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

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.