Ottertail City releases 2026 Music in the Park lineup

Ottertail’s free Music in the Park series is set to give the city a steady summer lift, drawing people into Ottertail City Park and helping keep nearby restaurants, bars and shops busy on Tuesday nights. The 2026 lineup marks the program’s 10th year and keeps one of Otter Tail County’s most accessible outdoor gatherings at the center of the season.

The concerts will be held at Ottertail City Park, 93 S Lake Ave, Ottertail, MN 56571-7172, with ample room for attendees and parking across the street from the stage. The format is simple and built for families, lake visitors and longtime residents alike: free music by local artists in an open-air park setting, with no ticket price standing between the audience and the stage.

This summer’s announced schedule starts June 9 with The Castaways and continues June 23 with Todd Anderson. July brings Blue English on July 7 and Rick Adams on July 21, followed by Katie Baker & Sam Babler on Aug. 4 and Lucky Penny on Aug. 18. Listings place the shows on select Tuesdays and generally set the start time at 6 p.m.

The concerts are also described as running from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in most weeks, with one Otterfest performance planned from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. and the final August show listed from 6 to 8 p.m. That range gives Ottertail a dependable evening draw through the heart of summer, when visitors are already in the lake country and local businesses are looking for the kind of crowd that lingers before and after the music.

For a small city, the series has become more than a pleasant night out. It is a recurring community fixture that adds life to the park, brings people past storefronts and helps anchor the summer calendar in a place where simple, free events carry outsized value.