Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival 2026 Recap

Few guitar events carry the history, prestige and sheer star power of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival.

Since its debut at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1999 (as Eric Clapton & Friends), the Crossroads Guitar Festival has celebrated guitarists, guitar culture and recovery (through the concert’s fundraising for Clapton’s Crossroads Centre Antigua).

Crossroads is a traveling circus showcasing legendary and transcendent guitarists that converges every few years, ensuring anticipation and reverence amongst guitar fans. The 2004 pageant in Dallas, Texas, became the first under the now-official Crossroads title, with subsequent shows landing in Bridgeview, Illinois (2007 and 2010), New York (2013), Dallas (2019), Los Angeles (2023) and this year’s big event in Austin, Texas.

Guitar Center has been extremely proud to co-sponsor every Crossroads Festival since 2004 and has worked with Clapton and guitar makers such as Ernie Ball, Fender, Gibson, Martin and PRS to curate limited-edition Crossroads Guitar Collections for many of the festivals. Appropriately, a massive portion of the proceeds from these collections support Crossroads Centre Antigua.

Here are some highlights from this year’s joyous guitar party in Austin, Texas, September 26-17, as well as some history and insights about the Guitar Center Crossroads Guitar Collections through the years.

The 2026 Crossroads Guitar Collection

This year’s festival saw the return of the Blind Faith Telecaster, but as a Fender model, rather than the Fender Custom Shop instrument offered in the 2019 Crossroads Guitar Collection. The 2026 Crossroads Guitar Collection also featured a PRS John Mayer Silver Sky Crossroads in Incline Blue, Martin Custom Shop 000-42 Eric Clapton Brazilian, two Martin Custom Shop 000-42 Eric Clapton Ziricote models (in natural or sunburst), Martin 000-13E Eric Clapton (sunburst) and Ernie Ball Eric Clapton 2026 Crossroads Electric Guitar String Tin (limited to 5,000 pieces, the collectible tin includes three sets of Slinky .010-.046 strings). You can dig deeper into the 2026 collection here.

The Guitar Center Legends Collection

Given that Guitar Center’s Legends Collection was made possible by the company’s purchase of some of Eric Clapton’s iconic instruments at Crossroads 2004, it was fitting that five legendary instruments were exhibited in Austin. The 6-string celebrities shared with the 2026 event’s legions of guitar fans were Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” Fender Stratocaster, Clapton’s cherry-ed Gibson ES-335, the George Harrison/Eric Clapton 1966 Martin 00-21, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1965 “Lenny” Fender Stratocaster and The Edge’s 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom (which was purchased at the 2007 “Icons of Music” charity auction in New York City for $240,000).

Paul Reed Smith Inducted into Guitar Center’s Rockwalk

Crossroads Guitar Festival Austin provided a marvelous opportunity to induct another legend into Guitar Center’s Rockwalk—this time at a rare ceremony outside of Rockwalk’s Guitar Center Hollywood home.

Paul Reed Smith, PRS Guitars founder, impassioned luthier and hot-shot guitar player was welcomed to the Rockwalk Class of 2026 by Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto and superstar guitarist, songwriter and singer John Mayer. Smith joins more than 150 artists and innovators who have been immortalized in the world-famous Rockwalk.

The 2026 Crossroads Guitar Festival Lineup of Legends

There’s no such scenario as too much of a good thing when it comes to guitars and guitarists, but Crossroads definitely gets close to mind-melting intensity. The 2026 event brought on certified legends and galactically talented guitarists such as Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, Taj Mahal, Jimmie Vaughan, Gary Clark Jr., Tommy Emmanuel, Keb’ Mo’, Robert Randolph, Billy Gibbons, Trey Anastasio, Marcus King, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Julian Lage and, of course, Eric Clapton himself.

If you missed the onslaught of awesomeness, the Crossroads Festival website offers a chance to watch a replay of the livestream from the Moody Center, Austin, right here. Go on—get your mind blown. We dare ya (hahaha).

The Guitar Center Experience

As colossally brilliant as the music was during the two days of Crossroads Austin, it’s a rare soul who commits to never missing even one note beamed into the Moody Center by the festival’s performers. Most people like to eat, give their ears a little bit of rest and look at gear. The Guitar Center Experience provided an oasis of cool with an immersive display of goodies such as the limited-edition 2026 Crossroads Guitar Collection, the historic Guitar Center Legends Collection and even a Next-Gen Stage that showcased emerging talents.

The Birth of the Crossroads Guitar Collection

We’ve already talked about the 2026 Crossroads Guitar Collection. These collections have been an integral part of Guitar Center’s relationships with Clapton and several manufacturers, as well as an exciting way to do something special for our customers and the charitable efforts for Crossroads Centre Antigua.

But how did it all start?

At the 2004 Crossroads Guitar Festival, Guitar Center bought several iconic guitars. These purchases, which totaled approximately $2,520,125, formed the basis of Guitar Center Crossroads Guitar Collections to come. Perhaps more importantly, rather than disappearing into private collections, the instruments became the foundation of Guitar Center's Legends Collection, allowing generations of musicians to experience them firsthand.

Here’s a breakdown of the 2004 acquisitions:

• “Blackie” Fender Stratocaster ($959,500). At the time, Clapton’s “composite” Strat—which he used onstage and in the studio from 1970 until 1985—was the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction.

• 1964 Gibson ES-335TDC ($847,500). Clapton’s Cream-era semi-hollowbody.

• 1966 Martin 00-21 ($89,625). Clapton’s Grand Concert acoustic was gifted to him by George Harrison.

• “Lenny” Fender Stratocaster ($623,500). Stevie Ray Vaughan’s prized Strat was a birthday gift from his wife Lenora and some friends. (They collected $350 to buy the guitar from an Austin pawnshop.)

There was no Guitar Center Crossroads Collection offered at the 2007 festival, although Fender worked directly with Clapton to offer 100 Eric Clapton Crossroads Stratocasters and 50 Eric Clapton Crossroads ’57 Fender Twins. There wasn’t a limited-edition series assembled for the 2010 event, either—although Guitar Center exhibited its Legends Collection at the company’s onsite Village.

The 2013 Crossroads Guitar Collection

The very first Guitar Center Crossroads Collection appeared in 2013 with replicas of Clapton’s “Brownie” Stratocaster and the Eric Clapton/George Harrison “Lucy” Gibson Les Paul.

By the way, the “Lucy” guitar had quite the history. It started as a 1957 goldtop and was owned by John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful). He traded it to Rick Derringer, who had the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, refinish the tattered gold finish in cherry red. Clapton bought the guitar in New York and gave it to Harrison, who named it “Lucy” as Lucille Ball. This is the guitar Clapton used to play the solo on Harrison’s contribution to the Beatles White Album, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

Martin added three signature acoustics to the 2013 collection—the 000-28EC Eric Clapton Crossroads and two 000-45EC Crossroads (one with Madagascar Rosewood and the other with Brazilian Rosewood). Ernie Ball provided Eric Clapton Crossroads guitar straps.

The 2019 Crossroads Guitar Collection

When the Crossroads Guitar Festival returned to Dallas in 2019, Guitar Center broadened its Crossroads Guitar Collection. Fender, Gibson and Martin were represented again, and PRS Guitars was added to the mix for the first time.

The Fender Custom Shop offered the Eric Clapton Blind Faith Telecaster, as crafted by Master Builder Todd Krause. Gibson’s Custom Shop brought the Eric Clapton 1964 Firebird I, and Martin presented a 000-42EC Crossroads Ziricote and 00-42SC John Mayer Crossroads. The “new kid” was a PRS Private Stock Carlos Santana Crossroads.

The 2023 25th Anniversary Crossroads Guitar Collection

In 2023, the guitar extravaganza stopped in Los Angeles for its 25th anniversary and to celebrate the event’s silver jubilee, Guitar Center assembled the Fender Custom Shop Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster (again crafted by Todd Krause—this time in the Blu Scozia color of Clapton’s latest Ferrari), Fender Eric Clapton CRASH Stratocaster (painted by street artist John “CRASH” Matos), Martin D-45 Brazilian Rosewood Eric Clapton, Martin D-45 Madagascar Rosewood Eric Clapton, Martin D-28 Eric Clapton and PRS Private Stock Carlos Santana I (in Santana Orange).

Rising Up at the Crossroads

The initial Eric Clapton & Friends concert in 1999 likely set more of a precedent than even Clapton could imagine at the time. After all, the legend has so many “friends” he can call on to populate Crossroads stages, as well as legions of guitarists and guitar fans who have built a lasting community around the festivals. What started out as a benevolent, supportive and music-driven charity to raise funds for his Crossroads Centre Antigua evolved into a cultural juggernaut that has simultaneously advocated recovery, the power of music and the glories of playing and loving guitars.