Summerfest – Milwaukee – June 29 – July 3 and July 5 – 10
Whether you’re in it for the bounty of “free” stages, stunning array of headliners or 11 days’ worth of corn on the cob, Summerfest is a Sconnie must-see this summer. Milwaukee has another music festival earlier in June 4-5, Verge, but aside from She & Him and a few others it really wouldn’t be worth the trouble. The real action starts June 29 and runs all the way through July 10, so there’s no excuse not to make an appearance for at least one day. Also, non-headliner tickets for the entire day are a mere 8-15 dollars, so staying overnight to see artists play on consecutive days becomes a more realistic possibility. Parking is also, predictably, less of a headache than in larger metropolises. Headliners of note for this year include Kanye West with Kid Cudi, The Black Keys with Florence + the Machine and Cage the Elephant and The Flaming Lips.
Pitchfork – Union Park – July 15 – 17
Three of the best words to describe Pitchfork music festival – in no particular order – are dirty, hip and fun. This year’s festival will run July 15-17, which should be an awesome follow-up to the “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” midnight showing we’ll all be attending the night previous. Set in Chicago’s Union Park, with a great proximity to downtown lodging and attractions, this year’s lineup promises – to name just a few – Animal Collective, Neko Case and Das Racist Friday night, Fleet Foxes, Zola Jesus and Wild Nothing on Saturday, and finishes off Sunday with TV on the Radio, Toro Y Moi and Baths. Pitchfork is a wise alternative to Lolla, which some have grown to deem an over-hyped festival and provides sun-soaked concert-goers with a more intimate feel for their overall musical experience. Make Pitchfork a stop on your sonic journey this summer, and don’t forget your grungiest of skinny jeans.
Lollapalooza – Grant Park – August 5 – 7
Let’s set the record straight right away; while your best friend Sarah’s 20th birthday party at the Nitty may have been the craziest night of the semester, it has nothing on the vigintennial celebration of Lollapalooza set to take place in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park August 5 to 7. The warm summer days, reaching as high as 104 at high noon in years past, will feature the smooth stylings of perennial festival favorites like folk rocker Lissie. If you’re looking to add some flavor and rhymes to the mix, look no further than duo act Damian Marley & Nas or Minneapolis-based hip-hop group Atmosphere.
While the afternoon shows get a nice little buzz going, things go over the top with headliner Eminem, still high off of winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album of the year, coming down from Detroit to celebrate his stunning comeback. Bringing it down to a much chiller level, Coldplay and Muse headline the other nights, with house music ?bercelebrity Deadmau5 providing a welcome diversion to move around and shake off some of the grime that inevitably accumulates.
If you find yourself in the midwest this summer and are new to the festival scene (no, Summerfest doesn’t count) check out Lolla’s sure-to-be-insane birthday party. You’ll be able to dance, rock, and rap along with your childhood idol without the worries of camping or driving for countless hours to some random farm field.
Hangout Festival – Gulf Shores, Alabama – May 20 – 22
The holy trifecta of summer – sun, sand and surf – just secured a fourth element to add to the trinity: music. Started last year, the Hangout Music Festival boasts of a jam-packed weekend of headliners like Cee Lo Green, The Black Keys and Paul Simon (to only name a few) all performing on stages perched atop the sandy dunes of the Gulf Shores of Alabama. With three-day festival passes starting at $174, a bargain compared to some of the other ticket packages being hawked by competing festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonaroo, this new fusion of beach euphoria and high-caliber performance acts offers a worthy drain to the bank account. Plus, moshing – or rather, hanging out – with your fellow festival attendees on the beach is a much better alternative to the sensation of someone else’s sweat trickle down your shoulder while rocking out in a field somewhere in Tennessee.
Bonnaroo – Manchester, Tennessee June 9 -12
The eternal question is asked every summer – how do you Roo? This massive 100-acre celebration of arts, comedy and most importantly music all contained on a 700-acre farm in Tennessee is a veritable potpourri of genre headliners for nearly every music preference. A modern-day Woodstock, Bonnaroo offers a village for faithful campers to descend upon the chaos of the sweltering atmosphere all set to the soundtrack of music’s most prized performers. Bonnaroo is not for the weary though, sunburns and the inaccessibility of proper showers can leave the enervated or Bonnaroo virgins hankering for the comfort of a real mattress. But with this year’s lineup including Mumford & Sons, The Strokes and Explosions in the Sky, four days of body odor perfume may just be worth that peeling sunburn and week-long hangover.
