Welcome to Consequence Chat, a feature where Consequence staff members discuss the biggest stories in pop culture. Today, we look at the changing festival landscape and why so many fans have expressed disappointment with headliners. The transcript below has been edited for clarity and length.
Wren Graves (Features Editor): Festival announcement season is in full swing, but something feels like it's missing. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Post Malone and Fred Again… headline Bonnaroo. Boston Calling signed Ed Sheeran, Tyler Childers and The Killers. And after a long delay, Coachella will be led by Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, Tyler, the Creator and a reunited No Doubt.
These are undoubtedly great artists. Aside from No Doubt, they're also familiar to me: I've seen five of them at Lollapalooza in the last three years alone. And if you lurk in the comments sections and message boards, you'll find a lot of discomfort related to music festivals. People just don't seem enthusiastic.
Is it just that we're in the early stages of announcement season? Or does 2024 really feel different?
Paolo Ragusa (associate editor): I definitely think we've seen a homogenization of music festivals. I started noticing it in 2021 when pandemic restrictions began to lift: Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Remi Wolf, and Phoebe Bridgers seemed to be all over the billboards that year. But as our editor Alex Young has pointed out, Live Nation and AEG were building their festival empires years before the pandemic. The homogenization is intentional, as they booked artists for packages that included three or more festival appearances.
Jonah Krueger (Editorial Coordinator): It seems the post-pandemic festival trend has been to rely on “classic” artists, as seen most prominently with last year's Glastonbury headliners (Guns N' Roses, Elton John and Arctic Monkeys) and the discourse it sparked. I have a feeling people will be really excited about No Doubt. It's been almost a decade since their last show, and the novelty of that (plus “Just a Girl” live) should be able to sustain genuine enthusiasm. Additionally, it is encouraging to see that a major market festival has 75% of its headliners being women or headlined by women.
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