BY AVERY GOODSTINE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 8/21/2026
Time to pull out those cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats for the second annual Puyallup Nashville Nights, as downtown Puyallup transforms into the iconic music city again on Saturday, Aug. 22.
In partnership with the Washington State Fair and the Puyallup Main Street Association, this event brings live country music throughout downtown P-Town. This year, 18 storefronts will be hosting musical performances, an increase from 12 last year.
Lexi Ames, operations manager of the Puyallup Main Street Association, said the event was so popular last year that the team knew it would have to be bigger this year in order to accommodate the number of expected attendees. Every venue was either at or over capacity last year, she said.
“Bars and restaurants ran out of food,” Ames added. “They didn’t have enough staffing to check people out at retail because it was so popular. So this year, we grew the event by six venues and six bands … trying to help mitigate any people not getting in somewhere.”
The following bands will be playing from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.:
- CJ Hooper at Atomic Genius Records and More
- Sam Dawson at The Pink Chandelier
- Stephanie Anderson at Page & Pine Bookshop
- Maddie Walker and Mitch McGee at Chaos + Co.
- Patti Connolly at Meeker Mercantile
These bands will be playing from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.:
- Michael Jeffrey at The Forum
- Amber Pizl at The Coaster
- Kaitie Wade at Charlie’s Restaurant & Lounge
- Cody Bartels at Lazy Ballerina Wine Bar
- Tam Cureaux at Wicked Pie
- Aaron Saliba at CaskCades
- Josh Piper at TK Irish Pub
- Bryson Evans at Mazatlan
- Saltwater Sky at Trackside
- Ben Grillet at Firemind Brewing
- Flowers for Wolves at SoCo
- Pretty Gritty and Those Guys at an outside location
Walker Sherman will also be performing at West Pioneer Grill from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Ames said that additional outdoor events have been added throughout the night to provide more options for festivalgoers who can’t get into their favorite venue right away.
In the Smile Solutions parking lot from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., there will be line dancing lessons from Scuffed Boots Dance. Then, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., a country DJ will take over the lot, and you can put those lessons to the test. From 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., Boot Boogie Babes will lead more line dancing.
And by the end of the night, if you want all eyes on you while you belt out your favorite country jams, Bumpy’s will be hosting cowboy karaoke from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
About this year’s festival, Ames said, “[It’s] more fun, more energy, and then people can come and go to the bars and restaurants.” The main goal of the event is to support the businesses in downtown Puyallup, she added. Last year, many of them had record sales during Nashville Nights.
“We’re trying to stay with keeping people inside the bars and restaurants, like Nashville, where you have to go inside and listen and get a drink and get some nachos,” she said. “You have to go inside to support the businesses.”
Another aspect of the event is the partnership with the Washington State Fair (also known as the Puyallup Fair, IYKYK), which takes place just a mile down the road from downtown Puyallup and begins on Sept. 4. Ames said working with the fair has turned out to be a “natural partnership” and that Nashville Nights is yet another event that encourages people to visit Puyallup before the fair and, hopefully, will keep them coming back afterward.
“Once the fair starts, we just want to keep people coming down here,” she said. “One last push before the fair to celebrate downtown, celebrate our homage, and just celebrate the roots, the tradition of all the things down here. That’s what we do it for.”
Having those two events so close together really allows country music fans an opportunity to engage in some great events.
“We have pretty good country-western superfans out here, we really do,” Ames said. “And line dancing is super popular right now. So we actually have a pretty good following down in Puyallup here. … People have a chance to bring the cowboy boots out and dust them off.”
Considering how popular the event has gotten, Ames says she booked most of the performers many months in advance. There is no application process for bands that want to be a part of the event; instead, Ames searched on social media for bands that fit the Nashville Nights vibe. Many of the artists were so well received last year that Ames invited them out for year 2.
“We just bring in local talent,” she said, “and there’s so much amazing local talent in this area.”
Ames mentioned that her team is already starting to think ahead to next year’s Nashville Nights and how to make it even bigger. The struggle is how to continue growing it without diluting the original cause: to support small businesses and get people into the local shops.
But overall, Ames said, she’s just happy to see how popular the event has gotten and how it evolves naturally on its own.
“It’s nice because, just with all the country music, when you can kind of hear the music on the sidewalks, and all of a sudden, people will break out in dance on the sidewalk,” she said. “It’s kind of a beautiful thing that kind of unfolds. It’s natural, organic, and it just happens. … There’s a country-western love song that people are slow dancing [to]. It’s just really neat.”
