The Best Music Festivals for Every Genre
- Hailey Buchalter
- Sep 25, 2019
- 5 min read
EDM Music Festivals
If you are into EDM, you are probably into parties and raves. If that sounds like you, attend one of these festivals full of crazy light shows and sick beat drops.
EDC takes place every year in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This year it took place May 17-19 with EDC Week lasting from the 15-22. EDC Las Vegas 2020 will take place May 15-17.
EDC is more than just a music festival. It has carnival rides, art installations, eight huge stages and performers wandering the festival grounds are just as important to making the festival experience memorable as the DJs are. Last year Electric Daisy Carnival offered Camp EDC with luxury tents and RV space for sleeping and activity tents and performances for campers to attend throughout the week.
EDC 2019 had 100+ DJs performing for the weekend featuring big name artists like David Guetta, Deadmau5, Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, and Tiesto, but in their world the biggest headliners are the attendees.
Ultra has been around for over 20 years with its US location in Miami, Florida but has become and international music festival title with locations all over the world. Ultra Miami will be taking place March 20-22, 2020 during Miami Music Week and returning to Bayfront Park in downtown Miami after spending last year on Virginia Key.
Ultra 2019 had 8 stages, one of which was the recurring live stage that specially features acts that include live instruments or vocalists in addition to the DJ playing on a mixing board.
In 2019 Ultra’s main stage was popular DJs like Marshmello, Alesso and Nicky Romero while the other stages featured lesser known acts still playing late into the night.
Rock/Indie
Interested in a more laidback festival feel with equal parts food, beverages, and music? Check out one of these festivals that could be fun for a whole family, or at least people of all ages.
Bottle Rock Festival takes place during Memorial Day Weekend each year at the Napa Valley Expo in Napa, California.
While music is a large part of Bottle Rock, it is also a food, wine, beer and art festival as well. One special feature of the festival is its culinary stage where attendees can watch their favorite celebrity chefs speak and cook. Since Napa Valley is the heart of California wine country, the festival prides itself on its great wine offerings.
The Bottle Rock 2019 featured adult rock artists like Imagine Dragons, Mumford and Sons, Michael Franti and Santana as well as alternative artists like Lovely The Band, Neon Trees and Sir Sly. Bottle Rock also includes performances by small local bands and artists.
See.Hear.Now is a new festival in Asbury Park, NJ on September 21 and 22, 2019. It features both current and older rock bands reaching a mostly adult audience, which many festivals tend not to target.
Since Asbury Park is right on the Jersey Shore the festival has a big surf component too. Professional surfers offered demos and sessions to festival attendees throughout the two days.
Although the lineup wasn’t as large as other big-name music festivals, it still featured some very popular acts. See.Hear.Now’s headliners consisted of Dave Matthews Band and The Lumineers.
R&B/Hip-hop
Rolling loud festival takes place in different cities at different times bring top hip-hop artists and rappers across the country. Its next festival is September 28 and 29 in Oakland, California followed by Queens, New York on October 12 and 13.
Since there are very few festivals with mainly hip-hop acts, Rolling Loud's ability to bring its festival to many cities all over the US makes it a relatively new but well-known festival for fans of rap music.
While each location’s line-up is a little different, many of the same acts play at more than one festival. Some of the big-name artists playing at rolling loud are Future, G-Eazy, A$ap Rocky, and Lil Uzi Vert.
Each year Philadelphia, Pennsylvania celebrates Labor Day Weekend by bringing many hip-hop and R&B artists to Benjamin Franklin Parkway to perform for Made in America.
Made in America’s lineup is specially curated by Jay-Z and brings in a mix of top and on the rise artists. While the type of music performed by the headliners changes a bit year to year, it has typically been dominated my rappers and R&B singers.
The 2019 lineup consisted of Cardi B and Travis Scott as the headliners with support from acts like Juice Wrld and Lizzo.
Country
Just a week after Coachella in Indio, California the valley switches over from big name acts of all sorts to host the top Country singers in the US. Stagecoach took place April 26-28, 2019 and will be back April 24-26, 2020.
Stagecoach takes all of the fun of the southern country spirit and brings it to California in the form of music, food and activities. Along with country music, the festival features activities like yard games, carnival attractions, a karaoke bar, a line dancing and hoedown bar and crafts to make or buy.
In 2019 Stagecoach brought in top country acts like Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean as its headliners.
Mixed-Genre Music Festivals
If you’re into all different types of music and have favorite artists across all genres, or you and your friends have different people you want to see but still want to spend a fun weekend together this is the section for you.
For two weekends each year, the Coachella Valley in Indio, California hosts hundreds of the biggest artists from all genres at Coachella music festival. Coachella took place April 12-14 and 19-21 in 2019 and will be back April 10-12 and 17-19 in 2020.
Coachella is so well known because of its high attendance rate of celebrities. Every year Coachella gathers all of the top performers who bring all of their celebrity friends along with them. The festival has so many interactive activities which makes it an Instagram photo wonderland for all of the celebs to share their experiences with their fans.
2019’s headliners included rapper Childish Gambino, indie artist Tame Impala and pop artist Ariana Grande. The rest of the lineup features many rock bands and DJs as well.
Firefly festival is a music and camping festival that takes place at the Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. This year it took place June 21-23, 2019 with a special pre-party on Thursday the 20th.
Firefly’s festival grounds, called The Woodlands, are as much about being a camp as a festival. Along with the performance stages and music related activities, the festival boasts its camp-like nature with activities ranging from sports to yoga to speakers to art and projects.
While the attendees at Firefly seem to be much more outdoorsy and hippie-like than a typical festival, the lineup still has someone for every type of music fan. This year’s headliners were Panic! at the Disco, Travis Scott and Post Malone.
Hangout Fest took place May 17-19, 2019 and will be back in 2020 from May 15-17 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It features a variety of artists performing in genres like rap, alternative and EDM.
If you love a good beach vacation but are also a big fan of music festivals, Hangout Fest is the festival for you. It takes place directly on the beach mixing together a beach club atmosphere with DJs to a relaxing vacation vibe with more low-key live music. Hangout Fest is full of other fun activations as well like yoga, a spa tent and carnival rides and games.
In 2019 Hangout Fest’s rap headliners were Travis Scott and Cardi B, the alternative headliners were Vampire Weekend and The Lumineers, the R&B headliner was Khalid, and the EDM headliner was Kygo.
Hi Hailey!
I liked your post a lot! As a fan of music, I have attended many concerts, but I haven’t been to a lot of festivals. I am familiar with a few of them since I am from LA and a lot of the ones you mentioned take place on the west coast such as EDC, Stagecoach and Coachella, but I haven’t been to any of these. A lot of my friends go to these three festivals every year, so I know they are popular and pretty fun. I think I just don’t really know how to attend one. The only one I went to was the Ohana Fest in Dana Point in 2016, mainly to see Lana Del…
It's crazy how people usually only talk about big festivals like Coachella when there are all these to choose from throughout the year. I've only attended Panorama and the Governor's Ball in New York City. I know this year is Rolling Loud's first in New York City, and a few of my friends are going, so I'm jealous. It's always awesome to see the lineups they put out. After reading this blog, I think Rolling Loud is the most successful in getting the best group from its specific genre. Every year they seem to get every A-list rapper along with a diverse set of underground artists.
It's also cool to see all these festivals in less populated areas. I always…
I really enjoyed this post! I always see people on social media going to festivals, and I have friends who go to some of them annually, but I never knew which ones I would be interested in. I really like how you included the graphics of all the performers, because those are some of my favorite things to look at when festival lineups are announced, usually on Twitter. I had never heard of Made In America, See.Hear.Now, or BottleRock.
It's clear that you did a lot of research to create this post. So few websites really have all the information like this, especially laid out in such a cohesive way. I also enjoyed how you presented your content through Instagram…