12 summer music festivals to get hyped for in defiance of your own mortality

Pitchfork, Riot Fest, Boston Calling, and more—there's only so many chances to see Halsey (actually, there's quite a few)

Music News Festivals
12 summer music festivals to get hyped for in defiance of your own mortality
Dua Lipa (Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty), Jack Antonoff (Photo: Jason Koerner/Getty), and Gerard Way (Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty) Image: The A.V. Club

As we enter the sweltering months of summer—the sun beating down, sweat dripping from our brows, our psyches releasing the pent-up ennui of a thousand nights spent inside wondering what fresh hell a global pandemic will exact next upon a population just trying to get by—one’s thoughts inevitably turn to when we’ll all get to see Green Day perform “Basket Case” on a lavishly sponsored stage. It’s called fun! And it is coming your way, in the form of the usual deluge of outdoor music festivals littering the country, like little doggie accidents on our national pee pad.

These festivals come in all shapes and sizes: Separated by size, genre, audience, or even ideology in some of the more awkward cases, there’s something for everyone to be found out there. To help you decide which fleeting monuments to capitalist rapaciousness (and the attendant artistic effort to push back against the encroaching darkness) you should visit, we’ve put together this handy list of some of the most notable events taking place over the next few shiny summer months. Take a look, maybe take a listen to the artists who will be performing, and see which festival looks best for you. We apologize in advance for the lack of an “Express Your Helpless Frustration At The Whims Of The Wealthy Dictating An Increasingly Feudal-Like Existence For The Rest Of Humanity As Oligarchs Use Bad-Faith Culture War Propaganda To Keep The Working Class Pitted Against Itself Instead Of Against Them” Festival this year, but it was bought out and renamed the “Doritos Presents The TikTok And JP Morgan Chase Funfetti Celebration Starring The Chainsmokers.”

Note to desktop users: If you’re like to read this in a scrolling format instead of a slideshow (and why wouldn’t you?), simply narrow your browser window.

previous arrowRiot Fest (September 16-18) next arrow
Riot Fest (September 16-18)
My Chemical Romance Photo Mark Metcalfe Getty Images

It was supposed to happen in 2020, and then 2021, but My Chemical Romance is finally headlining the weekend-long celebration of punk, emo, hardcore, and nostalgia that is Chicago’s Riot Fest. The band will be joined by The Misfits, Nine Inch Nails, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sunny Day Real Estate, Portugal. The Man, Ice Cube, Bad Religion and many more. Also, the constant ennui that does battle in your brain with every other emotion should not be allowed to win; it’s too easy to give up. Try to at least maintain a sense of engagement when you’re tempted to allow irony the final say; most of the big decisions in life may be out of your hands, but rejection of the outside is always your one true form of exercising control. You can’t always say, “I will” and be allowed to do it, but no one can deny your right to say, “I will not.”

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