Fair books third rising country artist for 2026 GJCF

By Nick Joos

Express Editor

Great Jones County Fair officials announced the Friday night act for the 2026 rendition of the fair with a warning that they expect tickets to sell out quickly. 

Rising county music artist Megan Maroney will take the main stage Friday, July 24. 

Fair Manager Lucas Gobeli said he and the committee that book acts worked to snag Maroney for the main stage for the past year. 

“She is kind of on a rocket ship with her career with where she’s at,” Gobeli said, noting that on Maroney’s recently announced worldwide Cloud 9 tour, Monticello is the only stop not in a major city. 

“We are once again one of those unique venues where she is going -- she has one festival and everything else is large arenas, and then you have little Monticello, Iowa,” Gobeli said. 

Las week, fair officials got word from Maroney’s booking officials that she would indeed come to Monticello and made the announcement official on Thursday. 

Gobeli said around 11,000 tickets will be available for the show, and he expects them to sell quickly. Maroney will have an artist’s presale ticket event at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11 on her website, meganmaroney.com, ahead of the full ticket release at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 12.

“I think it’ll sell out,” Gobeli said. “Last year she was at the Iowa State Fair and it (sold out) in around 30-45 minutes.”

Gobeli said he attended that Iowa State Fair event and described it as a “full-energy show.”

“It’s the most fan-interactive as far as fans singing along with the artist that I’ve ever seen. It will be a younger crowd than what we normally have here. It’ll be a lot of teenage girls with their moms, and every one will be screaming at the top of their lungs,” Gobeli said. 

Maroney joins Thursday act Bailey Zimmerman and Saturday night act Riley Green in the 2026 lineup. Gobeli estimated the Sunday night concert act should be announced sometime in February or March. 

Gobeli told the Express that slating three young, rising country artists in a row wasn’t necessarily the plan, but “it was just the way it worked out” based on the schedule and how the booking schedule worked out. 

“We made our first offer … for Megan last December, so it’s been a year of working through it and making sure we were on the tour, and the other two (Green and Zimmerman) happened faster.”

He also said fair organizers are expanding rodeo night, which takes place before the Sunday night concert, to feature bronco riding in addition to bull riding. 

Maroney a multi-platinum artist

Douglasville, Ga. native Maroney is a multi-platinum artist, and her Cloud-9 tour will pair with her 2026 album release under the same name. The album -- her third -- features the single “Six-Months Later” which was certified gold and marked Maroney’s highest Billboard Hot 100 spot to date. That album will be released Feb. 26. 

Maroney’s most recent album, “Am I Okay?” was 2024’s third-highest Billboard 200 debut by a female country artist and featured Maroney’s second no. 1 country radio song which was also called “Am I Okay?”

Maroney’s resume also includes 3.9 billion digital song streams.  She was the New Female Artist of the Year at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards and the 2024 New Artist of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards.