With Coachella coming to a close, many festival goers are wondering what is the best one to hit next. Firefly, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Gov Ball, Hangout Fest, and more are all essentially the same. Unless you have an artist you really want to see, you could pretty much go to any of these. My deciding factor between these festivals is distance from my home and specific, big–name artists that I would not be able to see for much cheaper at a regular concert.
Going to any music festival is always fun, but if you want to get the most bang for your buck, try to switch up the type of festival you are going to. Don’t go to a music festival just for a lesser known artist you like. You can see them for a lot less money as one of their own shows. For example, only Hangout Fest and Bonnaroo have Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals, so I’m definitely going to try to go to one of those. But if they weren't the headliners, it wouldn't be worth it.
A better strategy is to try and see the biggest number of artists for the least amount of money. Philadelphia’s Roots Picnic has some common artists with the aforementioned festivals, but because its focus is more on hip–hop and soul, they have some stand out artists as well as podcasts going on.
Because Moonrise is an EDM festival, it has so many artists performing that won’t be at any other festival. This festival is also fun even if you don’t like EDM. When I went I didn’t have to focus on seeing every artist on my list. I just walked around, found music that sounded fun, and danced.
The Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago also does a good job of pulling a bunch of different artists that won’t be at every other music festival. The lineup this year also seems especially talented.
The best way to find which music festivals you want to hit this summer is to look up this year’s festival lineups, have all of them open in your tabs, and just compare them. Anywhere you hit will be a great time, but don’t just buy tickets to a festival because you can. Try to make the most out of those days, since, let’s face it, there is only so much time this summer you should dedicate to standing in field high off your ass.
