Goose’s Viva El Gonzo Festival Is a Choose Your Own Adventure Wonderland

Goose went big in 2025 with their inaugural Viva El Gonzo festival, a three-day destination event in San José Del Cabo, Mexico. It may have been the prototype for the Connecticut band’s dream festival experience — complete with four sets from the Goose guys; shows from The War on Drugs, Dawes, Tycho, and others; and a handful of local excursions — but it left the group hungry for more.

So, they’re bringing Viva El Gonzo back in 2026 and going bigger than ever (enter to win tickets here!). That means more musical acts, more excursions and experiences, and, yes, even more Goose. This year’s lineup is particularly eclectic; in addition to six total sets from Goose (two sets each night), the event boasts performances from My Morning Jacket, a special acoustic set from MMJ’s Jim James, Cory Wong, and LP Giobbi (performing a Dead House set, which is essentially a house mix featuring Grateful Dead songs).

Get Viva El Gonzo 2026 Tickets

There’s more, of course. Leisure, Disco Biscuits, California Honeydrops, Midnight Generation, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Dogs in a Pile, Eggy, Mikaela Davis, Lespecial, City of the Sun, and several more will perform sets across three stages near San José Del Cabo’s Sculpture Garden. With even more diverse musical offerings in 2026, the festival is embracing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” ethos, and that attitude doesn’t just apply to the music, but the whole entire event experience.

For one, you can build your own experience in terms of passes and accommodations. Go barebones with a festival passes and arrange your own lodging nearby, or let the festival do the heavy lifting with enticing hotel and resort packages ranging from boutique properties to all-inclusive spreads. For something more communal, the Hotel Takeover packages put you in a property filled entirely with fellow attendees. If you want to stay on-site, glamping tents at Crania offer a more immersive, camp-style experience. At the top end, the Super TED VIP package gets you four nights at Hotel El Ganzo plus a private Goose set — pre-show cocktail hour included.

In terms of choosing your musical adventure, though, Viva El Gonzo provides, say, three overlapping lanes that all lead back to Goose’s eclectic, multi-genre sound: There’s the traditional jam band route, the indie rock route, and the electronic route.

Let’s say you’re a jam aficionado and you’re captivated by Goose’s extended, improv-heavy sets. You’ll be pleased to know that both Eggy and Dogs in a Pile will be performing two sets each, giving you plenty of time throughout the weekend to vibe out and get lost in the salsa. Then there’s two incredibly reliable, festival-ready subheadliners: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and The Disco Biscuits. The former, beyond having an appropriately silly name, will provide a welcome blast of funk to Viva El Gonzo, while the latter will be a psychedelic marvel that’ll turn the whole festival into a rave.

Or, you could be an indie head looking to lose your mind to another legendary My Morning Jacket set or get hypnotized by Vulfpeck collaborator and guitarist supreme Cory Wong’s expressive, cross-genre grooves. There are also a few newer talents on the lineup, each of whom might just become your next favorite artist. Mikaela Davis, who just put out a great collaborative single with Madison Cunningham and Tim Heidecker, is on the rise for her nostalgic country sound and radiant voice. There’s also plenty of more lowkey fare, like a show from acoustic duo City of the Sun and the pared down set from MMJ frontman Jim James.

Then there’s the electronic lane, which is well represented at Viva El Gonzo. Though they overlap in the indie lane, Mexican group Midnight Generation have been lighting up festivals with their kaleidoscopic takes on electro-disco; fans of Franc Moody, Parcels, or Polo & Pan will be all over the quintet. Plus, LP Giobbi brings her Dead House project, which threads the needle between rave and Shakedown Street in a way that’ll convert skeptics and delight Deadheads alike.

Whichever genre is your chosen favorite, there’s a way to build your entire weekend on it at Viva El Gonzo. But there’s also a way to choose your own adventure with experiences and excursions. You could aim for a restorative path, starting the day with yoga, continuing with a grounded meditation session, and ending with one of Viva El Gonzo’s more blissed-out performances from LP Giobbi or James. Or, you could take a more adventurous route and arrange your day around water sports, horseback riding, golf, or an activity joined by Goose band members themselves.

At the end of the day, you’ll be in San José Del Cabo, a tropical oasis with gorgeous beaches, lots of great restaurants (and seafood!), and plenty to explore and experience. Viva El Gonzo isn’t really a festival you attend so much as one you design. The only wrong way to do it to miss out.

Explore and pick up tickets and packages for Viva El Gonzo 2026 here, and enter to win two passes to the festival here.