Pitchfork and Lollapalooza get all the press, but the upstart North Coast Music Festival, held at Union Park over Labor Day weekend, is shaping up as a contender for best fest of the summer. Its strength is in its focus. Though it’s being booked by a consortium of promoters specializing in a variety of styles, the festival’s lineup represents the portion of a Venn diagram where hip-hop, dance music, and jam bands overlap. (You might label that section “beat-driven and/or psychedelic stuff that will appeal to recreational drug users.”) Newly announced lineup additions bring Lupe Fiasco, Holy Ghost!, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, and Claude VonStroke into a mix already featuring the Chemical Brothers, Paul Van Dyk, Green Velvet, Flying Lotus, and Umphrey’s McGee.
It’s basically going to be a hippie hip-hop rave, and I’m really starting to look forward to it. Even considering the range it covers, there’s a much more palpable direction than most of the other festivals in the city. Lollapalooza and Pitchfork’s broadness is admirable, but sometimes in practice the effect is like a tasting menu where you’re served pizza, sushi, and breakfast cereal in quick succession—all great things on their own, but maybe not in that particular order.
The North Coast lineup as it currently stands is after the jump: