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What: St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival
When: Saturday, September 14th
Where: Meadow Brook Music Festival grounds, Rochester Hills, MI
Who: The National, Sigur Rós, Deerhunter, The Dismemberment Plan, Solange, El-P and Killer Mike as Run The Jewels, Frightened Rabbit, CHVRCHES, AlunaGeorge, Charli XCX, Savages, Warpaint, Phosphorescent, Youth Lagoon, Washed Out, Icona Pop, Flume, My Brightest Diamond, and Haerts. Watch the line-up video.
Tickets: 1 day passes $ (purchase here Sat. May 18th at 10am)
Tell Me More: When I initially heard organizers of Laneway Festival wanted to take their massively successful brand of Australian music festivals to the U.S., I was encouraged. I almost fell out of my chair when they announced their inaugural event in America would take place in Metro Detroit. While the grounds of Meadow Brook are far from the city of Detroit (I really wish Orion and Laneway would just swap locations), the fact that organizers (also includes Palace Ent. and Paradigm Agency aka brother of Pistons owner Tom Gores) made Michigan a destination is a huge victory.
Laneway has a line-up that should be appealing to Detroit music goers that suddenly have 6 decent options for a outdoor music fests this summer. With a mixture of bands that don’t play the US often (The Dismemberment Plan, Sigur Rós), would probably skip Detroit otherwise (Savages, AlunaGeorge, Solange, Flume) and are sure to have a big 2013 (The National, Youth Lagoon, Deerhunter), organizers came up with a unique option of acts you likely haven’t seen. Does it have some of the crowd pleasers that MoPop and Okaloosa have or pulsing dance music events like Movement or Mad Decent’s Block Party? Not necessarily, but my belief is that organizers intended to showcase new acts that aren’t in Metro Detroit often. For $80, you could easily be satisfied with The National, Sigur Rós, CHVRCHES, Aluna George and Flume, with anything else serving as a great bonus.
Thoughts on the latest festival to join Metro Detroit’s competitive Summer/Fall music scene?
