It is hard to believe that August is half over and soon we will be saying good-bye to another summer. If there was only a way to make the summers stretch out like they seemed to when we were kids.

In the past month, there have been dozens and dozens of major music festivals across the United States and the world.

The much-anticipated rock fests for August are Chicago's famed Lollapalooza, The Virgin Festival in Baltimore, the New York City metro area's (actually Jersey City, NJ, just across the river) new, major rock festival - the All Points Festival, aka "Coachella East", not to mention the much anticipated Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's beautiful Golden Gate Park Polo Fields, just a few hundred feet from the ocean amongst the carpet green grounds and Monterey pine trees.

After years of trying, promoters were granted license to hold a major outdoor festival this year featuring dozens of top indie bands and artists, with Radiohead playing two nights of the three day festival.

Nearly two weekends ago, the Download Festival 'San Francisco' (actual location was Mt. View, CA, about 30 miles south of the city) was held at the Shoreline with disastorous results, giving a totally different meaning to "down" and "load". The attendance was shockingly down from the previous year, almost off 60 percent and it showed by the thin crowds. There was not much "load" to the fest as far as line-up, especially when you consider that there are so many major festivals this year (including the debut of the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in September).

hove festival - norway - june 23-26 - beck, the raconteurs, brain jonestown massacre, panic at the disco, the raconteurs, the kooks, yeasayer, foals, flogging molly, les savy fav, the cool kids, stars, dinosaur jr. and more.

Labels: Festivals, Indie Rock Festivals

For months now, festival and music lovers, bloggers, musicians and the mainstream media have speculated, floated rumors, predicted and even made false 'confirmations' about 2008's Lollapalooza's lineup. Rumored artists include Black Lips, Bloc Party and MGMT.

Bottom line: There has not been one artist or group confirmed for the Chicago-based festival in 2008 by Lollapalooza organizers.

Apparently, part of the reason for the delay is to keep 'the buzz' going to help sell tickets (when they go on sale) and to try to drown out all the chatter surrounding many other music festivals this year, two of which are new festivals for 2008: Rothbury (more on that later) and Coachella East (aka APW).

Radiohead will headline two of the three nights of Coachella East, so that should be amazing. The fest is being held Aug. 8-10, 2008 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.

It is very possible that Lolla organizers' delay in announcing a lineup could ultimately kill ticket sales, so if the delay is to keep fest goers in suspense to sell more tickets, that strategy may just end up doing the opposite.

Closer Look at Lolla

In 2004, the Lollapalooza music festival tour was canceled due to low ticket sales. Since then, the fest has stopped touring and landed in Chicago for an annual festival.

While Lollapalooza 2007 was considered a come-back of sorts, organizers of the event must be nervous about ticket sales for 2008. What they seem to fail to realize is that the sooner they announce the lineup and ticket sales, music lovers around the country - and world - can start making their plans to go.

On the other hand, and this is not hypothesizing, waiting much longer than the end of February to announce the lineup - or even a headliner tease - means that many people will either make plans to go to another music festival (some already have), or just forget it altogether (others have already done this).

Nevertheless, the rumors and speculation continue (when the lineup is announced, it will be published here first).

You can also check out more about the Lolla fest 08 and sign up to get the latest news, plus artist profiles, tour schedules, MP3s, articles and more from artists and groups playing at music festivals in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe and around the world.


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Labels: 2008 Festival Lineups, 2008 Music Festivals, Chicago, Festivals, Indie Rock Festivals, Lollapalooza, Lollapalooza 2008

There is so much music festival news coming out right now that it's like trying to watch three horses races at once.

To some people it may seem early in the year to be planning for summer rock festivals, but just the opposite is true. This is the time.

In the case of the south's popular Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, plenty of music fest fans have been holding their breath waiting for ticket and artist line-up news. Bonnaroo 2008 has been set to take place June 12-15.

Breaking now: Bonnaroo tickets are set to go on sale Feb. 19, 2008 at 10 a.m. EST and the first list of confirmed artists has just been issued.

Someone should write a song to this next block of text (the challenge is on) and put it on YouTube or wherever.

Anyways, artists from the official line-up that are linked are artists that have been featured on this blog and those in bold print are artists I like and plan to write about soon. Regretably, I must admit, like any music blogger, there are probably excellent artists in the line-up that I have yet to discover.

Artists listed in bold are artists and groups that will be featured in the weeks to come.

Official Bonnaroo Fest line-up (no times yet)

Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Phil Lesh & Friends, My Morning Jacket, The Allman Brothers Band, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson, Death Cab for Cutie, B.B. King, Sigur Rós , Levon Helm and the Ramble on the Road, Ben Folds, O.A.R., The Bluegrass Allstars Feat. Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton, M.I.A., Umphrey's McGee, Iron & Wine, Yonder Mountain String Band, Swell Season, Talib Kweli, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi’s Soul Stew Revival, Gogol Bordello, Broken Social Scene (pictured at right), Robert Randolph’s Revival, Rilo Kiley, Mastodon, Lupe Fiasco, Against Me!, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Pat Green, Ozomatli, Tegan & Sara

Solomon Burke, Drive-By Truckers, !!!, The Avett Brothers, Israel Vibration, Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck, Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Aimee Mann, Ladytron, The Fiery Furnaces, Orchestra Baobab, Ghostland Observatory, José González, Dark Star Orchestra, Minus the Bear, Donavon Frankenreiter, State Radio, Battles, Jakob Dylan, Two Gallants, The Sword, Vampire Weekend, Little Feat, Nicole Atkins, The Felice Brothers, Mason Jennings, MGMT, The Lee Boys, Black Kids, Serena Ryder, Steel Train, Grupo Fantasma, Back Door Slam.

The folks at Bonnaroo have yet to release the schedule, times and stages for where and when the artists will be playing, but stay tuned and the details will be posted as soon as they are available.

During the next few months, there will be more profiles published of artists appearing at various festivals around the world in 2008.

The following MP3s are from three indie outfits scheduled to place this year:

Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Iron & Wine - Boy With A Coin

Ladytron - AMTV

IRC MP3 Policy: All MP3s are for evaluation and to help promote the artists. MP3s featured on this site are the property of their owner. If any musicians or labels want a particular MP3 removed, please contact me and it will be done immediately.

Labels: 2008 Indie Festivals, Coachella Tickets, Festivals, Indie Rock Festivals