Music

Dad-rock finally gets its own festival

by Jeremy Mersereau

It was bound to happen eventually: no longer content just to take the headlining slot at every major festival, giants of dad-rock such as the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and Neil Young are getting their own three-day fest in October. The times, they are-a-resolutely-unchanging. No word yet if there will be complimentary prune juice alongside all the AARP booths.

The as-yet-unnamed fest (God willing, they go with Boomeroo) is being put together by Goldenvoice, the promotion company behind Coachella. The event is slated to run from October 7th to 9th in the southern California desert, and will feature full-set, unabbreviated performances from six legendary rockers: The Stones, Dylan, McCartney, The Who, Neil Young, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. Mechanic at work: “Damn, why are so many Kia Sedonas being tuned up at once?”

The six revolutionary acts have never shared a billing together before, and Goldenvoice isn’t skimping on the production: the performers will be playing full sets, with full stage productions, with Dylan and The Stones kicking things off on the first night, and concluding with The Who and Roger Waters on October 9th.

“If you just look at it at face value, a bill like this doesn’t exist anywhere else on the concert landscape,” Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert-industry tracking publication Pollstar, told The Los Angeles Times. “There are a lot of festivals, but nothing quite like what’s being planned there. I expect it will resonate nationally — and internationally.”

Though the festival is still being finalized, expect boomers everywhere to refinance their mortgages rather than sit this one out. Hey, while they’re all gone experimenting with peyote and listening to their old dinosaur bands, let’s put on our own festival! Who do you guys want to headline? …The Rolling Stones?!

[h/t The Los Angeles Times]