2017 Lineup Discussion Thread - it's here

Yeah, I hate to be the "LIVE NATION RUINS FESTS WITH THEIR CORPORATENESS" but it definitely has had some effect on it. Good thing I like U2, RHCP and The Weeknd though

I think the fests with the worst lineups are unsurprisingly the camping fests that got savaged in the marketplace due to the increase in city fests. Livenation is putting the kiddie pop stuff on those lineups to see if they're salvageable. No one showed up last year to see the Cure at Sasquatch. That's not LN's fault.

meanwhile Lock'n is expanding and Electric Forest moved to two weekends

Firefly seems to be doing okay too, but the lineup for it isn't out yet.


Also isn't Coachella a camping festival?

I think there is something to be said for the continuity in acts these festivals provide year over year. At EF you are going to have Cheese and Bassnectar, at Lock'n you are going to have Phil Lesh and probably Panic, all acts with passionate/obsessive fanbases. This creates the kind of customer that Bonnaroo is trying to create by marketing "vibes", someone who is just going to go to EF or Lock'n pretty much no matter what, not because of an intangible "vibe" put off by the festival, but because Bassnectar is going to be there, and said fan is a huge fan of Bassnectar.

These more scene/genre specific festivals could be experiencing success because they aren't trying to be all things to all people.

Yes but those festivals aren't going to pull the kind of numbers that your big festivals are trying for. If you're gonna try and pull 80k people anymore, you have to hit that widespread appeal in an attempt to spark some interest from the most people. I love Hopscotch's lineups pretty much every year, but there's no way they are ever going to pull huge numbers with those lineups.

My summation is they stopped booking good music. That's the problem.

A + B + C

+ F: all these festivals are marketing themselves to a lowest common denominator audience that would have never attended festivals 8-9 years ago.

Depends what we define as popular music.  If we're talking about popular music that's booked on these large music festival lineups, then yes.

But option C is less of a contributing factor than the others.

Drove down from Jax for that. Not sure if I had ever been in a mosh pit at a hip hop show before.

I've seen my share of wild hip-hop shows. There wasn't a mosh pit when I saw MOP so I figured they wouldn't happen at any others. Just a lot of jumping up and down and hands in the air.

No pit at any of the 4 Wu-Tang related shows I've seen. Or at Vince Staples (Roo). Not an Odd Future fan at all. I'm just a pitless piece of shit.

I'll throw out Method Man & Red Man at the 1999 Family Values tour. Method Man also holds the distinction of being the most stoned performer I've ever seen live. I was up close and he couldn't even open his eyes, and he had a huge smile on his face the whole set. And the performance was flawless. It was my first live hip-hop show, and many hip-hop shows afterwards were a huge disappointment.

Has anyone heard how this is selling? Seeing how the Joshua Tree tour sold out, I wouldn't be surprised if U2 alone is pushing large numbers of tickets. You can pretty much go to an entire festival for the price of one U2 ticket on resale. Still curious though.

Did you see Action Bronson at Roo? I'm still not sure if he was too baked or just decided to be goofy, which are both possibilities, but I thought he was hilarious walking all through the crowd, leaving the tent, and restarting songs and whatnot. I had no clue who he was at the time but I'm still glad I went to that show, even if it was actually a horrible "concert."

They haven't sold out in Cleveland yet. But there's no way I'm paying like $160 to see them from the upper deck at the far end of a damn football stadium. I might pay half that for lawn at Blossom (outdoor amphitheater/pavilion closer to Akron) even though I only really like about 4 songs and won't be going to Roo, just because I know it would be a really cool show. I'd see them, but not at extortive prices. The GF has no opinion and will back me either way.

I'll check Craigslist when the time comes, but if I have that much extra cash I'd rather have a few people over, throw some ribs or badass local sausages in the smoker, grill some nicer-than-usual steaks, get some really good beer, blast some U2, MMJ, RTJ, TBK, ABC, BBD on the garage radio and just chill, and have enough dough left over for another party. If money were no option we could go to every show by every band we like. That would be the life - no need for affairs, rockstar drugs, or other scandalous behavior. But opportunity cost and limited a limited entertainment budget dictate that I skip Roo and U2 this year. Life goes on, hoping Roo 2018 is killer.