Festivus: 2010 Festival Quick-Fire

posted in: Features

Line ups have been officially announced for most of this summer’s major festivals and tickets are almost sold out. As fans start to plan their summer, we thought we’d take this time to see what our favorite festivals’ big names have in store for us.

Glastonbury – U2. A bit of a wild card for the generally hippie-esque festival. Its hard to anticipate how an unfamiliar crowd will react to Bono’s ego and high scale production.  If Bruce Springsteen at Bonnaroo last year is any indication, good times will be had but numbers could be small.

Other acts include: Muse, Jackson Browne, Local Natives and Rodrigo y Gabriela

V Festival – Kings of Leon. Year’s of hard work and dedication to their craft made Kings of Leon fan favorites in the UK.  But they changed their tune after an explosive performance at Glastonbury in 2008 and subsequent shot to the top, and a sense of entitlement wafted. The Kings may be over-saturating the British market this summer, and fans could lose interest.

Other acts include: Florence and the Machine, The Kooks, Passion Pit and Kate Nash

AC/DC

Reading and Leeds – With a slew of big names, top billers include Guns ‘N’ Roses, Arcade Fire, Blink 182, and of course newly-reunited The Libertines. But another big name coming ’round again is AC/DC, and they’ll be offering up a US trip to see the band perform live in a dress rehearsal to 2 lucky winners. As always, there’s a catch. Two giant billboards at the Reading site will provide a backdrop for fans that are dressed up as AC/DC Aussie axeman Angus Young to take pictures in front of and then upload to acdcrocks.com/uk. The best Angus wins the goods.

Other acts include: Queens of the Stone Age, Cypress Hill and Two Door Cinema Club

Pitchfork – Pavement.  Once hailed as one of the most popular and influential lo-fi rock bands of the 1990’s, this summer marks the band touring for the first time in almost 10 years. Will fans embrace the band that spawned indie/alternative rock or forsake them for the more current indie tunes of bands like Modest Mouse, Beach House and Major Lazer?

Other acts include: Robyn, Delorean, The Smith Westerns and St. Vincent

MGMT

Sasquatch – MGMT. Another wildcard. MGMT originally released their first album Climbing to New Lows under the moniker The Management before being reborn as MGMT and releasing Oracular Spectacular.  After the widespread rejection of their 3rd album Congratulations, fans haven’t been very receptive to live performances of the album, waiting to amp up until they play songs such as “Electric Feel” and “Kids.”  Will the crowd thaw out in time to appreciate the efforts of Congratulations or forever be stuck in a “Time To Pretend”?

Other acts include: My Morning Jacket, Dam-Funk, Garfunkle & Oats, and Deadmau5

Bonnaroo – The Flaming Lips performing Dark Side of the Moon. After pulling Bruce Springsteen out of left field to headline last year, it seems the festival powers that be decided it best to return to their roots, bringing in the famously fearless festival performers The Flaming Lips. Always one to put on a wildly spectacular and freaky show, The Lips were a good choice for this eccentric crowd.

Other acts include: Damien Marley, The Black Keys, Miike Snow and Kid Cudi

Lady Gaga

Lollapalooza– Lady Gaga. So far this is the only US festival the fame monster that is Gaga is performing at. Back in 2007, Gaga blew audiences away with an acclaimed Saturday performance at the Chicago festival, but something tells us she’ll be hitting a much larger stage this year.

Other acts include: The National, Erykah Badu, Spoon and Wolfmother

Stay tuned for OurStage’s coverage of The Bamboozle happening this weekend (May 1st and 2nd) at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ. We’ll be live tweeting from the festival as well as featuring all kinds of goodies here on the OurStage blog!

Acts include: MGMT, Weezer, Kesha, Drake, Angels & Airwaves, Matt & Kim, Four Years Strong, NeverShoutNever, The Dear Hunter, OK GO, Motion City Soundtrack and more!

ATTN OURSTAGE ARTISTS! Are you going to be at any of these festivals? Performing at any other ones? Tell us! Drop us a line at community@ourstage.com, Facebook or Twitter us, or leave word in the comments below!