As festival season rapidly approaches and festival lineups are announced, I always get my hopes up, thinking a large festival will floor me with an impressive resume of artists that I couldn’t possibly miss.
In recent years, however, festival lineups have become increasingly more disappointing.
As festivals increase in popularity, it seems as though organizers are attempting to appeal to a greater number of listeners with an array of artists. Although it may seem logical upon first glance to schedule a wide variety, as a college student, I don’t want to pay to go to several festivals to see a few bands I like. I would rather visit a festival with a lot of bands I enjoy, and miss out on the others.
When a festival only has one artist that I would like to see, I don’t want to spend $300 for just that artist. I would prefer to miss out on that festival and see just the band on tour.
Instead, with the exception of larger festivals such as Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo or Coachella that attract visitors just for the festival itself, lineups should have more focus. For example, Bonnaroo’s 2018 lineup, which includes Eminem, Sheryl Crow and Muse, lacks musical focus. A person who is going to the festival who wants to see Eminem, for the most part, probably will not be interested in seeing Sheryl Crow. If there is only one artist the festival goer enjoys on the lineup, why go to the festival at all?
I understand the logic behind going to a festival just for the experience. Lineups, however, are the backbone behind a festival.
The font size in festival lineups also dictates the most important acts in a festival. The bigger the font, the more popular the artist. However, headliners should not carry a festival. Smaller font acts should be important to how the festival. Three headliners with a lot of influence followed by smaller font bands that carry no influence, no matter what genre, is always going to be a weaker lineup than a festival with a solid “small font band” base.
There are genres that hold a lot more influence that will be headliners, but having a solid following of popular bands from several genres will make the festival much more appealing to a larger group.
Shelby Campbell is a freshman studying journalism and political science at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Are you disappointed by recent music festival lineups? Let Shelby know by tweeting her @bloodbuzzohioan.
