Big Ears Festival is back after being canceled in the wake of the initial COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 and was forced to skip 2021 as well. Such artists as Andy Shauf, Animal Collective, and Sudan Archives (and over 100 more) bolstered its 2022 return to Knoxville, Tennessee.
This spring, the festival celebrated “Ten Years Of Big Ears,” and it already has eyes toward making the next decade even better. Earlier this week, Big Ears unveiled its 2024 lineup — topped by Herbie Hancock, Rhiannon Giddens, Adrianne Lenker, Laurie Anderson, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. The event will run from March 21 to March 24, 2024.
Big Ears announced a partnership with Professor King Britt, also a music producer, who created the University Of California course “Blacktronika: Afrofuturism In Electronic Music,” which has evolved into a festival of its own. Britt and Big Ears founder Ashley Capps worked together “to curate workshops and events for the festival,” as Britt explained in an Instagram post about Blacktronika X Big Ears Festival.
According to Knoxville News Sentinel, “between 75 percent and 80 percent of artists on the lineup have never performed at Big Ears,” which is aiming to match or beat its 8,000 attendees-per-day mark from the 2023 edition.
As for ticketing, the general on-sale began Thursday morning, September 14, at 9 a.m. EST. The festival’s official website lists various four-day pass options, ranging from $350 to $950 (before fees), and single-day pass options.
See the full lineup below.
