From South Jersey, Philadelphia, and beyond, a vibrant crowd of 35,000 stars-and-stripes-clad country music fans descended upon Wildwood this weekend for the fourth edition of the expansive Barefoot Country Music Fest, which has taken over the beach every summer since 2021.
The four-day, booze-filled celebration began Thursday night but truly came alive on Friday, with the festival’s first all-day lineup headlined by Australian star Keith Urban. Country heavyweights Kane Brown and Luke Bryan headlined Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Friday was also “red, white, and blue” day, the festival’s most popular fashion theme, with each day featuring a different dress code. A sea of patriotic fans in American flag hats, shirts, overalls, dresses, socks, boots, sunglasses, capes, and stick-on tattoos, along with generous amounts of glitter on bare chests and cleavage, moved across the sandy Wildwood beach. The towering Ferris wheel overlooking the festival was, naturally, decked out in matching colors.
Barefoot has earned its reputation as the Northeast’s biggest summer country party, drawing top acts like Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, and Dan + Shay over the years. Fans were ready to party, with Miller Lite tallboys (the festival’s main sponsor) flowing and long lines for the alcoholic slushie trucks (the frozen Blue Hawaiian was particularly popular).
While past years have seen thunderstorms, Friday was all sun, breezes, and a full, strawberry moon as Urban took the Miller Lite main stage for a 90-minute set. Clad in a red flannel, torn blue jeans, and the most peculiar pair of chunky, white platform shoes — which drew some amusing comments from the crowd, “what are those shoes, Keith?!” — Urban, 56, was in high spirits, leading singalongs to hits like “Kiss a Girl,” “Somebody Like You,” and “You’ll Think of Me.”
Urban’s performance was marked by his musicality, as he frequently showcased his impressive (if occasionally flashy) guitar skills with piercing solos and energizing ad-libs, adding depth to the sound from his six-piece band. His opening song, a vibrant new track called “Straight Line,” featured one such solo, quickly establishing that Urban was a cut above the strum-happy openers from earlier in the day.
Thankfully, the set didn’t turn into “the Keith Urban guitar recital.” Urban included some fun covers, notably an extended version of Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker,” during which he ventured into the crowd, signing a fan’s hat while continuing to sing. He also added Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” to his own “Kiss a Girl,” Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” to “Somebody Like You,” and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” to “You’ll Think of Me,” the latter performed solo acoustic in the middle of the crowd, ending with him signing his guitar and giving it away.
During “Long Hot Summer,” which featured some improvised lyrics, Urban approached the show’s sign-language interpreter, Stephanie, and humorously apologized: “I must be giving you a hell of a time.”
Urban didn’t say much else of note to the crowd — just the usual exhortations to have fun and let the music wash away their troubles — but he did share a childhood memory before playing the lively “Wild Hearts”: “The first concert I ever saw, when I was seven years old, was Johnny Cash,” he recalled. “And when you’re seven, that stuff goes deep, man. When he walked out on stage, it just struck me, that was what I wanted to do.”
That’s all well and good, but Johnny Cash would’ve likely thrown those shoes into the Mississippi River.
Just before Urban, Florida star Jake Owen took the main stage with his blend of stadium-country and infectious smiles. Owen, 42, was equally engaging, signing hats, dancing with the interpreter, and rolling a weathered beer cooler down the stage’s center ramp, tossing cold ones to fans. His set was a festival standard, featuring hits like the twangy “Down to the Honky Tonk,” the fitting “Beachin’,” and his biggest radio hit, “Barefoot Blue Jean Night.” Jersey fans especially enjoyed the Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive” intro leading into “Best Thing Since Back Roads.”
As the sun set behind Adventure Pier, ‘80s hair metal icon Bret Michaels delivered a high-energy, hour-long set mixing Poison hits with rock and country-adjacent covers: “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” and Sublime’s “What I Got.” Michaels, who has somehow become an honorary party-country leader, roamed the stage, leading singalongs to “Talk Dirty to Me” and “Nothing But a Good Time,” the latter featuring a line of Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders for some lively choreography. Michaels, 61, who grew up in Pennsylvania, made sure to mention his connection to Wildwood: “My entire childhood was spent on that boardwalk and under that boardwalk as I made some less than reputable decisions.”
Earlier in the evening, Nashville singer-songwriter Niko Moon delivered a spirited set, closing with his party anthem “GOOD TIME” and a message for fans: “Yeah, music, yeah, community, but we are out here celebrating life tonight.”
Simply put, the Barefoot Country Music Fest was, once again, a joyous gathering of family and friends dancing on the beach, laughing, snapping selfies, riding a mechanical bull, and heading back to their motel rooms to do it all again the next day. While it’s easy to dismiss this type of music as overly shallow, anything that brings 35,000 people together to forget their troubles (besides a hangover) for a few days can’t be all bad. And as Barefoot continues to establish itself as a well-organized purveyor of warm summer memories, it seems poised to remain New Jersey’s premier country event for years to come.
