Here are a few of the top music festivals to look out for this year:
Coachella (April 12 – 14, April 19 – 21)
This may be the most famous of the music festivals and if you didn’t score tix the first 15 minutes they went on sale, then you’re outta luck. Try again next year. This will be Coachella’s 14th hurrah and its second year of splitting the festival into two identical weekends in order to accommodate their vastly multiplying audience (80,000+ people attended last year).
Location – Indio, CA
2013 Headliners – Blur, The Stone Roses, Phoenix, and Red Hot Chili Peppers
2012 Headliners – The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and, of course, the most famous hologram of all time – Tupac
Wakarusa (May 30 – June 2)
Deep in Arkansas’ charming Ozark mountains is a HUGE music festival that’s been selling out in the most recent years. The annual four-day event celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and this festival just gets bigger and better every year with an eclectic mix of artists plus fun diversions for festival guests: hiking, Frisbee golf, yoga and swimming in the gorgeous Mulberry River.
Location – Mulberry Mountain, AR
2013 Headliners – Snoop Lion, The Black Crowes, STS9, Widespread Panic, Of Monsters and Men and Son Volt
2012 Headliners – The Avett Brothers, Primus, Girl Talk, Umphrey’s McGee, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Pretty Lights
Bonnaroo (June 13 – 16)
Reputed as “the best festival on the East Coast,” Bonnaroo is definitely one of the biggest, as over 100,000 attendees descend on a 700-acre farm in Tennessee every summer. In addition to music, comedy is a focus of this outdoor camping festival. Practically all of the available tickets are sold out so if you want to attend, hurry and snag the still available VIP Package for 2 for $1,449.
Location – Manchester, TN
2013 Headliners – Paul McCartney, Mumford & Sons, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Björk, Wilco, R. Kelly, and The Lumineers
2012 Headliners – Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Phish, Skrillex, Aziz Ansari, Beach Boys, Alice Cooper, Civil Wars
Summerfest (June 26-30 and July 2-7)
Summerfest in Milwaukee is THE largest festival in the United States in terms of attendance. Held at the 75-acre Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and going on since 1968, Summerfest has hosted almost every big name in music at one time.
Location – Milwaukee, WI
2013 Headliners – Tim McGraw with Brantley Gilbert and Love and Theft, FUN., Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jason Aldean with Jake Owen and Thomas Rhett, New Kids on the Block with 98 Degrees and Boyz II Men, Rush
2012 Headliners: Lady Antebellum, Foo Fighters, ZZ Top, Chicago, The Roots, David Gray, 311, Young the Giant
Lollapalooza (August 2-4)
Since it started in 1991, Lollapalooza has a long-standing tradition for being one of the best festivals in the country, and once traveled each year from city to city. Since 2005, it has stayed put in Chicago, but continues to bring out many of the brightest stars in rock, punk and electronic music to eight stages in Grant Park over three days.
Location – Chicago, IL
2013 Headliners – It hasn’t been released yet, but leaks are hinting at Jay-Z, The Cure, Mumford & Sons, and Blur as some of the headlining acts
2012 Headliners: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath, Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + the Machine
Burning Man (August 26-September 2)
Burning Man is more of an art “event” than a music festival, but this weeklong gathering incubates tomorrow’s new sounds. Also, this festival is not about headlining artists, but more about highlighting the fact that each of us is an artist. Unlike other “festivals”, Burning Man does not provide a stage, there is no food being sold, nor showers to clean yourself off. But for art and music lovers, it’s a genesis point of sound and art, and the adventure of a lifetime.
Location – Black Rock City, NV
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