Four States, Four Festivals
Words: Noel Rosania
December 22 2024
On Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, music fans from all over the world checked their Twitters, for the long-awaited announcement of the 2024 Lollapalooza lineup. Everyone was gasping in surprise or joy when their favorite creators were revealed to be making an appearance at the famous Chicago festival. I was one of these fans. I had attended the music festival the past four years. As soon as the lineup was announced, I knew I was going to buy four-day tickets, even before they announced the day-by-day lineup six days later.
However, not everyone knows what to expect when they see a music festival announcement. Maybe their favorite creator is headlining, but is it worth it to see a bunch of artists they’ve never heard of before? Furthermore, what will the festival experience be like? Is it worth the travel and ticket prices?
In 2024, I attended four music festivals across four states to answer these questions. The first oneI attended was J. Cole’s Dreamville Festival from April 6-7th at Dorthea Dix Park in Raleigh, North Carolina. The second was Summerfest, a festival that markets itself as “the world’s largest music festival”, held in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Henry Maier Festival Park. Specifically, I went on July 4th. The third festival, mentioned earlier, was Lollapalooza from August 1-4th, located at Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. Finally, from September 28-29th, I attended All Things Go in Forest Hills, New York.
In this article, I will break down what I believe to be the seven most important factors of a music festival, and how they differ from one festival to another.
Price
Ticket prices are the first things to consider before attending any festival. I mentioned earlier that I bought tickets to Lollapalooza before I even knew who was performing what days because after individual day lineups are announced, four-day ticket prices are raised. For Lollapalooza, I spent $409, or $102.25 per day. This decision ended up being worth it, because many of the individual days sold out quickly. My friends who couldn’t get them ended up on the waitlist for four-day passes.
If you know it’s something you can afford, and you have your heart set on it, go for it as soon as possible. For example, I had researched All Things Go NYC before tickets were released, aware of the ticket prices, so I was ready right when they dropped. I knew that with Chappell Roan headlining, and it would be a mad dash to get tickets.I was right. I spent $149 for a two-day pass, or $74.50 per day. For Summerfest, I bought a single-day pass for only $28. Tickets were not checked at the door, so,hypothetically I could have gone for free. Seriously. However, it’s worth noting that Summerfest charges for headliners separately, starting at l $90 for GA lawn. Dreamville was by far the most expensive. GA tickets cost me $400, or $200 per day. Summerfest was the best deal. Not only is it the cheapest per day, but it had minimal restrictions on what you could bring (such as food items).
Lollapalooza, in my opinion, is the second best deal. For the amount of artists I was able to see in four days, I would have had to spend ten times that amount of money on individual concerts. All Things Go NYC was similar to Lollapalooza. The artists weren’t nearly as in-demand as the Lollapalooza artists, but one bonus of the festival was that you could also avoid paying for food by bringing your own. Dreamville places last. It was the most expensive per day and had a fraction of the artists represented at Lollapalooza. Dreamville shouldn’t have cost more than double the price of All Things Go NYC, because Dreamville had almost exactly double the artists. They are also quite strict on what you bring in, so you’re guaranteed to pay for food.
Quality of Music Curation/Genre
Lollapalooza places first for music curation. The variety of genres and artists is so large that there’s something for everyone. What started as an alternative music festival now has rock, indie, pop, rap, hip-hop, punk, r&b, and everything in between. And yes, the headliners have more monthly listeners than any other festival on this list. There’s a great mix of popular and niche artists, and more likely than not, you’ll end up seeing both. The festival has great relationships with quite a few big artists and maintains them over time. This year, I saw Conan Gray and The Killers, who had both played the festival before. Over the span of four days, the amount of great actsI saw were so wildly different from each other. The three headliners I saw were three different genres. Hozier was blues/soul/indie rock, SZA was alternative/r&b/pop, and The Killers were alt-rock. I could see all of these artists for cheaper money than their individual concerts. As I was third row for Hozier, and in conjunction with many other artists throughout the day, I felt that my money was very-well spent. Some other artists I saw at Lollapalooza that I absolutely loved were Chappell Roan, Renee Rapp, Tiny Habits, Hippocampus, Ethel Cain, The Last Dinner Party, Medium Build, Victoria Monet, and Conan Gray,. Every single day had great performances, with the exception being Sunday, which had a weaker and less popular lineup, evidenced by the fact that that day’s tickets took the longest to sell out.
Similar to Lollapalooza, Summerfest is known for representing a wide variety of genres, and I believe they follow through with this promise. Though I only attended one day of the festival, I was able to see more than five different genres, each stage representing a different one. Lollapalooza tries to do the same thing, but their categorization is not quite as hard and fast. I spent most of my time at Uline Warehouse Stage, which is known for rock and alternative music. I saw the indie folk-pop artists almost monday, DOUBLECAMP, and Del Water Gap. That same day I saw Mt. Joy, an alt-indie artist, Mariah the Scientist, an alternative and blues artist, and Say She She, a discodelic soul group. I even caught a glimpse of the rapper Lil Tecca and, later in the night a country-themed stage. Unless I went on an unusually diverse day, I’m comfortable asserting that like Lollapalooza, at Summerfest there’s something for everyone. They may not be artists whose names you’re familiar with, but if you study up before the show, or go in with an open mind, I think you’ll find some great gems.
On the other hand, both All Things Go NYC and Dreamville were very one-note. While All Things Go focuses on “indie and alternative genres” per their website, the New York City show was dominated by pop music, with minimal indie and even less alternative performers (Towa Bird and Mannequin Pussy being notable exceptions). The music festival seemed to focus on queer female artists, but that’s not an excuse for a lack of genre diversity. Popular queer female artists such as Deb Never or 070 Shake would have been more fitting than Maisie Peters, for example. Del Water Gap and Ethel Cain were the standout performances, though I’ll give honorable mentions to MUNA and Julien Baker.
I felt similarly about Dreamville as I did All Things Go NYC, but replace pop music with rap and hip-hop. However, Dreamville did a better job of incorporating the avant garde and RnB in a way that All Things Go NYC did not. On top of the many hip-hop and rap artists, SZA and Bas brought RnB, Nicki Minaj brought pop, and Teezo Touchdown brought something that cannot be defined by genre. The music festival intends to uplift Black artists, and this year they exclusively had Black artists, even after the lineup was changed. J. Cole’s mission is clear, He manages to incorporate genre diversity while maintaining the theme of a rap and hip-hop focused festival for an audience who would appreciate the same kind of music. Some of my favorite artists there were JID, SZA, Amaarae, and Bas.
Quality of Experience
Outside of the performances themselves, there are lots of aspects of music festivals to appreciate. There are the photo ops (common in every festival) and gimmicks (like the Dreamville ferris wheel), but I’m more concerned with the amenities. I must say, food options at all four festivals were quite good, even for a vegetarian such as myself. Summerfest was undoubtedly the most limited, but I was still able to find things and sit down and eat. Bathrooms everywhere were pretty much the same except for All Things Go NYC, which had a surprisingly nice portable bathroom structure.
Notably, three out of four festivals experienced major artist cancellations in the days before the show. They all handled it differently. Merely a week before Lollapalooza, Tyler, the Creator dropped out—this was a major cause for concern because he was set to headline. Lollapalooza replaced him with Megan Thee Stallion, who has a similar amount of monthly listeners. The merchandise was changed and it went quite smoothly. Dominic Fike also canceled the day of, but it barely made headlines. Famously, Chappell Roan dropped out of All Things Go the day before. They replaced her set with a group of drag queens who lip-synched to her songs. While I was empathetic to the short time they had to fill her set, that hour was a hot mess. There were so many performers that you didn’t know where to look, and the most famous queen, Aquaria, stuck to the back for most of the hour. Granted, All Things Go NYC had the quickest turnaround time, but the way they handled the situation did not sit well with me. Unfortunately, this was to be expected for a first-time festival. I doubt something similar would happen at a well-established festival like Lollapalooza or Summerfest.
Another part of my experience that I have been unable to shake is the issue of crowd safety, particular at Dreamville. During JID’s set I was caught up in a mosh pit, getting thrown around and holding onto other girls around me in order to keep from getting crushed by groups of tall men. This was especially scary since I was in this crowd alone. Being in the crowd for J-Cole’s set was difficult too, but more for the lack of personal space than anything. I had people pressing against me from all four sides. I had to keep my arms crossed over my chest just in case of a more severe crowd crush. Leaving the Chappell Roan crowd at Lollapalooza was also terrifying. Even though I was with my friends, I was shoved to the ground multiple times by people pushing to leave. I was dragged across the length of a baseball field at full speed and almost lost my friends multiple times. At these festivals, especially in big crowds, it’s so important to exercise caution. While I did feel unsafe, especially as a woman, I was lucky to have known ways of defending myself in advance.
Location
I must admit that as a Chicagoan, I am biased towards Lollapalooza. All I have to do is walk to the train station, take a 30 minute ride, and I’m there. Still, compared to the other three festivals, it is the easiest to travel to. Though there are more flights to New York, Forest Hills isn’t exactly in the center of the city. It’s quite a long commute from Manhattan by train, and it’s hard to find hotels in Queens. All Things Go also falters as a festival that takes place in a stadium. Try as they might (in this case, by adding fake grass), the festival could not recreate the feeling of being outside. Another issue with the location was the heavy rain, which caused the concrete stadium floor to flood. I’ve been at Lollapalooza for when it rained, and because it’s outdoors, the ground soaks up the water. You’ll be fine if you’re willing to deal with a little mud. Due to the lack of trees at the venue for All Things Go, there was also no way to escape the sun. On any other day, this would have been a significant problem. To me, part of what makes a music festival enjoyable are the moments when you can sit down in the grass, eat some food, and listen to live music. This was only an option at Lollapalooza and Dreamville. What festival goers at Lollapalooza may struggle with is its size. If you haven’t been to a music festival before, it is quite a monumental place to start. Chappell Roan’s crowd alone drew 100,000 people, and 500,000 arrived for all four days to see artists on 8 stages. The festival is relatively easy to navigate, but big crowds can be scary and even dangerous at times.
In contrast, Summerfest may market itself as the biggest music festival in the world, but it is undoubtedly a local phenomenon—outside of the Midwest, many people I spoke with hadn’t even heard of it. It was a local, too, who told me there are ways to get tickets to the festival for free, t Still, when at the festival, you can see why it’s described as grand. With 12 permanent stages (though smaller than those of other festivals), the festival is technically larger than Lollapalooza. It is also much more difficult to navigate. I wasn’t able to get my hands on an up-to-date map, digital or otherwise. Earlier in the day, I jumped from stage to stage to assess the genres and locations, and I think that helped familiarize me quite a bit. Dreamville is also a local phenomenon, though one that tends to be more well-known outside of North Carolina. Like Milwaukee, Raleigh-Durham has an international airport, though there’s not quite as much to do in those cities as there are in NYC and Chicago. If you’re going to Dreamville, there’s not much else to do. However, Dreamville has the advantage of being in the center of the UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State triangle, so they get a lot of college students as well as locals. In terms of layout, this festival was quite similar to Lollapalooza: large grassy areas with big stages on either end. It had only two stages, nearly as simple as All Things Go NYC, which only had one.