Most major summer music festivals have finally released their biggest names and the results are … underwhelming. Many festivals are either headlining no-name artists or featuring a bizarre mixture of clashing genres.
While music taste is subjective, many fans are displeased.
The first major letdown was Bonnaroo, whose headliners include J. Cole, Tool, Stevie Nicks and Machine Gun Kelly. It seems as though the festival tried to dabble in too many genres at once without fully satisfying any musical taste.
While some of these artists are appealing, there isn’t a presence strong enough across the board to entice me into buying tickets. By splitting up artists of similar genres across days, they have only dissuaded fans from buying tickets instead of inspiring them to go for the whole event.
If Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats played on the same day as The Bleachers, Lord Huron and Stevie Nicks, I might be tempted to buy single-day tickets. Individually, though, I’m not too interested in paying $350 to try and see all of them across the week, especially when I’m only going to care about one or two artists out of about 30 each day.
Last year’s original headliners included Lizzo, Lana del Rey, Megan Thee Stallion, Tame Impala and Foo Fighters. This year’s grouping simply cannot compete.
Lollapalooza was the next disappointment. The lineup, which was released two days ago, features Metallica, Dua Lipa, Green Day, Doja Cat and Machine Gun Kelly amongst others. Needless to say, this collection of names satisfies practically no one.
Overall, MGK has proven himself to be a contentious artist and person this past year. Considering that most festival-goers are concerned with PLUR (a term originating from rave culture that stands for “Peace, Love, Unity and Respect”), it makes no sense to bring him in.
Past headliners have included Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Post Malone, Childish Gambino and The Killers. It seems that this year they tried to capitalize on several smaller big names instead of three powerhouses, which has killed the appeal overall.
Concert organizers, heed my warning: It is better to book fewer big acts than it is to book several small ones and your attendees need to be able to enjoy several acts each day.
