Worst ever festival line up?

to some extent, but foo fighters are still rock radio titans etc. and legacy big name rock acts have been on most festival lineups for ages now. earlier on in its existence lollapalooza wasn't really the sort of festival to go for that but like, journey and limp bizkit are on this one.

J Brohasta

Mine didn't invent any but lol at the lineup and especially the last one

Foo Fighters G-Eazy Tame Impala Young Thug Nelly Deadmau5 Incubus Young the Giant Glass Animals Janelle Monáe Lil Baby Deftones Kevin Gates Lizzo Leon Bridges My Morning Jacket Chris Stapleton Marshmello The Head and the Heart Natalie Prass Against Me! Judah & the Lion Sylvan Esso Brandi Carlile Maggie Rogers AFI Arctic Monkeys G-Eazy Kaytranada NF P!nk Grouplove Chvrches LZ7 Beach House Hozier Grouper Idina Menzel

I mean, in one way of looking at it, there is no discernible difference between putting Foo Fighters at the top of a festival bill in 2021 and putting Journey near the top of a festival bill in 2021.

otm

I think it totally sucks that the way live music is starting to come back is festivals, a way to see music that I despise on pretty much every level.

— Robert Beatty (@EdSunspot) May 20, 2021

Yup.

well Lollapalooza has just been a name with almost no connection to what we'd think of the historical Lolla festival for... maybe a decade? The thing runs in 7 countries now and the lineups are just whoever will pull in people that year. I got a tiny bit curious about going to the Berlin one for free a few years back. then I saw the poster...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzTCfV8X4AkNj-T.jpg

xps eh foo fighters are at least still a going concern - their new albums still sell decently and get rock radio play even if their best work is long behind them. there are only two members of journey from their best-known period (notably not the singer) & i don't think anyone at all has cared about anything they've put out in the last 25 years

Compiled stats for me:

Lolla - heard of 25, would pay to see* zero
Bonnaroo - heard of 33, would pay to see a generous ... seven?
Riot Fest - heard of 35, would pay to see nine or ten
ACL - heard of 22, would pay to see ... one?

*hypothetically, since there's no way I'm paying for any of these, though considered Riot Fest but backed out because I want to know the day-to-day schedule.

bonarroo lineup is orders of magnitude better than lolla's imo

*And* features several of the same acts. There was more than enough "good enough" to go around not to excuse Lolla's sorry lineup.

Lolla's lineup is just terrible, even acknowledging that I am very far removed from the target audience.

Bill Frisell is on the Bonnaroo lineup, always dreamed about what it would be like to see him get half drowned-out by a nearby Deadmau5 set

I would pay plenty to see him sit in with pretty much any act on that bill.

I honestly fucking hate music festivals - they are hell for me. When I was in college I went to a Tibetan Freedom Concert and had to actually leave because I got sick from the bass rattling my stomach (probably combined with the heat). A few years ago we made the terrible mistake of going to Governor's Ball. I felt like I was trapped in a fraternity/sorority refugee camp. The bands I liked sounded like complete shit, lines for food were 30 minutes long, and we left early out of sheer panic at what getting home would be like if we stayed for the main headliners.

Festivals are so shitty that I generally stopped going years ago, even when I was offered free tickets. I can't tell if the transition happened when/because I officially got old, or when the crowd became more and more there just to dress up and be seen. In which case I blame Coachella, really, because it's the only fest my kids consider a fashion. As in, "that outfit is very Coachella." They don't say that about Lolla or whatever.

I still like Pitchfork, it's pretty chill and about the music. Many of the other fests, the music is just a soundtrack to relentless douchebaggery, which is probably why there's no rhyme or reason to the lineups. Just white noise.

Would be awesome, though, if one of these big tests featured a white noise stage, that just blasted static.

disagree on festivals. it's not my favorite way to do things because it kind of forces you to keep your energy up all day, but some of my favorite music experiences were festivals - Maryland Deathfest 2013 (seeing Carcass for the first time), last year's 70,000 Tons of Metal Cruise, and 2019's Psycho Las Vegas. with the right lineup, it can be a really cool communal experience.

the worst festivals tend to be some of the ones like the above, which combine several different types of fanbases from disparate scenes that don't mix well together, or the festivals that are really overcrowded, or outdoor festivals in the heat of summer.

Yeah, the smaller ones like ATP (in the 2000s) were great. I guess I haven't been to many huge ones, other than Lolla '95.

I have more of an issue with the cost. I had a depressive episode during MDF in 2016 and was bummed that I spent that much money to basically freak out in another city.

I think themed festivals are actually kinda cool. Like, if you like metal, then an all-metal fest would of course be dope. Or prog, or country, etc. So no, fests themselves are not bad, it's these charm-less, vision-less corporate C3/Golde Voice/fests that share the same rando bills, these are the ones that suck.

Festivals are so shitty

Bonnaroo lineup isn't terrible. Riot Fest lineup is on par with past years, I think. Agree with Josh's sentiments in general, especially in regards to the Chicago fests. Pitchfork is the only one I bother with anymore, and even that pushes me to the brink some years (punishing heat, sudden crazy rainstorms during Bjork, etc.)

I did Pitchfork one year in the mid-2000s, it was fun and yeah hot, but no real memorable performances. (Same with the few Coachellas I attended, tbh)

I think themed festivals are actually kinda cool. Like, if you like metal, then an all-metal fest would of course be dope.

really hope Migration happens next year :(

I'll be curious to see what shifting Pitchfork to September will do to the attendance numbers. Not that I expect it to take a huge hit, but I wonder if it not falling during college kids' summer break will cut down on the out of state travelers. Personally a September Pitchfork fest is more enticing, just because it moves it out of prime 95+ degree weather territory.

If I had to guess, I would guess that there are enough high school and older people around in Chicago to more than fill a few nights of Pitchfork. I know people travel for it, but unlike Lollapalooza I doubt the fest needs those people. Tickets are reasonably priced, the capacity is a modest 19,000. Vs. Lollapalooza, which is, like, 400,000 or something, with prices literally three times as much. That's a lot more asses in ... well, that's a lot more asses.

Yeah, that's why I said I don't think it's going to take a hit, I'm not arguing it'll be a death knell. Just curious to see if the shift does impact the numbers at all.

Well, given how fast Riot Fest sold out (I think?) of three day passes, and that's in Sept., too, I bet things will be ok.

Big Ears and Mostly Mozart are more my speed.

Festivals are great

i’ve been to riot fest once (poorly planned but a good time), deathfest twice (platonic ideal of a festival, good vibes good ppl great bands), and nola jazzfest ... idk at least ten times now (often overcrowded but you can also like hang out in a tent all day and watch gospel acts come and go). anything bigger than that is not my bag. but a festival experience can rule

i was just leaving Nola when Jazzfest was starting and it felt like such a missed opp

Recognised 43 on a skim of the Bonnaroo poster. This seems substantial!

Good festivals are good, great festivals are great, shitty festivals are shitty.

and then there's Fyre Fest

Xpost - Tolstoy

im 36 years old i am not attending a big huge festival thing - with 10s of thousands of people and multiple stages etc. - ever again

some "fest" that is actually just different shows at venues in a city - sure, that's a different thing

i only ever attended one festival of that ilk before and i just did cocaine in my tent all weekend and saw beastie boys on the first night and bjork on the last night.

mutek or sónar i would probably still be into

the thing I like about festivals is knowing the times the bands are getting on stage so I don't wait around bored for 40 minutes waiting for a band to come on stage, or if I do get there early, it's cos I'm staking out a good spot.

and I can go back to hotel and nap if I need to without fearing I'll misjudge the time the band goes on.

but on the flipside, a regular ole show = I only have to muster enough energy to watch 2 or 3 bands, so my back isn't likely to go out

1996: Metallica headlines Lollapalooza, causing much teeth-gnashing.
2021: Journey plays Lollapalooza, causes ____________?

i only ever attended one festival of that ilk before and i just did cocaine in my tent all weekend and saw beastie boys on the first night and bjork on the last night.

seems like you might not have really made the most of it tbh

some "fest" that is actually just different shows at venues in a city - sure, that's a different thing

yes i forgot about this, this is a very good and fun kind of fest

always wanted to make it to gonerfest in memphis but feel like i missed my window and am now too old to be able to drink enough to have a good enough time at it

atp type festivals with chalets >>> outdoor festivals with tents. past a certain age, anyway.

i've never attended a festival where you camp overnight on the grounds and with any luck i never will

i was born old

but thinking about this reminded me that both times i attended maryland deathfest me and my friends stayed on a houseboat in fells point. 10/10 experience

I have no further need to attend an outdoor music festival of any variety

I had a great time at Glastonbury 2019.

the thing to remember with large outdoor festivals that take place in cities is that a fair number of people over age 25 just roll in around 6pm

I was aghast at this in my early 20s, and with age have realized that the experience of sweating my ass off in the sun to see a handful of acts I’m interested in and killing time checking out a few that might be ok over the course of an entire afternoon is a mediocre value proposition

the mixed-venue festivals that take place in the evenings/night time are still for me