Vogue may have picked out cowboy boots, disco sparkle and ‘haute hiking gear’ as the key festival trends 2023, but what about the music? The music festival industry is emerging from a period of pandemic turmoil that virtually shut it down for two years, and still faces a host of challenges. Take a deep dive into which music genre trends came to the fore in 2023, together with eco-friendly initiatives, tech and the sheer variety of festival experiences that are shaping the music scene worldwide.
Music Trends
Nostalgia’s been big business when it comes to festival music trends in 2023: there’s been a resurgence in music from different eras as varied as 80s pop, 1990s R&B, 2000s emo and early hip hop (especially as the latter was celebrating its 50th anniversary in August.)
Glastonbury 2023 saw not one but two cracking sets from 80s pop hero Rick Astley, who was making his Worthy Farm debut and went down an absolute storm. Other Glasto 2023 acts who have straddled the decades included headliners Guns N’ Roses, The Pretenders and, of course, the Rocket Man himself, Elton John. The Sunday night Pyramid stage headliner (also making his first Glastonbury appearance) drew a monumental crowd, both at the scene and on TV for what turned out to be a truly epic performance.
Why are audiences tapping into nostalgia? It’s probably down to late millennials/Gen Zs discovering the 80s and 90s through musicians such as Harry Styles and Dua Lipa, both of whom are referencing those decades (Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia has the clues right there in its title.) Rick Astley returned the favour, covering Styles’s ‘As It Was’ during his Sunday lunchtime set, before joining forces with indie darlings Blossoms for a set of Smiths covers later on.
A burst of new wave and goth nostalgia was unleashed at Cruel World in California, with Siouxsie Sioux, Iggy Pop, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Human League, ABC, Billy Idol and Gary Numan taking to the stage.
Also in the US, the Just Like Heaven festival – a joyous, mid-2000s time warp - returned for its third edition in Pasadena in May, featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Future Islands and MGMT, Peaches and the Walkmen.
Lollapalooza began in 1991, founded by Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction. The festival curates an eclectic lineup each year; 2023’s artists were lead by EDM acts (23%), whilst pop acts skyrocketed from 15% last year to 20% this year. Rock, however, was on the decline at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, where the share of acts has halved in a decade, and Coachella. However, the genre was holding strong at this year’s Austin City Limits (ACL) with 19% of the lineup, only outdone by Alternative music, which formed 26% of the ACL acts.
Dive In
Immersive experiences were a big trend this year. Dream Valley in August promised, ‘One amazing day. One starry night. Thousands of dreamers. And you’ as they fused dance music with immersive experiences. EDM, stunning backdrops and live immersive shows were the name of the game at Bright Festival Connect, an international cooperation project that brings together communities, artists, design studios, institutions and local organisations. This year’s event boasted over 160 hours of events and music performances. Book your tickets to Leipzig in Germany if you fancy going next year.
FLO London’s Colourscape billed itself as ‘an immersive festival of colour and sound’, with festival goers encouraged to ‘embark on a journey through vibrant tunnels and musical wonders, for a sensory journey like no other.’ Intriguing…
Spending so long on Zoom has meant that many festivals have not only embraced tech, but are looking to use it to investigate how we engage with each other. Plus, festivals are now including everything from costume parties to cooking demos, yoga lessons and seminars to interactive zones with a focus on social awareness and health.
Double Up
Who says you just have to have one venue, or one weekend for your festival? Spreading out events across two weekends, or staging a series of club nights can double your audience (or make crowds more manageable at each venue.)
Genre-centric festivals don’t come much bigger than pioneering EDM festival Tomorrowland. Belgium lit up across two weekends in July – 16 stages hosted more than 750 artists, including Amelie Lens, Eric Prydz and Lost Frequencies.
Coachella 2023 was another big-name festival with two weekends to choose from, back in mid-April in Indio, California. The headliners were Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny (Coachella’s first Latino and Spanish-language headliner), K-pop sensations Blackpink (the first Asian and all-female group to headline), pop-punkers Blink-182, Frank Ocean, Skrillex, Four Tet and rising Brit star Fred Again. A drive for increased diversity by the organisers saw performances by Punjabi artist Diljit Dosanjh, together with acts fully sung in Arabic – the Guardian hailed ‘a record-breakingly diverse and multi-lingual set of acts [which] helped give this year’s desert festival a more contemporary feel.’
Plus, there were big sets from female artists including Charli XCX, supergroup Boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker) and Rosalia – not to mention the legendary Blondie and the always unpredictable Björk.
Come Together
Hybrid festivals are another trend on the rise this year. Art and music are the most common combinations, but TodaysArt in the Netherlands showcases an array of experiences, performances and installations bringing together electronic music, audio-visual and immersive art and ‘creates new sensory experiences.’
Elevate in Graz, Austria, brings together cutting-edge music, art and political discourse from geopolitics to psychology and behavioural research, activism to artistic practice, digital issues to climate protection.
Virtual Music Festivals
Ever-evolving technology means that virtual music festivals are opening up access to audiences around the globe. The 2023 Decentraland Music Festival was a 3-day extravaganza that showcased over 80 music performances, plus games, dynamic experiences and 3D installations – anyone could join at Decentraland.org as a guest in its virtual space, which is owned and run by its fellow users.
Previously, the Metaverse event has showcased more than 300 international artists, including Björk, Megadeth, and even Motörhead.
The Aspen Music Festival’s livestream lineup in July and August saw eight classical concerts being broadcast live and available to view on their Virtual Stage.
Could Metaverse gigs be the future – and can a Metaverse music festival be far off?
What Else Has Changed?
In terms of the practicalities of getting to, into and around festivals, the pandemic changed things both for festival organisers, and for the fans attending them. Dominic Perez-Silva, Senior Partnerships Manager at Eventbrite, noted that maintaining visitor safety requires making ticketing and admissions as simple as possible, leading to everything from digital tickets to set entrance hours to facilitate crowd control. ‘Throughout the pandemic, venues, festivals, and promoters alike have been “forced” to consider contactless events, to go cashless, and to implement timed entries.’ This means visitors have clear, succinct information – and hopefully cuts down on un-ticketed entry.
Tech innovation also means more synced viusals, lasers and pyrotechnics than ever before at music festivals – together with, hopefully, better sound quality.
There’s also an increasing focus on sustainability efforts – this year, all of Glastonbury Festival’s power was supplied by renewable energy and renewable fuels. All the Festival site’s generators, including those that power the Pyramid Stage, ran on sustainable, renewable palm oil-free HVO fuel, made from waste cooking oil, helping to reduce lifecycle CO2e emissions by up to 90%. Mind you, Glasto’s Green Fields have run on solar, wind and even pedal power since 1984, so you’d expect them to be leading the way when it comes to sustainability.
The organisers have also banned the sale of single-use plastic drinks bottles, and since 2019, 99% of all tents and camping equipment has been taken home after the Festival.
Green Gathering in Monmouthshire is a family-friendly fest that won the 2023 International Greener Festival Award for its use of 100% renewable power, veggie food, upcycling workshops and more.
The iconic Isle of Wight Festival is the home of huge headliners, hot new acts, comedy, cabaret, cinema and kids’ activities. They’re also committed to environmentalism, using a local biogas firm to generate electricity from the turf on the festival site, pledging to be zero-waste and donating their water pipes to local farms. (You can even reduce your carbon footprint as you travel there: Big Green Coach runs carbon-neutral shuttles from around Britain.)
Get That Festival Feeling
We may all be dreaming of next spring and summer’s festivals, but you can recapture the elation of being out in a field surrounded by like-minded fans with our hand-picked playlists. Tap into that festival feeling with a festival lifestyle collection, or recreate an electro indie festival in your own sitting room (the drinks and snacks are probably cheaper...) Plus, we’ve got new releases every fortnight, so create an account to license our original music.
Alternatively, relive the top Glastonbury 2023 moments, from The Churnups to Elton John, and discover the evolution of Tomorrowland, Europe’s premier EDM festival.
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