Forecast(le)s, Fireflies, and Sasquatches (and Maccas, Gagas, and Daft Punks), Oh My

It's the depths of winter here in Festival Forecaster-land, and our thoughts turn once again to Summer, with at least two festival announcements coming soon, and a very big one on the horizon. 

We expect the lineup for Delaware's Firefly Festival, newly aligned with Coachella's producer, Goldenvoice, to be announced very soon, perhaps within the next 48 hours. Rather than our own list, we'll note this purportedly leaked one - http://www.stereogum.com/1731772/this-firefly-2015-lineup-leak-is-very-convincing/news/. We doubt that that is in fact the lineup, rather than someone else's educated guess, but do expect a good number of those acts including most of the headliners. 

Most intriguing here is the strong possibility that former Coachella (and Bonnaroo) headliner Paul McCartney will headline the festival. We note in that connection that Firefly takes place within days of Al Gore and Pharrell Williams' global and environmental Live Earth festival, set to take place in New York City, Paris, and more on June 18th. We expect Macca to help headline that festival in New York, along with big-name artists like Lady Gaga, the Dave Matthews Band, possibly Kanye West, perhaps Garth Brooks, and Pharrell himself. NYC, however, may not feature the festival's biggest get - could Pharrell's friends in distinctive headgear Daft Punk make a one-off live return in Paris? We think it could happen! 

Speaking of Kanye, we are still anticipating his new album, and would not be surprised if it drops within the next ten days, possibly tomorrow. And speaking of DMB, we would not be surprised if they or a like-minded group are the still-to-be-announced headliner along with Sam Smith and local heroes My Morning Jacket at mid-July's Forecastle Festival in Louisville, KY.

More certain than all of the above is when we'll get to see the elusive Sasquatch. The lineup for the Pacific Northwest festival, held at the stunning Gorge Amphitheatre, will be announced at an event in Seattle tonight. Here is our incomplete and somewhat hasty, but lengthy list of predictions, in alphabetical order: 

Action Bronson

Angus & Julia Stone

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Benjamin Booker

Best Coast

Blank Range

Bleachers

Chromeo

Clark

Cloud Nothings

Courtney Barnett

Courtney Love

Death Cab for Cutie

Decemberists

DFA79

Earth 

Echosmith

Excision

Father John Misty

Flume

Flying Lotus

Future Islands

Florence and the Machine

Glass Animals

Grizfolk

Hiss Golden Messenger

Hot Chip

Jenny Lewis

Jose Gonzalez

Jungle

Kaytranada

Kiesza

Lana del Ray

Marina and the Diamonds

Milky Chance

Matt and Kim

Matthew Dear

MØ

Modest Mouse

Mumford and Sons

The New Pornographers

Neutral Milk Hotel

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Odesza

Paramore

Phox

Pokey LaFarge

Royal Blood

Run the Jewels

Russian Circles

Ryan Adams

SBTRKT

Sleater-Kinney

Spoon

Sturgill Simpson

St. Vincent

Sylvan Esso

TacocaT

Tama Impala?

Toro y Moi

Ty Segall

The War on Drugs

Zella Day

And a few more possibilities: Acid Mothers Temple, Bassnectar, Bjork, The Black Keys or Deadmau5, Childish Gambino, Dawes, Fat White Family, Gorgon City, Hozier, Joker, Jukebox the Ghost, Justin Townes Earle, Lucero, Mayer Hawthorne, The Mountain Goats, My Morning Jacket, No Doubt, Of Monsters and Men, Old Crow Medicine Show, Ratatat, Robert Plant, Passion Pit, Rae Sremmurd, Spiritualized, San Fermin, Strand of Oaks, Streets of Laredo, Tove Lo, Vance Joy, Walk the Moon 

Watch this space for more soon, including follow-ups on the Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones reunions!