Music Festivals 2018

[troutman]

Are Music Festival Lineups Getting Worse?


Crunching the numbers on this year’s biggest summer festivals to determine the most in-demand acts and hardest workers, as well as which fests are the most (and least) unique and diverse.


https://pitchfork.com/features/festi...ocial_facebook

[jayswin]

They were good until the late 2000's, imo. Until then festivals had worked hard to offer strong, balanced lineups and still had monster headliners. Like every product consumed in life organizers eventually found the perfect calculations to getting people in the door while spending the least amount of money.

Enter: Rap and Hip Hop dominating almost every festival because they cost a fraction of artists and bands, huge headliners that sell tickets followed by a crap load of meh with enough has been names that jump out at fans to make them eventually say yes.

[jayswin]

They used festival goers own secret against them to scale down costs while still selling out - Make sure you would see at least five of the acts on their own before buying tickets. "Here's six".

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by jayswin

They were good until the late 2000's, imo. Until then festivals had worked hard to offer strong, balanced lineups and still had monster headliners. Like every product consumed in life organizers eventually found the perfect calculations to getting people in the door while spending the least amount of money.

Enter: Rap and Hip Hop dominating almost every festival because they cost a fraction of artists and bands, huge headliners that sell tickets followed by a crap load of meh with enough has been names that jump out at fans to make them eventually say yes.

The EDM craze really changed things, too. Why hire a full band when you can get some doofus with a laptop for a fraction of the cost?

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by troutman

Lollapalooza Argentina

Originally Posted by troutman

Lallapalooza Chile

Both of these show the same dates and almost identical lineups.
They are pretty close to each other so I it is no problem for the bands to fly and play the next night, but I wonder which show more people attend because even most of the guests would be able to make either show just as easily.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by troutman

This is a damn fine lineup, especially if you like bass.

Ganja White Night won Shambhala last year.

[troutman]

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by jayswin

They were good until the late 2000's, imo. Until then festivals had worked hard to offer strong, balanced lineups and still had monster headliners. Like every product consumed in life organizers eventually found the perfect calculations to getting people in the door while spending the least amount of money.

Enter: Rap and Hip Hop dominating almost every festival because they cost a fraction of artists and bands, huge headliners that sell tickets followed by a crap load of meh with enough has been names that jump out at fans to make them eventually say yes.

Rap and Hip Hop are dominating every festival because it's the most popular type of music. The economic benefit is a nice benefit though

[topfiverecords]

[topfiverecords]

I'm planning on hitting a festival this year and made a list of dates of ones I'm considering and figured it could be helpful for some on here. Dates in the brackets at the end are when the lineup came out for last years.

Bottlerock - May 25-27 2018 - Napa, CA (already announced to be released on Jan 8 2018)
Sasquatch - May 25-27 2018- The Gorge, WA (Jan 23)
Bonnaroo - Jun 7-10 2018 - Manchester, TN (Jan 11)
Ottawa Bluesfest - July 5-15 2018 - Ottawa (Feb 20)
Pitchfork - July 20-22 2018 - Chicago (Mar 10)
Panorama - July 27-29 2018 - New York (Jan 9)
Osheaga - August 3-5 2018 - Montreal (Feb 24)
Lollapalooza - Aug 2-5 2018 - Chicago (Mar 22)
Outside Lands - Aug 10-12 2018 - San Francisco (Apr 4)
Bumbershoot - Sept 1-3 2018 - Seattle (Apr 25)

[username]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

I'm planning on hitting a festival this year and made a list of dates of ones I'm considering and figured it could be helpful for some on here. Dates in the brackets at the end are when the lineup came out for last years.

Bottlerock - May 25-27 2018 - Napa, CA (already announced to be released on Jan 8 2018)
Sasquatch - May 25-27 2018- The Gorge, WA (Jan 23)
Bonnaroo - Jun 7-10 2018 - Manchester, TN (Jan 11)
Ottawa Bluesfest - July 5-15 2018 - Ottawa (Feb 20)
Pitchfork - July 20-22 2018 - Chicago (Mar 10)
Panorama - July 27-29 2018 - New York (Jan 9)
Osheaga - August 3-5 2018 - Montreal (Feb 24)
Lollapalooza - Aug 2-5 2018 - Chicago (Mar 22)
Outside Lands - Aug 10-12 2018 - San Francisco (Apr 4)
Bumbershoot - Sept 1-3 2018 - Seattle (Apr 25)

I would have done bottlerock this year if it wasn't for my family situation forcing us to go to a festival a month earlier (Coachella). If you end up going there, please let me know how it is because we will try again next year.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by username

I would have done bottlerock this year if it wasn't for my family situation forcing us to go to a festival a month earlier (Coachella). If you end up going there, please let me know how it is because we will try again next year.

For sure. Definitely looks like a decent festival and who could complain about the location! I originally convinced my wife to let me go to Coachella again but after researching the lineup I'm going to pass and consider somewhere else this year.

[topfiverecords]

Won't be going to this

[rubecube]

^^Damn, that's disappointing. I really liked their lineup last year.

[rubecube]

Bonnaroo's lineup is supposed to be out tomorrow. I have to go visit my dad in TN at some point this year so may try to plan something around it if the lineup is better than last year's.

[jayswin]

Not that the Killers are very relevant anymore anyways, but it should be noted that this isn't even the real Killers line-up anymore. They announced that two of the four members will only write and not tour starting this year.

[topfiverecords]

You could play a Bruno Mars, Killers and a Muse song and I wouldn't be able to tell you which song was by which band and I never want to be able to.

[troutman]

Looks like the big labels have taken over the big festivals.

The best festivals IMO are still the smaller multi-venue festivals - ex. Treefort, Sled Island, Pop Montreal, Noise Pop etc.

[troutman]

[topfiverecords]