Lightning in a Bottle makes return to Buena Vista Lake in 2024 with Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake & M.I.A. aboard for 21st year

Lightning in a Bottle - 2024 lineup

Lightning in a Bottle //
Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area – Bakersfield, CA
May 22nd-27th, 2024 //

Boom!

Following last week’s announcements that saw BottleRock, Coachella and BeachLife Festival reveal their 2024 plans, the dominoes continue to fall across California’s music festival landscape on a rainy day in January.

Just hours after Goldenvoice told us who will be playing Just Like Heaven in May, Lightning in a Bottle has become the latest music festival in the Golden State to release its lineup for 2024.

North America’s original boutique festival will once again call Buena Vista Lake home this year after a 2023 edition led by REZZ, SOFI TUKKER and ZHU, and this time LA-based promoter and production company Do LaB has secured another star-laden roster for the 21st year of its signature event.

Skrillex, Labrinth, Lane 8, James Blake and M.I.A. will lead the way over Memorial Day weekend while the undercard offers its own share of highlights, including ISOxo, Tipper, Fatboy Slim, CloZee, Nora En Pure, Bob Moses (Club Set), Cannons, Bomba Estéreo, Honey Dijon, Damian Lazarus, Mura Masa, Of The Trees and Floating Points. Plus, a dubstep set by Skream and sunset set by Tycho are a couple of other performances that piqued our interest at first glance. Check out the poster above to see who else has been booked to perform.

LIB has always been a great way to cure those Coachella blues just a month after leaving the desert, and we have certainly seen plenty of artists cross over from one to the other over the past decade — Skrillex and Labrinth, for instance, both performed in Indio last year. But the “transformational” festival has always attempted to be more than just “Coachella Light” by promoting the ideals of sustainability, social cohesion, personal health and creative expression through art, yoga, workshops and speakers, even if it hasn’t felt as such in previous years.

GA passes to LIB 2024 can be purchased here for $349 (three-day) and $419 (five-day), with VIP tickets up to $649 (three-day) and $779 (five-day), beginning this Wednesday, January 24th at 10 a.m. PT. Car camping and RV passes, group campsites, bed tents and family camp passes are also available, along with hotel packages for the first time that feature special rates from the fest’s local partners.

Thinking about going? Take a look at our past coverage of LIB here.

Lightning in a Bottle 2024 - daily lineups

UPDATE (May 8th): We are just two weeks away, and LIB has revealed daily lineups with Honey Dijon leading Thursday’s abbreviated bill, Lane 8 and Blake sitting on Friday’s top line, Labrinth headlining on Saturday, and Skrillex plus M.I.A. closing things out Sunday. See the poster above for more details.

Lightning in a Bottle 2024 - Thursday

Lightning in a Bottle 2024 - Friday

Lightning in a Bottle 2024 - Saturday

Lightning in a Bottle 2024 - Sunday

UPDATE (May 16th): Set times have landed as the 2024 installment of LIB quickly approaches in less than a week. Don’t forget the music now goes until 4 a.m. on Thursday-Sunday (after what used to be Friday-Sunday), so do your best not to expend all of your energy on the first day at Buena Vista Aquatic Recreation Area next weekend. See more details above.

Outside Lands 2023: Three full days of ‘giving life,’ saving face & switching up the game to celebrate the festival’s 15th anniversary

Outside Lands 2023 - Lands EndPhotos by Christine Kemp & courtesy of Outside Lands // Written by Molly Kish //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 11th-13th, 2023 //

Taking a beat to fully process the 15th year of Outside Lands, we had a lot to consider in terms of our annual accolades for 2023. Our team has had the pleasure of covering the music festival’s evolution since 2012, and many of us have been on the journey with Bay Area concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment after attending OSL’s inaugural edition in 2008. But while we have learned to anticipate certain logistical nuances and look forward to countless familiarities at Golden Gate Park, this year felt different in several very unexpected and positive ways.

Walking into the festival grounds, the footprint had noticeable modifications from previous years, including brand-new stages and a relocated Wine Lands. McLaren Pass, typically home to Choco Lands, the Bubble Tea Party, Cocktail Magic and various food vendors, now included a paired-down, more communal place to sip wines from the best vineyards in the Bay. Switching spots with Cocktail Magic, the newly located Wine Lands provided a premier viewing location for the Toyota Music Den, which ended up being a backup stage for overflow acts on Saturday and a home base for surprise appearances/pop-up sets throughout the weekend.

Outside Lands 2023 - Lands End - crowd

The largest and most widely agreed upon, favorite new addition to the grounds was the Dolores Stage holding space in the Polo Field entryway. The open-air dance club brought a surge of new talent and life to the main field, highlighting DJs, drag performers and a schedule of explosive LGBTQ+ artists over three days. Providing a welcomed alternative to the SOMA Tent’s long lines and Saturday’s closure for dancefloor maintenance, the Dolores Stage proved to be a true festival MVP. The lineup highlighted an intrinsic part of Bay Area culture that never felt fully recognized on the scale that it should have been. Providing a non-stop homage to SF’s historic ballroom culture, performers hit the stage, runway and ground, keeping the sold-out crowd dancing and happy at one of the festival’s main access points.

Aside from some lineup alterations, structural damage and traffic-flow issues at the entrances and exits, OSL’s 15th anniversary was a massive success. Worried at moments that things could derail, the staff handled the various complications that came their way with super effective and seamless production pivots. Artists were quick to shift sets to alternate stages, pop-up performances kept fans excited and engaged, and the amount of satellite bars, lounges and interactive activations offered more than enough entertainment to keep the capacity crowd stoked. If this year’s success was any indication, we expect the positive changes to become mainstay additions for years to come and look forward to seeing what the future will hold for Northern California’s flagship music festival.

Outside Lands 2023 - ODESZA


ODESZA

OUTSIDE LANDS 2023 AWARDS:

Headliner of the Weekend: ODESZA

Breakthrough Performance: Crumb

Largest Crowd: DJ DIESEL

Best Stage: Dolores Stage

Most Swoonworthy Set: Lana Del Ray

Hardest Hip-Hop Moment: Tobe Nwigwe

Fiercest Performance: Reparations

Tastiest Menu: Shuggies Trash Pie and Natural Wine

Best Vineyard: Deux Punx

Most Magical Cocktail: “Large Marge-arita” // Buttery Tipple

Favorite Lands: Wine Lands

Most Impactful Artist: Balloonski

Satellite Bar Star: #OceanLove Tour by Grey Whale Gin

Favorite Merch: Outside Lands reusable festival cup

Best Marketplace: San Franpsycho

Top Showcase: Hard French at Dolores Stage

Most Memorable Experience: Outside Lands x LIVE by Amazon Music

Bay Area Favorite: Anchor Steam’s final kegs on draft at Beer Lands

Best Night Show: Interpol at The Independent

Celebrating its 15th year in 2023, Outside Lands hands the baton over to Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters & ODESZA

Outside Lands - 2023 lineup

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 11th-13th, 2023 //

Now that a handful of California’s music festivals — whether it’s BeachLife, BottleRock, Coachella, Just Like Heaven or Lightning in a Bottle — have announced what their plans will be this year, it’s once again time for Outside Lands to join the party.

SF’s signature event turns 15 this August at Golden Gate Park, but after returning to its usual timing in 2022 and granting headlining duties to Green Day, Post Malone and SZA, it’s handing the baton over to a triumvirate of standouts in Kendrick Lamar, Foo Fighters and ODESZA.

K.Dot returns to OSL for the first time since the 17-time Grammy winner ambushed the Twin Peaks stage back in 2015, while Foo Fighters, who suffered the tragic loss of drummer Taylor Hawkins last March and have yet to reveal his replacement behind the kit, will end their own decade-long drought after playing the three-day event in 2012. ODESZA’s last appearance, in the meantime, was the most recent of the three in 2018, yet much has changed for the Seattle electronic duo made up of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight over that time.

In addition to the aforementioned headliners, this year’s undercard is nothing to sneeze at — starting with Lana Del Rey, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion, Zedd, Janelle Monáe, Maggie Rogers and Fisher. Other names on the 2023 lineup worth paying attention to include Lil Yachty, Noah Kahan, Cigarettes After Sex, J.I.D, Interpol, Willow, Father John Misty, Tobe Nwigwe, Orville Peck, aespa, beabadoobee, L’Impératrice, Cuco, Nora En Pure, Poolside, Alvvays, NIKI, Alex G, Soccer Mommy, Diesel (Shaquille O’Neal), Monolink, Raveena, Trixie Mattel, Mariah the Scientist and ISOxo.

Last year’s edition of OSL saw the SOMA Tent — which remains the fest’s home for all things dance music — expand after making its debut in 2021, and fans can expect the dancefloor to be packed as Âme b2b Trikk, Blond:ish, Claptone, Coco & Breezy, Daniel Avery, Denis Sulta, Disco Lines and more get ready to hit the decks from Friday to Sunday. Check out the poster above for the rest of the artists slated to perform.

Three-day GA, GA+ (a new ticket tier), VIP and Golden Gate Club passes go on sale here for $499, $674, $1,029 and $4,899 this Wednesday, March 8th at 10 a.m. PT, so take a peek at our previous coverage here before you pick one up!

Outside Lands 2023 - daily lineups

UPDATE (April 18th): Daily lineups for OSL 2023 are out, with Kendrick Lamar headlining Friday, Foo Fighters rocking Saturday and ODESZA closing down the festival Sunday. Peek at the daily schedules above before single-day tickets go on sale here for $199 (GA), $299 (GA+) and $449 (VIP) starting this Wednesday, April 19th at 10 a.m. PT. And if you’re thinking about purchasing a three-day ticket payment plan and putting down just $99 up front, you can still do that for a limited time here!

Outside Lands 2023 - Interpol

UPDATE (May 11th): Interpol has confirmed that they will be performing their 2002 debut LP Turn On the Bright Lights in full from start to finish during the band’s set at OSL this year. Fans of the New York post-punk revivalists should pick up their single-day tickets here!

Outside Lands 2023 - Friday set times

Outside Lands 2023 - Saturday set times

Outside Lands 2023 - Sunday set times

UPDATE (August 1st): With less than a couple of weeks to go, your 2023 set times have arrived. See the schedules above for all of your potential conflicts at OSL’s 15th anniversary so you can formulate a plan before getting to Golden Gate Park. Who will the TBA act on Saturday be?!?! Take your best guess in the comments below.

HARD Summer Music Festival extends to three days in 2022 with Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert & Porter Robinson atop the bill

Hard Summer Music Festival - 2022 lineup

HARD Summer Music Festival //
NOS Events Center – San Bernardino, CA
July 29th-31st, 2022 //

If you thought Gary Richards was bold after dropping a 2021 lineup for HARD Summer while we were still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the HARD founder and CEO isn’t letting up now.

This time, he’s adding a third day for the annual Southern California music festival that returns late July to the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino after moving all around the greater Los Angeles area over the last few years — whether it was Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte, the Fairplex in Pomona or Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.

HARD Summer has long leaned in the electronic direction given Richard’s pedigree as a DJ, but it has incorporated more and more hip-hop acts since 2015 and the 14th edition follows in the same vein with Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Uzi Vert and Porter Robinson sitting atop the bill.

Meanwhile, plenty of other big names throughout the undercard are also worth calling out, such as Joji, Alison Wonderland, Chris Lake, Zeds Dead B2B Subtronics, GRiZ, Madeon, Gunna, NGHTMRE, Marc Rebillet, Tchami, Denzel Curry, Jai Wolf, 100 Gecs and more. Peep the poster above for the rest of this year’s roster.

GA, GA+ and VIP passes are on sale this Friday, May 6th at 10 a.m. PT here for fans ages 18 and over, with payment plans also available for one-day or three-day tickets after a $9.95 deposit.

Anyone ready to go HARD this summer?