from “le détroit” · the strait
The barbecue-and-music festival returns July 31 to August 2 in a new Corktown home after years on Ferndale's Nine Mile, with a Corktown address still to come.
Pig & Whiskey is coming back this summer, and it is moving. The barbecue-and-music festival that ran for years in downtown Ferndale will set up in Corktown for its 2026 edition, July 31 through August 2, according to the festival's own announcement and its new site at pigandwhiskeycorktown.com. The exact Corktown address has not been released yet.
The early music lineup leans on familiar names. Texas rockabilly act Reverend Horton Heat takes Friday, July 31. Detroit cowpunk band Goober and the Peas plays Saturday, August 1. East Lansing alt-rock band The Verve Pipe, the group behind the 1996 radio hit "The Freshmen," closes Sunday, August 2.
A quick note on Goober and the Peas, since it gets garbled often: the band is fronted by singer-guitarist Dan John Miller, not by anyone in the White family. Jack White did play drums for the band for a stretch in the mid-1990s, under his birth name John Gillis, before the White Stripes. He was a sideman, not the leader.
The festival ran for years on Ferndale's Nine Mile before going dark in 2025. Organizers framed the move to Detroit as a response to the cost and difficulty of staging the event in Ferndale. "It was kind of years in the making, and it's, you know, it's not just one thing that led to that decision," organizer Chris Johnston told WXYZ. "Ultimately, the decision was that it was too much of a risk to take on with the way things are with the city of Ferndale and events right now."
Corktown gives the festival more room to grow into. The neighborhood has added real outdoor capacity in recent years between the Michigan Central buildout, the Roosevelt Park work, and new development along Trumbull and Bagley. That is the practical case for a three-day footprint that Ferndale's tighter downtown core could not easily hold.
Tickets start at $10 for general admission, per the festival, with VIP packages adding whiskey tastings and premium stage access. Organizers are still taking applications from bands, food trucks, and sponsors through pigandwhiskeycorktown.com.
The dates are set. The venue address is the next thing the festival says it will announce.
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