Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Happy New Year! Our Last Festival Predictions of 2015...

[Updated 1/4]

One more update as we head into 2016. We are quite confident in many of the predictions below, moreso for most of the earlier festivals than many of the later ones. We have added several festivals, and shaken up our predictions for the big NYC festivals, dropping the planned Panorama Festival in NYC, which is on the rocks and possibly canceled, and restoring to our list the Governors Ball, though our headliner predictions for that one are particularly shaky.

Watch this space over the next week for a much fuller Coachella lineup prediction, as well as a preview of some big non-festival gigs we anticipate in 2016...

Ultra
Chemical Brothers

Coachella
Guns 'n Roses
LCD Soundsystem
Calvin Harris
Lana del Rey
A Tribe Called Quest (with the Roots)
Deerhunter
Gary Clark, Jr.
Grimes
Halsey
Jean-Michel Jarre
The Kills
The Libertines
M83
Major Lazer
Missy Elliott
Of Monsters and Men
Savages
St. Germain
SZA
Twenty One Pilots

New Orleans Jazz Fest
Allen Toussaint tribute featuring Boz Scaggs
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals
Bob Seger
Bonnie Raitt
Lauryn Hill
My Morning Jacket
Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Paul Simon
Van Morrison

Sasquatch
The Cure
J. Cole
Mumford and Sons
Ween and/or Wilco

Governors Ball
Pearl Jam [and/or The Dead Weather]
A Tribe Called Quest (with the Roots) (unless Panorama is revived)
Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy
The National and/or MGMT
PJ Harvey
A$AP Rocky
Big Grams
Chvrches
D'Angelo and the Vanguard
Death Cab for Cutie
Disclosure
Father John Misty
M83
Matt and Kim
Miike Snow
Of Monsters & Men
Purity Ring
Tame Impala

Bonnaroo
Pearl Jam
Dead & Company 
LCD Soundsystem
J. Cole
Death Cab for Cutie
Ween
Big Grams
Leon Bridges
Of Monsters & Men
Portugal. the Man
Tame Impala

Primavera Sound
LCD Soundsystem
Sigur Ros

Glastonbury Festival
Adele
Coldplay (with special guest Rihanna?)
Jeff Lynne's ELO
Muse

Lollapalooza
Guns 'n Roses and/or Pearl Jam
LCD Soundsystem (may play Pitchfork instead) or possibly Daft Punk
Radiohead
Deadmau5
Ellie Goulding
Kendrick Lamar

HARD Summer [and/or FYF Festival]
LCD Soundsystem

Outside Lands
Dead & Company
LCD Soundsystem
Radiohead
Duran Duran

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Coming into focus...

Updated 12/11

The 2016 festival picture is getting clearer. Below is an update of our bigger-name artist predictions for most of the major and some of the less major American music festivals, as well as a note about a European festival or two

Newly-included are several big festivals, including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Outside Lands, and Miami's Ultra Music Festival. We have also dropped a number of headliner predictions from our previous post; you can count most of those names out now. We'll have new predictions soon about a festival or two we've dropped momentarily, including Governors Ball.

Scroll to the bottom for an extra word about next year's reunions, big and smaller.

Ultra
Chemical Brothers

Coachella
Guns 'n Roses
LCD Soundsystem
Twenty One Pilots
Calvin Harris
Lana del Rey
The Arcs
A$AP Rocky
Chic
Death Cab for Cutie
Deerhunter
Gary Clark, Jr.
Grimes
Halsey
Jean-Michel Jarre
The Kills
The Libertines
M83
Major Lazer
Of Monsters and Men
St. Germain

New Orleans Jazz Fest
Bob Seger
Bonnie Raitt
Paul Simon
Van Morrison
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Sasquatch
The Cure
Mumford and Sons
Wilco

Bonnaroo
Dead & Company 
LCD Soundsystem
Zac Brown Band
J. Cole
Ellie Goulding
Death Cab for Cutie
Ween
Big Grams
Blood Orange
Of Monsters & Men
Portugal. the Man
Tame Impala
Jason Isbell
Leon Bridges

Panorama (if it happens)
LCD Soundsystem
Mumford and Sons

Glastonbury Festival
Adele
Coldplay (with special guest Rihanna?)
Jeff Lynne's ELO
Muse

Lollapalooza
Muse
The Prodigy

Outside Lands
Dead & Company 

About those reunions, and additional possibilities.... 

LCD Soundsystem will make its triumphant return at Coachella, but that will be just the beginning of the road for the band. In addition to Bonnaroo and Panorama festival (or perhaps Global Citizen if the Queens festival's permit is denied), the band will travel overseas for an appearance at one or more European festivals including, we believe, British Summer Time in Hyde Park, London and perhaps Barcelona's Primavera Sound. They will also make an appearance or two later in Summer at some smaller American festivals including HARD Summer and perhaps Chicago's Pitchfork festival.

The story is similar with Guns 'N Roses. Assuming its volatile personalities hold together, the semi-reunited band will play some very big gigs on at least three continents over the next year or two, including festival appearances in South America and Europe, where the band has been tipped to headline the Download and Isle of Wight Festivals in not 2016, but 2017. Whether and how many shows beyond Coachella occur in the US in 2016 remains to be seen, but we would not be surprised by a Lollapalooza headlining slot. The new lineup reportedly will feature a mix of old and new members including Slash and Duff McKagan, but perhaps neither Izzy Stradlin nor either of the drummers from earlier lineups.

As for other potential 2016 reunions, we'll mention that we do expect Fleet Foxes to reform in some fashion within the next year or two, perhaps as soon as next Summer. We also would not be surprised if Jack White and Alison Mosshart's The Dead Weather also makes one or two live appearances next Summer, at Lollapalooza and/or Bonnaroo.

Stay tuned for more soon, including a much longer-form Coachella lineup prediction later in the month.