Barretos 2026: what explains the pagode invasion at the biggest country party in the country

Alexandre Pires, Belo, Pixote and Turma do Pagode are highlighted in Barretos
Reproduction/Instagram
The 2026 edition of the Festa do Peão de Barretos, the biggest country culture event in the country, has a significant number of pagodeiros. This year, the following were confirmed at the festival: Belo, Alexandre Pires, Pixote and Turma do Pagode.
This is the largest number of representatives of the genre in the last 10 editions, with one of them (Alexandre Pires) being featured on Barretos' main stage, the Palco Estádio. kind of brotherhood that has gained prominence, largely due to the results of recent years.
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Pedro Muzetti, cultural director of the Festa do Peão de Barretos, highlighted in an interview with g1 that the event has always had a role of experimentation. he doesn't like it. But on the day of the show it usually works out", he explains.
"With pagode, I notice that the reception is different, there is a greater connection than with other genres, like funk, for example."
The behind-the-scenes strategy
In the last 10 editions of the Festa do Peão de Barretos, the number of pagoda representatives on the two main stages of the event (Estadio and Amanhecer) was, at most, two. In 2026, there will be four.
Infographic shows the growth of the pagoda in Barretos
Arte/g1
But the "negotiation" for the arrival in numbers of pagodeiros began in 2025. In addition to the stages where the main shows of the Festa do Peão take place, Barretos has several ranches, spaces where artists also perform and businesspeople make connections.
It was in this space that Alex Kalil, responsible for the production company GR Show, decided to operate. The businessman, who manages the schedule of Belo, Turma do Pagode and Pixote (three of the four guests), settled in a ranch that carried his brand and started conversations with the event.
Dodô, lead singer of the group Pixote, even participated in the show by the duo Hugo and Guilherme, who performed on the event's main stage in 2025.
"I sang 'Insegurança' with them and it was wonderful. The audience sang along with me and I think there It was an opening. The organization saw that everyone knows it, everyone sang. This year we will have our show there", he told g1.
Muzetti says that the ranches are fundamental in Barretos' "experimentation" and that other offices responsible for managing the careers of other artists have already contacted the event to be included in the list of shows.
The selection of the pagoda's artists took into account the influence of the businessman and also a "match" with the event, as is the case of Alexandre Pires, who will perform in Barretos with his project in honor of the countryman, "Pagonejo Bão".
Kalil's lobby is based on one of the best years of the pagoda. After finally breaking dependence on radio stations (where country music overtook) and invading streaming, the genre had a great result in 2025 in terms of numbers. And a new door has opened.
The new wave of pagode
Thiaguinho in a crowded Mineirão during the last edition of Tardezinha in BH
Bruno Soares/Disclosure
In 2025, "Tardezinha", a label led by Thiaguinho toured Brazil, including inland cities where country music dominates, and proved to be a public - and sales - phenomenon.
With the pagode in high, not only the Peão de Barretos festival, but a whole circuit of events that previously looked almost exclusively at the country side extended its gaze to the pagode.
Marcelinho TDP, composer and cavaquinist of the group Turma do Pagode, said that, in recent months, the group received several invitations to participate in agricultural fairs and other events linked to country culture.
"The pagoda has been one of the most popular crops in Brazil for a long time. I believe that, in the last two, three years, many people have understood what this power brings in return as well. And, speaking of country music, there is a historical proximity that is logical", he says.
Crowd excited with Jorge & Mateus at the Festa do Peão de Barretos 2025
Érico Andrade/g1
Marcelinho and Dodô said that there are no major changes planned for the show in Barretos. The member of Turma do Pagode even says that in presentations at fairs, for example, the setlist only gets a "final block" with reinterpretations of country music hits.
"In an event that lasts so long, the public wants to follow a diversity that is not so far from what they are used to on a daily basis. And anyone who listens to pagode knows about country music. And vice versa. They are cultures of the people, of the common Brazilian."
A three-decade relationship
In the 1990s, pagode was at its peak in Brazil. Among the main groups were Art Popular and Só Pra Contrariar. The two were very connected with country music, for different reasons.
Leaded by Leandro Lehart, Art Popular was a group of pagodeiros who liked to dialogue with other genres. With country music, the conversation was closer, in a mix that went further of sound.
One of the group's biggest hits, "Fricote" is a partnership with Daniel and became a kind of milestone between the genres, a symbol of how close the dialogue was.
But Só Pra Contrariar went far beyond the feats. Born in Uberlândia (MG), outside the Rio-SP axis, the group essentially had a relationship with country culture.
In one of their first visits to TV, in the 1990s, Alexandre Pires' group sang their song. main success, "Essa Tal Liberdade". And, instead of a banjo and a cavaco at the front, SPC performed with two guitars.
In 1997, the "Amigos" project, a year-end special on TV Globo that brought together the main names in country music at the time (Chitãozinho & Xororó, Zezé Di Camargo & Luciano and Leandro & Leonardo) paid a kind of tribute to SPC. they sang "Mineirinho", the group's hit.
With the turn of the decade, the partnerships became occasional, but with the same impact. Sorriso Maroto recorded with Jorge and Mateus, Raça Negra made a DVD full of country singers, and last year the most listened to song of the year, "P do Pecado", was a partnership between the pagodeiros of Menos é Mais and the country singer Simone Mendes.
And this last success of 2025 helped in the change of key. in the partnership between pagode and country music.

Source: G1