On Saturday, May 17, the fourth annual Cruel World Festival took place in Pasadena, California. Just days earlier, the same venue hosted the Just Like Heaven Festival under record-breaking 100°F heat. For Cruel World, though, those sun-baked skies were replaced by a fittingly gloomy California “May Gray” morning.

This year's Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, California, offered a vibrant mix of new wave, goth, and post-punk acts with a lighter and more upbeat vibe than in previous years.

Today, Goldenvoice announced the return of the Cruel World Festival, taking place on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Brookside at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA. The event will feature a headline performance by Duran Duran, who recently released their sixteenth studio album, 'Danse Macabre'—a haunting collection of original songs, covers, and reimagined classics. The festival's lineup on Saturday also includes Interpol, Blondie, Simple Minds, Placebo, Soft Cell, Adam Ant, Ministry, Gary Numan, DREAMCAR, and many more!

The Cruel World Festival marked its second annual celebration on Saturday, May 20th, nestled within the scenic confines of the Brookside golf course, situated beside the iconic Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. This expansive festival showcased a dynamic array of both seasoned and burgeoning talents from the New Wave, Punk, and Goth genres, presented across three stages for an impressive 10-hour duration.

The Cruel World Festival brought nearly 100,000 fans of 80’s New Wave, Punk, early EDM, and experimental music to the Brookside Golf course at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on May 14th and 15th. Although the lineup was identical for both days of the festival, many hard-core fans attended both days to try and catch most of the 26 bands performing on three stages. Goldenvoice, the gatekeeper of the most successful music festival globally, Coachella, has created a template for niche festivals at the Rose Bowl site.