard surfaces, plus a growing pickleball program for anyone who’s traded one racquet sport for the other.
The water is really the centerpiece. Horseshoe Bay’s Waterfront Floating Pool is the first of its kind in North America, anchored right on the edge of Lake LBJ, and it sits alongside a white sand beach with kayak and paddleboard rentals, a kids’ playground, and a full-service marina running wake surfing, boat rentals, and sunset pontoon cruises. Bayside Spa handles the slower half of the weekend with massages, body treatments, and a heated indoor pool for anyone who’d rather not deal with Hill Country sun.
Between the Yacht Club’s lakeside dining room, the more casual Waterfront Bar & Grill, and the resort’s other restaurants, there’s very little reason to leave the property between festival sets, and families get their own draw in Pirates Cove Playground and kids-under-12 stay-and-eat-free packages that make the weekend an easier sell beyond the concert crowd.
Tickets and packages are on sale now through the official festival page. For anyone who caught last year’s lineup, or the one before that, this year’s edition looks built to keep the streak going.
