City staff and Wildflower festival organizers presented a detailed preview of the 2026 Wildflower Arts and Music Festival, including programming, staffing and ticketing recommendations.

Diana (festival staff) told the council the three-day event will be held in May at Gallatin Park and will include roughly 110 performances across six stages, about 100 staff, more than 800 volunteers and an operating budget “a little over $2,000,000.” She described ancillary programs — Wildflower on Wheels, the Battle of the Bands, a national songwriter contest and a community mural — and said planners accept roughly 72 arts-and-crafts vendors from about 151 applications.

Festival staff recommended a ticketing change that would make Sunday free (attendees would still reserve a ticket so the city can track attendance and maintain capacity limits) and convert the previous three-day VIP two-person bundle to a single-person three-day VIP package. Organizers said the Sunday free-day pilot aims to boost on-site food-and-beverage revenue and test whether attendance increases sufficiently to offset lost admission income.

Councilmembers praised the programming and encouraged clearer financial modeling before committing to long-term ticket changes; staff said they will survey attendees and present findings to council in March and again after the festival in June.