festivals
Why Coachella Always Announces Its Lineup First — And What Happens When It’s Late
With Tuesday’s flurry of festival lineups — including Boston Calling, Bonnaroo, Sonic Temple Festival, and, finally, Coachella — the 2023 North American festival season formally kicked off, and music fans can expect more announcements to follow. This figurative ringing of the bell is typically reserved for Coachella (and Coachella alone), which usually announces its lineup the first week of January. But when Los Angeles-based concert promoter Goldenvoice didn’t deliver on time — for unexplained reasons — it left some executives wondering what to expect from potential ripple effects throughout the festival circuit. That’s due to Coachella’s contracts and stature in the business. Coachella’s artist contracts come with radius clauses that give the Southern California festiv...
Foo Fighters, Tool, Avenged Sevenfold, KISS to Headline 2023 Sonic Temple Festival
The 2023 Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival will feature headlining sets from the Foo Fighters, Tool, Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold, Queens of the Stone Age, KISS, Rob Zombie and the Deftones. The event at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio will take place on Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28) after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also slated to perform at the hard rock extravaganza are: Falling In Reverse, Chevelle, Puscifer, Beartooth, I Prevail, Jawbreaker, Sublime with Rome, Bullet For My Valentine, The Pretty Reckless, Pennywise, Trivium, Black Veil Brides and more. The event marks the third festival date featuring the Foo Fighters to be announced this week, marking the band’s first major performances since the tragic death last March of drummer Taylor Hawkins wh...
From Bad Bunny to Rihanna, Who Should Headline Coachella 2023? Vote!
We’re only three and a half months away from the 2023 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which means this year’s headliners should be announced any day now. However, before that big reveal comes, we want to know who you think should take the main stage in Indio, Calif. this April. Frank Ocean is, obviously, the best bet for this year’s festival in the desert, considering he was originally supposed to headline the 2020 iteration along with Rage Against the Machine and Travis Scott before it was canceled by the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. He’s also previously been announced as one of the main acts this April, so if that holds true, two other headliners will be joining him on the lineup. Both Bad Bunny and Rihanna are also strong contenders among Billboard‘s predictions. T...
BamBam Joins Sunmi & Pink Sweat$ as Headliners at the Philippines’ Wavy Baby Music Festival: Exclusive
BamBam is heading to the Philippines to lead a lineup of international acts for the forthcoming Wavy Baby Music Festival next month. Billboard can exclusively reveal that the Thai-born singer-rapper joins fellow K-pop star Sunmi, as well as R&B singer Pink Sweat$, as the final headliner for Careless Music’s Wavy Baby Music Festival taking place at the North Reclamation Area of Mandaue City of the Philippines’ province of Cebu. BamBam joining as a headliner makes the musician trio somewhat of a family affair as BamBam and Sunmi are both signed under Korean management label Abyss Company, while Sweat$ produced and co-wrote Bam’s latest single “Slo Mo.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Careless Music’s Wavy Baby Festival is the brainchi...
Christina Aguilera, Karol G, Maná, Alejandro Fernández & Camilo Confirmed for Viña del Mar
Tickets for the 62nd edition of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival are on sale. The Chilean event’s organizing committee announced that tickets for the general public can be purchased starting Wednesday (Nov. 30) on the PuntoTicket website. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The Festival de Viña 2023 is scheduled from Feb. 19 to 24 and will feature big Latin stars, including Karol G, Maná, Alejandro Fernández, Christina Aguilera and Camilo, all of whom are confirmed to perform. Additional artists will be announced soon. “The tickets will be nominative. This means that each ticket will be assigned a name and rut from February 10, 2023 and until 11:00 am on each day of the festival, and not at the time of purc...
Kygo to Debut Winter Edition of Palm Tree Music Festival In Aspen With Co-Headliner Jack White
Kygo may be mostly closed associated with swaying palm trees and gentle ocean waves, but the producer’s Palm Tree Music Festival is expanding to a location with a lot more snow. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Today (Nov. 30), the producer announces his Palm Music Tree festival will set-up shop in the ski haven of Aspen, Colorado this Feb. 24-25. Kygo will headline one night of the event, with Jack White headlining the second. The rest of the lineup includes Gryffin, King Princess, Cannons and Forester, with additional acts to be announced in the coming months. “Aspen holds a special place in our hearts, and we love spending time there,” Kygo tells Billboard. “We thought it would be fun to bring to the festival to a beautiful location that has ...
Paramore, Imagine Dragons, Kane Brown & More to Headline Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest 2023
The 2023 Bud Light Super Bowl Music Fest is taking over the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, for its fourth installment and, as usual, the event has a star-studded lineup of performers that were announced on Tuesday (Nov. 29). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The festival kicks off Thursday night (Feb. 9) with Paramore taking the stage along with a special guest to be announced. On Friday (Feb. 10), Dave Matthews Band will perform and DJ Pee .Wee (Anderson .Paak) will give fans a full DJ set. The three-night music festival wraps on Saturday night (Feb. 11), the day before Super Bowl LVII with performances by Imagine Dragons and Kane Brown. “Music and football are core to Bud Light’s DNA, and we’re thrilled to bri...
Hear Exclusive Seismic Dance Event 2022 Sets From Fatboy Slim, LP Giobbi, Chloé Caillet & Sama’ Abdulhadi
Earlier this month 5,000 dance fans gathered at Austin’s Seismic Dance Event to do what dance fans to best — dance. Held at The Concourse Project, a 7-acre venue holding three stages, 2022 marked the third year for the boutique festival, which launched in Austin in 2018 and has since become a destination for global house and techno acts. “We want to deliver the big festival experience with an intimate vibe,” Seismic co-founder Andrew Parsons, who produces the event alongside his wife Kelly Gray, told Billboard in 2019. “We aren’t trying to sell 20,000 tickets, because that’s not the goal. We always want to keep it boutique.” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Parsons and Gray are the creative minds behind RealMusic Events, the Austin-...
Everything You Need to Know About the Music at LA3C Festival
Penske Media Corporation’s new music, art and food festival LA3C is just weeks away, aiming to celebrate the rich culture and diverse communities in the metropolis over a star-studded two-day event. “This will be the first festival of its kind to fortify a city that combines talent, diversity and culture like no other while engaging with organizations solving some of the city’s pressing challenges,” said LA3C Chief Executive Juan Mora of the upcoming festival in an official statement. “[PMC CEO] Jay [Penske]’s vision and the commitment to positively impact the city of Los Angeles is inspiring. I plan to leverage the expertise of Penske Media’s iconic brands to create an experience for all visitors, and we invite creatives, musicians, and artists to join in our mission.” Besides p...
Imagine Dragons & The Strokes to Headline Inaugural Edition of Lollapalooza India
MUMBAI – Rock bands Imagine Dragons and The Strokes will headline the first Indian edition of Lollapalooza in January 2023, it was announced Wednesday (Nov. 2). The festival, which will take place at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse on Jan. 28-29, is promoted and co-produced by Indian ticketing platform and entertainment company BookMyShow, along with global producers Perry Farrell and C3 Presents, which is owned by Live Nation. The Mumbai leg will mark the Asia debut of Lollapalooza, which expanded to Santiago, São Paulo and Buenos Aires in South America, and Berlin, Paris and Stockholm in Europe over the past decade. Other international names in the lineup for Lollapalooza India — several of whom will be staging their first concert appearances in the country — include rock bands Greta Van F...
Disgraced Fyre Festival Founder Billy McFarland Is Back With a New Post-Prison Venture
Billy McFarland, convicted felon and founder of the infamous 2017 Fyre Festival, is back with a new venture. In a video released Monday (Oct. 24) to TikTok and YouTube Shorts, the disgraced entrepreneur — who was released from prison in March after serving four years behind bars — notes he’s “working on something new” that’s “a little crazier but a whole lot bigger than anything I’ve ever tried before.” He then flips a whiteboard to reveal a treasure map taped to the other side and says he’ll reveal the full scope of his plans in November. “This time, everybody’s invited,” he adds, before ripping the treasure map from the whiteboard to reveal a phone number. Calling the number from a cell phone causes a text message reading “Welcome to the Treasure Hunt” to be automatically delivered to th...
Hayley Williams Pens Emotional Letter Ahead of When We Were Young Fest Headlining Set
Las Vegas’ When We Were Young Festival has Hayley Williams reflecting on the music scene that she grew up in with Paramore. Paramore is set to take the stage at Las Vegas Festival Grounds on Sunday night (Oct. 23) after Saturday, the opening day of the festival, saw the fest’s lineup canceled due to high winds. On the bill alongside Paramore this weekend are My Chemical Romance, Bring Me the Horizon, Bright Eyes, Avril Lavigne, Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World and more. “To grow up in this scene was not a simple thing,” Williams wrote in a lengthy letter posted on Instagram Stories Sunday. “To be celebrating it (and to be celebrated by it) is not a simple thing. Nothing about this life — for you, me, or anyone — is simple. We fell in love with this subset of post-punk and hardcore likel...
