GoldenSky to return, CIM to double in size thanks to train deal, officials say
With a combination of hotel tax dollars and negotiations with a major railroad operator, Sacramento officials plan to revive one of the city’s largest annual events, and double the size of another.
Tourism officials announced Wednesday that the Sacramento GoldenSky Festival will return in 2027, after cancellations in 2025 and 2026, and the California International Marathon will be able to double in capacity, as Union Pacific has agreed to delay trains that run along the race route.
Organizers had called off the GoldenSky Festival due to a crowded country music festival market nationally, and difficulty securing headlining acts at a cost that would allow for affordable ticket prices.
“It’s very tricky when you’re building a festival, and in country music. It was just a hurdle we weren’t able to get over for a couple of years, in terms of making sure we were able to get the right artist, at the right price, at the right time,” said Chamie McCurry, general manager for organizer Danny Wimmer Presents. “At the time we thought it was just best to take a minute. Reassess the market conditions, see who’s available, make sure we were really doing our research on the pricing and the programming. Always with the intention of being able to bring it back when the time was right.”
With a $2 million grant from a fund the city created in 2024 for “iconic” festivals — and likely an additional $1 million from the tourism bureau, Visit Sacramento — it will return in 2027, 2028 and 2029, officials said, creating what they hope will be a temporary bridge for the festival’s long-term return.
“It limits some of the risk for the promoter. Music festivals do not always make money, especially as you’re building them,” Visit Sacramento CEO Mike Testa said. “What we’re trying to do is have some skin in the game, and minimize some of his risk.”
GoldenSky debuted in 2022 as a two-day festival produced by Danny Wimmer Presents in partnership with Visit Sacramento. It expanded to three days in 2024 and drew about 75,000 attendees over the October weekend, according to previous Bee reporting.
The festival will return the weekend of October 15, 2027, organizer Danny Wimmer Presents said in a news release. The company will announce details about the dates and lineup this October.
“It was a big deal here in Sacramento, for the three years that we had GoldenSky,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty. “There are a lot of country fans who just flocked to Discovery Park for those three-day festivals.”
Officials made the announcement at Visit Sacramento’s annual “State of Tourism” event, where they simultaneously announced the expansion of the marathon.
Previously, the marathon was obligated to finish by an earlier time, McCarty said, to ensure no runners were on the train tracks when the Union Pacific trains passed through. The Union Pacific has always held trains for the marathon, Testa said, but has agreed to delay the schedule longer, extending the race by 45 minutes to an hour.
It’s unclear whether the marathon will exactly double in size in the first year. The California International Marathon registers 10,000 athletes annually, Testa said, and the waitlist is cut off at 6,000 people.
Officials expect the respective revival and growth of the festival and marathon will generate additional hotel tax for the city. In the case of marathons, people typically come out a couple of days early or stay late, and bring family along, Testa said. Like AfterShock, the race will likely feed hotels from Elk Grove to Rancho Cordova to Rocklin. And those new visitors will be welcome — for restaurants, too — in early December, when people typically travel less, Testa said.
“Bringing Golden Sky back to Sacramento, building on the success of Aftershock and Terra Madre Americas,” Testa told attendees Wednesday, “is what will continue to grow our region and attract new tourism into the market.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 1:06 PM.
