The 29th Annual Buffalo Commons Storytelling and Music Festival is packed with opportunities to laugh, have fun, learn and remember. Journey through the dusty trails, starlit nights, and campfire tales of the American cowboy with nationally-renowned cowboy storytellers and musicians. Their gripping tales and raw, authentic songs from the trail is the ultimate tribute to the Grit of the West. A guest visual artist will open your heart and stimulate your perceptions as you follow his life’s journey through his photography, art and stories. A bus tour will take you to a site where ordinary Nebraskans had an extraordinary impact on history. Festival 2026 will be one to love, from the Historic Fox Theatre stage show, dinner cabaret, historical tour and venues, art shows, museum melodies and memories, open mic opportunities, poetry sharing, Kids Fest and more!

Events take place throughout McCook. Some events are free, and some require ticket purchase. For full details, visit the festival website.

Featured Cowboy Storytellers, Poets and Musicians: Andy Hedges and Dom Flemons

Dom Flemons is known as “The American Songster®” since his repertoire covers over one hundred years of American roots music. Flemons is a folk musician, black country artist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, music scholar, historian, actor, slam poet, record collector, curator, podcaster, cultural commentator, influencer, and the creator, host, and producer of the American Songster Radio Show on WSM in Nashville, TN. He is considered an expert player on the banjo, guitar, harmonica, jug, percussion, quills, fife and rhythm bones.

Songster, reciter, storyteller, guitarist, and collector of cowboy songs and poems, Andy Hedges fell in love with traditional music by listening to his father’s cassettes of cowboy songs. Andy’s vast and varied repertoire includes classic cowboy poetry recitations, obscure cowboy songs, dust bowl ballads, and blues. He also hosts a podcast, Cowboy Crossroads.

Featured Artist: Wesaam Al-Badry

At the age of eleven, artist and photographer Wesaam Al-Badry’s family fled his home country of Iraq at the onset of the Gulf War. Before relocating to Lincoln, the family spent four years in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia where he first experimented with a camera. Wesaam began documenting what was happening around him to help process his experiences. That experience has sculpted much of his work, which focuses on capturing the human struggle. Believing that he could help others by telling their stories through his work encouraging them to see their beauty and begin a process of healing.