festivals
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The second (and last) day of the Tecate Emblema festival in Mexico City was all about female power, with Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado and Annita gracing the stage. The international superstars all sang and spoke in Spanish, conquering the almost 72,000 attendees that packed the Curve 4 of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Saturday (May […]
The first day of the Tecate Emblema festival in Mexico City on Friday (May 17) featured a lineup that was sonically broad and led mainly by women, bringing everything from electro-pop to hip-hop to the Curve 4 of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. As the icing on the cake at the fest, British star Sam Smith […]
Tonight, one of the world’s major destinations for dance music, EDC Las Vegas, begins at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The three-day festival, produced by Insomniac Events, famously begins each day at sunset and then goes until dawn, with performances from several hundred DJs filling the nocturnal hours in between. Explore Explore See latest videos, […]
San Francisco’s Portola festival is coming in hot with its year three lineup. On Monday (May 13), the fest has released a bill lead by Justice and Gesaffelstein — both coming off buzzy Coachella 2024 appearances — along with fellow big font names Disclosure, M.I.A., Rüfüs du Sol, Fisher, Four Tet and Jamie xx. The […]
With music festivals around the world getting more focused on meaningful sustainability initiatives, Central California’s Mill Valley Music Festival is set to raise the bar by getting 100% of its power from renewable energy sources.
Happening this weekend (May 11-12), the Mill Valley, Calif., event says this initiative will make it the first festival in the United States to be entirely powered by renewable energy. The source of that energy will be Moxion MP-75 batteries — battery-powered generators that use no fuel, produce no emissions and are almost fully silent. (Last year, these Moxion batteries were listed among Time‘s Best Inventions of 2023.)
The festival, which is expecting 6,000-12,000 attendees per day, will use seven Moxion batteries to power its stages, VIP areas, vendors and all other power points. Another three batteries will be on-site as backups. A representative for Moxion tells Billboard that these batteries have been donated to the festival to serve as proof of concept that Moxion can share with other live events organizers to help transition festivals from traditionally used diesel-powered generators to clean power sources.
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Amazon and equipment rental company Sunbelt are among the investors in the Bay Area-based Moxion Power, whose batteries have previously been used to partially power festivals including Reverb’s Luck Reunion near Austin, BottleRock in Napa Valley and Southern California events PowerTrip, Camp FlogGnaw, Long Beach Tamale Fest, CaliVibes and Coachella. Upcoming deployments are planned for Los Angeles festivals Cruel World and Just Like Heaven.
While many festivals have experimented with the use of some clean power — including battery and solar — some event organizers have been reticent to fully rely on battery-powered generators due to concerns over dependability and cost. According to a company representative, Moxion does not publish retail prices given that battery cost varies based on incentives available at the time of purchase, but they say battery cost is comparable to the cost of the traditionally used diesel generators when considering rental and fuel prices.
Nic Adler, the vp of festivals at Goldenvoice — which produces events including PowerTrip, CaliVibes, Camp FlogGnaw, Cruel World, Just Like Heaven and more — told Billboard in March that the minute the costs of green initiatives “start affecting the bottom line [of festivals] in a positive way, there’s going to be a full push for all of this.”
Organized by the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce and Noise Pop Industries, Mill Valley Music Festival is in its third year and this weekend will feature artists including Fleet Foxes, Margo Price and St. Paul & the Broken Bones.
The festival projects that by using Moxion batteries, it will avoid generating roughly9,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. (For comparison, 9,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions is roughly the equivalent of an average gas-powered passenger vehicle being driven for 10,000 miles.)
“We’re thrilled to be the exclusive energy source for Mill Valley Music Festival this year,” says Moxion CEO and co-founder Paul Huelskamp. “Moxion was born right here in Mill Valley, so it’s incredible to see the festival become a sustainability leader. We hope this inspires more eco-friendly practices across the board.”
Austin’s South by Southwest conference and festival is heading to the United Kingdom, marking the first time that the world-famous event has been held in Europe.
Due to take place over one week in June 2025, the inaugural edition of SXSW London will follow the same format as its Texas-based forerunner and feature “inspiring and challenging” keynote talks, music performances and showcase leading innovations in tech, gaming and film, organizers said in today’s announcement. Names and details of who will be appearing will be announced in the coming months.
Held annually in the city of Austin since 1987, SXSW has grown to become one of the biggest events in the global music calendar, attracting hundreds of thousands of musicians, creatives, filmmakers, media companies and music industry executives to the state of Texas every March.
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Amy Winehouse, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Stormzy and Wet Leg are just a few of the music artists who played the festival early in their careers.
Previous guest speakers have included Dave Grohl, U.S. president Barack Obama, Steven Spielberg, Michelle Yeoh and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, while Twitter, Foursquare and Airbnb are among the tech start-ups that SXSW famously helped launch.
Next year’s debut of SXSW London continues the event’s global rollout, which began in 2023 with the launch of an Asia Pacific edition in Sydney, Australia.
The second installment of SXSW Sydney takes place Oct. 14-20 with the main U.S. SXSW festival and conference scheduled for Mar. 7-17 in Austin. The addition of a new London edition makes the event series “an indispensable three-stop tour for the global creative community,” said organizers in a press release.
Although 2025 will be the first time that a SXSW-branded event has taken place in Europe, the organization did team up with Mercedes-Benz to host an annual conference, called the me Convention, between 2017 and 2019 in Germany and Sweden, targeted at the tech, design and creative communities.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring the SXSW experience to London,” said SXSW co-president and chief brand officer Jann Baskett in a statement. He called next year’s planned event “an incredible new opportunity to highlight the elements that make SXSW unique in one of the most vibrant cities in Europe.”
Randel Bryan, managing director of SXSW London, said the festival “will build on Austin’s incredible legacy” by providing “a platform for the next generation of creative talent.”
While detailed plans for SXSW London are yet to be announced, organizers said the event will be held in dozens of venues, art galleries and clubs in the East London district of Shoreditch and will have its own “distinctive personality,” reflecting the U.K. capital city’s “internationally renowned cultural life and creativity.”
Alongside keynote talks and music showcases, the conference will include “boundary pushing” visual arts, design and fashion programming, with exhibitions and interactive and immersive experiences taking place in public spaces across East London. The city’s proximity to other major creative and tech centers in Europe will also shape programming as organizers look to attract creative talent from across the continent.
Commenting on the announcement, London mayor Sadiq Khan called the plans “a historic opportunity” for the city “to once again bring the world’s most exciting talent together.”
In April 2021, it was announced that SXSW had signed a “lifeline” deal with P-MRC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and MRC, making P-MRC a stakeholder and long-term partner with the Austin festival. P-MRC is the parent company of Billboard.
This year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival is welcoming a diverse lineup, spearheaded by Dua Lipa, Chris Stapleton, Tyler, the Creator, Blink-182, Sturgill Simpson, Pretty Lights, Leon Bridges and Khruangbin as headliners.
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The festival — set for Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13 at Zilker Park in Austin, Texas — will also feature performances from artists including Carin Leon, Benson Boone, Renee Rap, Norah Jones, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Fletcher, The Red Clay Strays, Orville Peck, Vince Staples, Mickey Guyton, Dasha, Dexter and the Moonrocks, Rett Madison, Tanner Adell, Emily Nenni and Hermanos Gutiérrez.
Lipa, who recently issued her third album Radical Optimism on May 3, is making her ACL Fest debut, as is Blink-182. Meanwhile, Stapleton released his most recent album, Higher, in November. Higher was led by Stapleton’s Billboard Country Airplay No. 2 hit “White Horse.”
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In 2019, Bridges won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for his song “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand,” and released most recent EP, Texas Moon (with Khruangbin) in 2022. Tyler, the Creator was added to the ACL Fest at the last minute in 2021 (replacing DaBaby), but returns for his own full-fledged ACL performance this year. Grammy-winner Simpson will also be a headliner at the upcoming Outside Lands festival in San Francisco in August; his most recent album release came in 2021, with The Ballad of Dood & Juanita.
Three-day tickets to the festival, which was founded in 2002, will go on sale on Tuesday (May 7) at noon CT.
See the lineup below.
Miranda Lambert is set to blend two of her favorites — music and dogs — when she launches an upcoming benefit concert Oct. 5 in Nashville, all in an effort to raise funds to help animals. The five-time ACM Awards album of the year winner will welcome many of her animal-loving friends and fellow musicians […]
The Lovers & Friends Festival in Las Vegas has been canceled due to dangerous weather conditions, organizers have announced.
The one-day music festival at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds was scheduled to take place on Saturday (May 4) with a star-studded lineup including headliners Usher, Janet Jackson and Backstreet Boys.
On Friday night (May 3), the festival’s organizers shared a message on social media explaining that the outdoor event was being called off because of a high wind warning issued by the National Weather Service.
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“The National Weather Service has now issued a High Wind Warning, including dangerous 30-35 mph sustained winds with gusts potentially more than 60 mph,” organizers wrote. “Following advice from the National Weather Service and in consultation with local public officials, we must make the safest decision for our fans, artists, and staff, and cancel tomorrow’s Lovers & Friends Festival.”
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Organizers added, “This was an incredibly heartbreaking decision to make as we are aware that fans have traveled from all over the world to enjoy this incredible lineup of superstars and have been looking forward to this event for several months. We’ve worked hard to create an amazing event for you, and we are just as disappointed as you are.”
Fans who purchased their tickets directly through Front Gate Tickets will receive a refund within 30 days, organizers said.
The Lovers & Friends lineup also included Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Nas, Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, Ciara, TLC and Timbaland. As part of the festivities, Lil Wayne was scheduled to perform Tha Carter III in its entirety and Usher was set to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his classic album Confessions.
Read the full statement from the Lovers & Friends organizers on Instagram below.
Miranda Lambert‘s new single “Wranglers” is coming, and fans at Stagecoach got to hear it first. Reba McEntire got to hear it, too — because she showed up to Lambert’s stage as a surprise guest Saturday night (April 27).
Reba joined Lambert for a three-song finale of “Mama’s Broken Heart,” her own “Fancy” and “Gunpowder & Lead,” wrapping Lambert’s headlining set that featured the live debut of the unreleased “Wranglers.”
“@Reba at @stagecoach y’all,” Lambert wrote Sunday on X (formerly Twitter), reacting to the fun she had at the Indio, California, festival the night before. “Thank you to my hero and friend for coming out here as my special guest. I’ll never forget it. She brought all the fire.”
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“What a night!!! Thanks @mirandalambert for asking me to be part of @Stagecoach last night. And thanks to all the #Countrymusic fans for sticking with us in that wind! #badasssisters #bas #stagecoach,” Reba posted on her own account.
“Wranglers” — written by Audra Mae, Evan McKeever and Ryan Carpenter, and recorded in Austin with co-producer Jon Randall — is set to be released on May 3. The song can be pre-saved here.
“‘Wranglers’ is a classic tale of a woman taking her power back,” Lambert said in a statement released to press. “I think we can all identify with the character in this song, because we have all had a time in our life where we needed to find our strength, and also get a little revenge on someone who did us wrong or hurt us. This offers such a cool, raging take on how something like this unravels. I think the songwriters nailed it.”
She added, “I am so proud to sing it. It feels like it could have been on the same record as Gunpowder & Lead in a lot of ways. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ is a pretty powerful statement, and the way it’s written, you can tell, we’re not kidding.”
Watch a clip of Lambert’s live “Wranglers” performance below, and see some footage of her Stagecoach duets with Reba.