5 Most Awesome Summer Music Festivals
Festival season is upon us, and if the smells of sizzling grills in your own backyard aren’t doing your summer justice, maybe it’s time to expand your land and share it with a crowd of music-obsessed, and sweaty, dancing people. There’s no other way, I say. You know that summers are made for the life of leisure. So we’ve compiled a list of glorious, music-drenched festivities happening very soon that will be sure to singe the soles off of your tap-tapping feet.
Every year, there’s an amazing festival-buffet to choose from–it’s only a matter of knowing what kind of rug-cutting and neck-straining you’d like to accomplish. And so, without further ado, we present to you the 5 most awesome music festivals this summer and beyond!:
1. Bumbershoot
Taken from the slang word for an umbrella, Bumbershoot is the largest urban arts event in North America. The annual music & arts fest will have you in a reverie of sound–from folk, rock and alternative acts from around the globe, from local favorites to legends–your ears will undoubtedly thank you a hundred times over. If you’re into other flavors of ear-candy, the event also offers a feast of comedy, spoken word, dance, literary arts and theater performances to satiate those cravings. The Bumbershoot festivities take place over Labor Day weekend at the 74-acre Seattle Center, Seattle, Washington.
2. Long Beach Blues Festival
The Long Beach Blues Festival gathers a savory cluster of notes that will make your soul melt. Also taking place over Labor Day weekend, this event presents the best of blues-rock, electric-blues, and jazz at the beautiful, tree-dense Rainbow Lagoon Park in Long Beach, California. The park sits close to the Pacific Ocean, so you can sway and groove to the funky and soulful melodies, all while cool breezes from the coast caresses and washes over you.
3. Pitchfork Music Festival
If independent music rings true to your blood, Pitchfork’s Music Festival will make your veins weep. Prepare yourself to experience July’s most massive indie-intensive party, and know that you were a part of it all. Later you can tell your grandchildren you traveled to Chicago in the same flannel shirt and flip-flops for days, and ate only organic produce from diving dumpsters, just to sweat it out with the hippest, and probably most obsessive, music freaks in existence.
4. Siren Music Festival
Ah, Coney Island. Nostalgia for old-time arcade and carnival food will tempt you, but the sounds from Siren Music Festival will put you under its spell and take you back to glorious reality. The all day, all ages event is free–sure to put a big smile on your pocket. Venture to the Coney Island amusement park in mid-July and revel in the new and old of independent music. You’ll have an awesome time bobbing your head to-and-fro, reminiscing on summer loves, and doing so inside a legendary and enchanting landmark. Did I mention that it’s free?
5. Lollapalooza
What’s left to say about Lollapalooza? Every August in Chicago, rock rules the stage. And the die-hards, the true, pure rockers of our age, reunite to make that stage a glittering altar. Only the most talented artists headline here, ensuring that every festival makes music history. And if rocking out to Arcade Fire and Lady Gaga in the same field doesn’t blow your mind, we don’t know what will. So frolic down to Grant Park, Chicago this summer–it’s a beautiful disaster waiting to happen.
