Day 2 of Shaky Knees ended Saturday night with a performance by headliners Stone Temple Pilots, who performed a shorter set following a delay and evacuation for severe weather.
Earlier Saturday evening performances were stopped and crowds were evacuated as lightning was seen in the area and rain fell over Piedmont Park.
Sunday’s final day of the festival includes performances by Wu-Tang, Gorillaz and more than a dozen other artists. The weather forecast also calls for more afternoon and evening rain and thunderstorms.
Follow along all weekend for live updates, artist performances, interviews and more.
After what was arguably the most dramatic set of circumstances leading up to a performance, Shaky Knees headliners Twenty One Pilots finally hit the Peachtree stage just a couple of minutes shy of 10 p.m. and almost 30 minutes after they were supposed to start.
The delay was due to an extreme thunderstorm that prompted festival organizers to evacuate the park, cancel performances from several acts including Pierce the Veil and Pavement. Festival goers were permitted back inside around 9 p.m. to watch Twenty One Pilots close things out.
The Ohio duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun did their best to make up for lost time, arriving on stage with a burst of sparks and red lights. Joseph did a running jump over a set of speakers while singing "Overcompensate." Sporting a black, cat-eared balaclava with an opening for his eyes, he went on to sing the catchy, "The Contract" while ably playing the piano.
"Are we doing OK out there now?," Joseph asked the audience to a round of cheers. "I know it was a crazy day, but thank you for coming back and playing music with us. I love your city very much, but they do have a harsh curfew, so we're going to play as many songs as we can."
They went on to perform "Center Mass," a mashup of jazz, rap and pop, and "Shy Away," on which Dun got to show off his deftness on the drums via a blistering solo.
They closed out the night with hits "Ride," "Stressed Out" and "Trees." It was the perfect palate cleanser after a chaotic second half of the day, and set the stage for a (hopefully calmer) final day.
A smaller, wetter crowd returned to Piedmont Park Saturday night as gates were reopened following severe weather.
“Everybody be nice!” someone in the crowd said as people flowed back through the gates.
Several people cheered as they swiped their wristbands and ran toward the Peachtree stage to see Twenty One Pilots, Saturday's headliners.
Shaky Knees' official Instagram has posted this update as of 8:50 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. We are working to prepare the grounds to welcome you back into Piedmont Park. Doors will reopen at 9:20pm. Due to the weather delay, Twenty One Pilots will be the only remaining performance this evening and the show will end at 11pm."
At the Piedmont entrance, a cheer just went through the crowd as it was announced that wristbands would start to be checked to get back into the park.
No official call has been made yet about the rest of Saturday’s Shaky Knees agenda. (Pavement and The Prodigy were supposed to go on at 8:30 p.m., and Twenty One Pilots are scheduled to headline at 9:30 p.m.)
Rain has slacked up and thunder and lightning is present but sporadic. Many hopeful festivalgoers who have been waiting for over an hour to hear if the rest of the lineup is canceled are giving up and going home.
Adam Dort, who came in from Nashville for the festival, said he was waiting to see if fans would be let back in before he made the trek back to his hotel room.
He was hoping to see Pavement, but said he was sympathetic to festival organizers who had to make decisions about whether to cancel the rest of the night.
“I would understand,” he said. “I'm a practical person — safety is a thing, logistics is a thing, so I get it.”
He said he'd be back Sunday to see Wu-Tang Clan, Gorillaz and Coheed and Cambria, but was nervous about more projected inclement weather. “We’ll see,” he said with a shrug.
Becca Bailey of Charleston said she'd wait until 8:30 p.m. to see if Pavement would take the stage before returning to her hotel.
“I'm disappointed, but there's always that risk with an outdoor festival,” she said. She's planning to return Sunday for Santigold and LCD Soundsystem.
Still, some remained optimistic. A crowd continues to wait outside the Piedmont Avenue gate in hopes they'll let people back in. There's been intermittent singing, cheering ... and collective disappointment every time another flash of lightning rips through the sky.
UK singer and producer Blood Orange performed at the Piedmont stage at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. However, his set was canceled three songs in due to storms in the area.
"Sad we couldn't give a real show," the artist wrote in an Instagram story shortly after. "Stay safe."
A dozen festivalgoers fleeing the thunderstorm took refuge in the loading dock of a hotel as the rain poured down.
Navy Eger of Powder Springs said the evacuation made sense, but she said the festival should be allowed to continue once the heavy weather passes. “Beyond that, safety is the most important thing,” she told the AJC's Chris Joyner.
Nearby, the line at Willy's Mexicana Grill & Howlin' Willy's, next to the Piedmont Ave. NE entrance to Shaky Knees, is out the door, and the area under the restaurant’s awning has filled with people in ponchos taking shelter, reports the AJC's Yvonne Zusel.
Photos of the scene:
Festivalgoers filed out of Shaky Knees on Saturday evening after as severe weather moved into the area.
Organizers made the decision to evacuate Piedmont Park following an initial weather delay.
The Shaky Knees music festival has been temporarily paused for severe weather in the area.
Festival organizers stopped acts mid-performance around 6:40 p.m. and urged festival goers to seek shelter, AJC reporters at the festival said. Lightening was seen in the area.
Near the end of Peach Pit’s 4:30 p.m. set, a “weather in the area” message set against a teal background flashed on a giant screen as the sky darkened.
The same message was flashed on other screens at the festival Saturday afternoon.
As of 6:30 p.m., no announcements had been made regarding delaying or canceling sets, though thunderstorms were part of the weather forecast earlier in the day.
A large crowd was still gathered in front of the Piedmont stage for Blood Orange’s 6:30p set
Check back here for updates on weather and potential schedule changes.
We've about halfway through Shaky Knees 2026 with many more exciting acts to come Saturday night and Sunday. Take a look at some of the sights from earlier Saturday.
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