How the Festival Circuit Helps Artists Rise to Fame

Maggie Rogers performing an early set at The Governors Ball in New York City, 2018

Most people attend music festivals to hear a few of their favorite popular artists all play at the same venue in the same day or weekend. They get excited to hear who the festival headliners will be and which big name artists will be in attendance. However, these artists usually play the final sets of the night on the main stage and that’s it. If festivals have music playing on multiple stages all day from early in the afternoon to very late at night, who fuels the festivals?

This is where emerging artists come in. Early festival sets are usually comprised of lesser known artists with a smaller fanbase. While they typically match the festival genre, at mixed-genre festivals, these acts tend to be indie performers or alternative rock bands. One of the great things about performing at a music festival is that you get the chance to expose your music to people who wouldn’t typically listen to it or even find it on the internet. While people wait for their favorite artists to perform, they pass by tons of other artists and have the chance to stop and hear some new music between sets.

As someone who is into discovering new music, I love getting to festivals early to hear some artists I have never heard of or only know one or two songs by. When I went to The Governors Ball in New York City in 2018 I wanted to get there early to hear a certain artist perform because I really liked one of her songs. After that set, we had a couple of hours until the next artist we wanted to see took the stage. We decided to stay at the main stage to see if the next performer would be any good. This singer was Maggie Rogers. I recognized one of the first few songs she sang and realized it was a song I really liked. I made my friend stay with me and we watched her whole set.

Maggie Rogers performing at Coachella 2019

Since being on the 2018-19 festival circuit, Maggie Rogers’ fame has grown exponentially. (Rogers performing at Coachella 2019, left). After touring as an opening act for Mumford and Sons, Rogers spent a big part of 2019 on her North American and European Headlining tours for her first full length album titled Heard it in a Past Life. Rogers currently has over 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify and her most streamed song “Alaska” has nearly 1 billion streams. These number will likely rise as she continues to tour, create music, and gain popularity all around.

One of Rogers' greatest accomplishments (and definitely a great way to gain popularity) was a shout out from Barack and Michelle Obama on their 2019 summer playlist posted on Instagram. The Obamas listed Rogers’ song “Burning” as number 4 on their list and sent her a personal letter complimenting her music. Such an amazing compliment!

Of course, artists of other genres made their careers on the festival circuit as well. Some other examples would be hip-hop artist Lizzo whose fame skyrocketed after playing Coachella right after the release of her most recent album, indie-pop singer Billie Eilish who started touring when she was just 15, and electro-pop artist Grimes who was discovered at South by Southwest even before the release of her first full album. Maybe some of your favorite artists started their careers through early festival sets, too. Look into it and leave a comment with your favorites!