We live in the age of festival glut. Every year music fans are faced with the daunting task of figuring out where to drop their three-day wristband cash as the sea of competing festivals gets ever larger and ever more homogeneous. But for the music fan longing for the days when music festivals had distinct identities, may we suggest Life Is Beautiful? The Las Vegas fest blends massive artists with even bigger visual arts displays to create a one-of-a-kind fest in a city that’s tailor-made for being a little over-the-top.
For an example of what vibe to expect from the fifth-year of this ultra-colorful fest, check out the lineup announcement video. In the clip, Louie Anderson awakens a coma patient with the lineup as aerial acrobats, clowns and artists swirl around his hospital bed with the names of the fest’s impressive acts.
Among those acts are festival mainstays like Chance The Rapper, MGMT and Muse, as well as artists hitting the road behind new material like The xx, Haim, Lorde and 2 Chainz. For the heads, there’s De La Soul, Pusha T and Vince Staples. Electronic music fans will have their pick of everything from Tycho to Pretty Lights. And that’s before we get into the truly impressive slate of visual artists.
Perhaps the biggest art installation, in both name and actual size, will be the Art Motel curated by Santa Fe’s Meow Wolf Collective. The group behind the interactive mystery art compound of the same name will try their hand in a new space at the festival.
Three-day passes for the fest — which goes down from September 22-24 — will go on sale on April 27 right here.
