Summer Music Festival Guide

May 5, 2008 2:47 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

[Article written by Annsley Chapman]

After the awesomeness of SXSW, WMC and Coachella, we’re going to get the shakes without more music stages to swarm. Luckily the season of mosh pits and overpriced merchandise has only begun, and CoolJunkie has rounded up the loudest, sweatiest, most talent-laden festivals for your aural pleasure, plus our unprofessional analyses of how many miles each festival warrants traveling.

When: June 12-15
Where: Nashville, TN
Who: Kanye, Death Cab, Chris Rock, Cat Power, MIA, Broken Social Scene, Widespread Panic, Iron & Wine
Worth: Bonnaroo is as much about the experience of piling into pick-up trucks and hosing down topless girls as it is about the music. If that’s your schtick, it doesn’t matter which artists are showing up as long as the line-up is passably appealing.
Click here to find out more about Bonnaroo.

When: May 24-26
Where: Detroit
Who: Diesel Boy, Derrick May, Moby, Josh Wink, Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig
Worth: The definitive hub for all techno-heads and ravers of the world, and worth a long haul from all over the country. This is what frequent flyer miles are for.
Click here to find out more about DEMF.
For tickets click here.

When: April 25-27, May 1-4
Where: The Big Easy
Who: Buckwheat Zydeco, Sheryl Crow, Al Green, Billy Joel, Keyshia Cole, Tim McGraw, Elvis Costello [first weekend]; Marcia Ball, Stevie Wonder, Randy Newman, O.A.R., Widespread Panic, Diana Krall, The Roots, Chick Corea [second weekend]
Worth: Aside from stoner-favorites O.A.R. and Widespread Panic, this venerable list appeals to our more mature (re: dated) tastes. Green and Costello are the first weekend’s bright spots, while Wonder carries the second weekend all by his lonesome. A respectable road trip for jazz fans in the Gulf states, but otherwise this festival seems engineered for hip parents.
Click here to find out more about New Orleans Jazz Festival.

When: May 24-26
Where: George, Washington
Who: REM, Modest Mouse, MIA, Death Cab, The New Pornographers, Beirut, The Cure, Okkervil River, Built to Spill, Mars Volta, The National, Flight of the Concords, Tim Meadows, Horatio Sanz, Matt Besser, Upright Citizens Brigade
Worth: 500 miles by Hybrid. If everyone took the time to witness Michael Stipe jerk around on stage, there’d be no wars. Sasquatch’s blend of old favorites and new talents justifies some serious hauling to a teensy town in the Pacific Northwest. Bonuses: the Gorge amphitheater is a magnificent beast of a venue, and the entire festival has been certified as carbon neutral for the environment.
Click here to find out more about Sasquatch Music Festival.

When: June 5-8
Where: Lawrence, Kansas
Who: Flaming Lips, Blackalicious, STS9, CAKE, Galactic, Ozomatli
Worth: Chicago has been the catch-all Midwestern venue for years, but its far-north location makes traveling from the Great Plains a great pain. While the majority of this line-up appears elsewhere, Midwesterners finally have a conveniently located festival that shouldn’t take more than a half-day trip.
Click here to find out more about Wakarusa.

When: June 20-22
Where: Philly
Who: Vampire Weekend, Mates of State
Worth: Local excursion for East Coasters, but no more. We are going to be so sick of Vampire Weekend by the time June rolls around.
Click here to find out more about Popped!

When: July 4-6
Where: New Orleans, LA
Who: Kanye, Rihanna, LL Cool J, Jill Scott, Chris Rock, Mary J. Blige
Worth: A hip-hop and R&B festival in post-Katrina New Orleans is a message of strength and solidarity worth honoring with your attendance, but it doesn’t hurt that these are the giants and future giants of American culture.
Click here to find out more about Essence Music Festival

When: July 18-20, 2008
Where: Chicago, IL
Who: Public Enemy, Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, The Dodos, Les Savy Fav, Spoon, M. Ward, The Apples in Stereo
Worth: There’s no Woodstock for this generation, per se, but this might be as close as we get. Say what you will about the snarky online music journal who hosts this Valhalla of music festivals: they at least know how to sign up all the nearly-famous bands whose tickets will cost thrice as much and be held in tiny churches (we’re looking at you, Arcade Fire) in another four years.
Click here to find out more about Pitchfork Music Festival

When and Where: Starting July 19th in Chicago, moves through Toronto, Boston, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and ends on August 23rd in Denver.
Who: A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Pharcyde, Mos Def, De La Soul, Spank Rock, Rakim, Method Man
Worth: Lucky bicoastal residents won’t have to travel more than 150 miles anyways, but that line-up justifies a bona fide road trip for serious hip-hop fans all over the country.
Click here to find out more about Rock the Bells

When: August 1-3
Where: Chicago, IL
Who: Radiohead, RATM, NIN, Kanye, Wilco, Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs
Worth: Maybe if you’re a serious Radiohead or Kanye fan, but this line-up is bloated with has-beens (what has Trent Reznor been up to recently? Exactly.) and the smaller names are popping up at other festivals. Save your gas money and air miles for the buzz-worthy secondary bands at the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Click here to find out more about Lollapalooza

When: August 8-10
Where: Jersey City, NJ
Who: Radiohead, CSS, Girl Talk, TNP, Grizzly Bear, The Go! Team
Worth: A half-day bus trip at best. CSS, New Pornographers and Radiohead are appearing in festivals all over the country, so it’s not worth the hassle unless you’re nearby.
Click here to find out more about All Points West

When: August 9-10
Where: Baltimore, MD
Who: Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Nine Inch Nails, Kanye, Chromeo, Wilco, Lil Wayne
Worth: The landmark reunion of STP alone makes this trip worth a plane ticket splurge. This musical pantheon of top-grossing classic artists that will draw everyone from hipsters to hip-hop heads.
Click here to find out more about Virgin Music Festival

When: September 26-28
Where: Austin, TX
Who: Foo Fighters, David Byrne, The Mars Volta, Erykah Badu, NERD, G. Love and the Special Sauce, Neko Case, Yeasayer
Worth: The poor man’s SXSW, but by the time South By’s little sibling rolls around six months after the March Madness, every music-hungry Texan youth will be rarin’ to mob the stage. Worth trucking it if you’re within a day’s drive.
Click here to find out more about Austin City Limits