Maha Festival 2026 was a little weird.
And very wet.
Rain and lightning wreaked havoc on the festival schedule with delayed starts and shortened sets throughout the day. But the four acts I caught — Wet Leg, Bright Eyes, Killer Mike and Blondshell — made the day more than worthwhile.
Blondshell was a blast. The singer-songwriter brought a ton of energy to the stage, and the set was just plain fun. I came away excited to hear her new album, Violins, when it comes out in September.
Killer Mike was, unsurprisingly, full of energy. He stuck to his solo material (no Run the Jewels of course), but he remembered all the times he’s been here with RTJ: “I’m so glad to be back in Omaha!”
Then there was Bright Eyes, the world-famous Omaha indie rock band that played Maha Festival for the first time.
“Thank you so much my friends! Thanks for staying!” Oberst said, acknowledging the weather.
As frontman, Oberst was on point. It was an energetic set even if it was only nine songs. It was also a little weird — not your standard Bright Eyes set — as it seemed Oberst and the rest of the band took advantage of the shortened, strange set time to just play whatever they felt like.
“It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s the weather. It sucks,” Oberst said.
They played Classic Cars live for the first time since 2009, dove into To Death’s Heart (in Three Parts) from Down in the Weeds Where the World Once Was and closed with an energetic and chaotic If the Brakeman Turns My Way, which Oberst dedicated to his uncle Terry Oberst, who passed away a few days earlier.
And then Wet Leg happened.
A blinding barrage of rock ‘n’ roll, fog and lights enveloped the stage when the British indie rock band finally came on. It was awesome.
Rhian Teasdale was an enthusiastic, magnetic frontwoman, and the band sounded absolutely massive.
Unfortunately, Wet Leg got through only eight songs before the weather forced another early ending.
Still, after a day of rain, lightning, delays and general festival chaos, it was hard to complain.
Maha was wet. But Maha was a hell of a lot of fun.
