Seeing your favorite musicians perform live can be an awe-inspiring experience, and music lovers are often willing to travel great distances to see their favorite bands or singers live on stage. Concerts are a common way to experience live music, and no doubt you’ve been there, done that a time or two in your life. But have you been to a music festival? A music festival is like a concert on steroids, with multiple musicians and bands performing consecutively over a period of days or sometimes even weeks.
Music festivals, especially large-scale annual events, are a great vacation activity, and well worth planning your vacation around. Whether your favorite music genre is rock, rap, indie, jazz, country, or something else entirely, there is a music festival out there for you. And rest assured, it’ll be worth traveling to, as you’ll get your fill of the best live music around. A music festival is one of the most fun things to do on vacation.
Coachella — See You In The Desert
By far one of the largest, most profitable music festivals in the U.S., Coachella is a rock music-lover’s paradise. This annual festival is held each spring at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, a city in Southern California’s Colorado Desert. Named for the Coachella Valley that gives it home, the Coachella music festival features a wide variety of music, from rock and indie to pop, hip hop, and even electronic dance music. The festival showcases established, well-known artists as well as up-and-comers, and there are multiple groups playing continuously on a series of seven major stages positioned throughout the grounds. Coachella takes place on back-to-back three-day weekends in April, with the same playbill each weekend. Attendees generally book accommodations in Indio, however onsite camping in a designated camping area is permitted.
CMA Music Festival — The Ultimate Country Music Fan Experience
The CMA Music Festival, or CMA Fest for short, is the longest-running country music festival in the nation. Held annually since 1972 (Covid years excepting), CMA Fest is a four-day country music extravaganza that takes Nashville by storm every June. A plethora of country music superstars perform concerts and hold autograph sessions throughout the event, which has grown to feature more than 400 performers on eleven stages. One of the best things about this music festival is that it is not for profit — the artists donate their time and talent so that half of the festival’s net proceeds are used for the enrichment of music education programs in schools throughout the country. The CMA Music Festival is so popular that in recent years ABC has produced a condensed two-hour version of the festival for a television audience.
Lollapalooza — Hands Wave, Heads Nod, and Crowds Holler
As one of the longest-running music festivals in the U.S., Lollapalooza has a prominent place in the hierarchy of stateside music festivals. Its iconic name and high-profile lineup have contributed to its sold-out status and stellar reputation. Lollapalooza is held in Chicago, Illinois every summer, in a park named for former U.S. President and Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Held over a four-day period in July, this festival includes artists in a variety of genres, including alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop, and electronic dance music. Lollapalooza actually started out as a festival on tour, hitting major metropolitan markets throughout the Western Hemisphere before transitioning to its permanent home in Chicago in 2005. Its popularity in the U.S. has driven its creators to launch sister festivals in Europe and South America as well. Talk about a fun vacation activity!
Capital Jazz Fest — The Jazz Festival With Soul
Capital Jazz Fest is a three-day outdoor music festival that is held each June in Maryland. The festival venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is the largest music venue in Maryland and is positioned conveniently between Baltimore and Washington D.C. Featuring some of the top names in jazz, R&B, and soul music, Capital Jazz Fest has a nearly 30-year history of bringing together some of the smoothest musical acts in the world. Musicians are split between two stages, one devoted to jazz and the other designated to R&B and soul. One of this music festival’s highlights is the late-night dance party, which happens at the close of the event’s Saturday lineup. The festival also includes a marketplace and food court, with scheduled meet and greets with the performers. If you love some soulful crooning and a good trumpet or saxophone, this music festival should be on your radar.
