Festivals

Day One of August 2009 Outside Lands Festival held in San Francisco in the Golden Gate Park Polo Fields kicked off the unparalleled music weekend with Pearl Jam headlining the bill. Pearl Jam is the only remaining Seattle grunge band from a scene so powerful in Washington State in the early 1990s that it swept across the entire nation and took over popular music.

ELECTRIC ZOO GOES GREEN with 80% of the power on site fueled by biodiesel, manufactured locally in Brooklyn from 100% soybean. The husk of the soybean is used to make the fuel and the rest goes back into the food chain. Biodiesel creates 78% less carbon emissions than petroleum. There will be recycling bins throughout the site for bottles & cans and the cups being used for serving wine & beer are biodegradable for the trash. We'll also be recycling cardboard, which will mostly be from backstage and vendor usage.
 
These newcomers to the 2009 edition of the POP Montreal International Music Festival will join some of the best headliners that Pop world has to offer. Some of them are our heroes, some are iconoclasts, some we have been planning for years, and all are simply excellent and praiseworthy.
 

MONOLITH FESTIVAL presented by Esurance returns to Red Rocks Amphitheatre on September 12th and 13th with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs headlining Saturday night, and The Mars Volta topping the bill on Sunday. The festival debuted in 2007 as the first multi-day, multi-stage festival ever held at Red Rocks - Colorado's beloved outdoor venue. Monolith was instantly adopted as an indie fan favorite and a staple of the summer festival season.

Now in its fifth year, the Pygmalion Music Festival, happening September 16 – 19, 2009 in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., has emerged as a surprising player in what seems like an endless sea of new music festivals across the nation. Combining the ease and cred of festivals such as SXSW or CMJ, with a humble, gentle Midwestern backdrop, Pygmalion Music Festival seeks to engage a devoted group of music fans each fall by presenting both established and emerging artists in venues no bigger than a small theater.

Quote of the day, heard while in the audience for the last few minutes of an enjoyable-but-forgettable set by Tea Leaf Green:

"They all died at 27 full of drugs and insane, so I made a conscious decision to make my role models change."

One landmark gig at this year's 10KLF was Everyone Orchestra – a staple of this festival, playing their fifth consecutive year.  EO is an ever-changing super-group of musicians collected by conductor Matt Butler to jam on extended guided improvisations.  Using a dry erase board, B

From July 31st to August 2nd, Liberty State Park saw some amazing music from a stellar lineup of acts, annoying bad weather and mud. Lots and lots of mud. Yes, while the 2009 All Points West Music & Arts Festival was much better received than it's inaugural year... it was still not without it's problems.

Day One

I started day two of 10K in utter relaxation, dozing late into the morning through a minute of light rain on the tent.  It was a music festival, after all, and the idyll didn't last long; the air was soon full of air horns and people yelling "Butt Sca-ratcherrrr!" (ah, the sounds of morning).  Overall, though, listening to the murmur of campers at Northwoods had a magical quality, a constant lone hand drummer in the distance, magical woodsy acoustics.  The morning was sunnier but still mostly overcast as I headed out to The Barn to catch Akron/Family<

For years, my friends have been telling me of a magical place: a music festival at a permanent facility with shaded campgrounds, flushing toilets, manageably small but big enough to rope in major talent, populated with friendly people.  This year, I finally made it out to this legendary event as a correspondent for GratefulWeb.com, and am happy to report that the rumors are true.  10,000 Lakes Music Festival r

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