ACL 2021?

 Holy crap.

Was just sitting here working on some boring stuff that I put off during last week's Snowpocalypse '21: The Weatherman Strikes Back when I realized that by now I would be deeply in the midst of prediction mode for this fall's ACL.  Like, by now I would have done a few posts and spent many hours poring over concert calendars and album releases and other festivals' posters.  How weird!

And how sad!  I have no clue how I'd even go about doing predictions this year.  Will the bands I was honing in on last year - Pearl Jam or Rage Against the Machine are the ones I recall - still going to be the hot stuff 18 months later?  Like, last year there was some excitement for some bands to show up and be the hot new thing, but will the Black Pumas be an exciting draw when they haven't released anything new in several years by now?  Are there tours that will be happening by October?  Can artists FINALLY release their new tunes?  Will the other asshole festivals who are crowding into October steal a bunch of top line artists that ACL would have otherwise scored?

That is the worst thing right now in my head, that maybe ACL would have finally scored Springsteen or something, but now they are going to get snagged by Coachella out from under us.

I don't see that Coachella has released a lineup for 2021, and as of now they don't even have dates for the fest - they cancelled the April dates and haven't named new ones in October.  In 2020 they were supposed to have Rage, Travis Scott, and Frank Ocean as the top line headliners.  Would Travis Scott be interesting by now?  I mean, not to me of course, but to the drug-addled teens who never noticed that his lyrics were butt?  Bonnaroo is supposed to happen in September 2-5, with no new lineup announced yet.  Last year was supposed to be Tool, Lizzo, and Tame Impala.  Lizzo puts on a killer show, but it feels like the world has moved on from her a little, right?  Lolla claims to be going off July 28 - August 1.  They didn't put out a real lineup before cancellation last year, so no clue who it would have been.

In smaller fests, Outside Lands claims to be going forward in August with Tame Impala, Lizzo, and The Strokes as their top three.  New Orleans Jazz Fest claims to be going from Oct. 8 to Oct. 17 (but no lineup).  Governor's Ball is supposed to happen Sept. 24-26, no lineup announced.

ACL is supposed to kick off on October 1 and the second weekend will end on October 10.  Personally, I feel good about it happening.  I know we just crossed 500,000 dead in the U.S., and half the country thinks that the vaccine is some sort of nefarious plot by Bill Gates to sell pedophile pizza to toddlers, or something, but I feel like the arrows are pointed in the right direction to us having a lot of vaccinated folks by summertime.  And also, if I don't have hope about my favorite festival, then what's the damn point of loving music anyway?