Interestingly enough, despite a sagging economy, high fuel prices and saturation of big, outdoor music festivals spanning two to five days in duration, the fact is that ticket sales for both the veteran fests like Coachella and Bonnaroo, and the 'newbies', have been overall successful so far for 2008.

Labels: Animal Collective, Chicago, Festivals, Lollapalooza 2008, M. Ward, Mission of Burma, Pitchfork Music Festival, Rothbury Festival, Spoon, The Hold Steady

For months now, festival and music lovers, bloggers, musicians and the mainstream media have speculated, floated rumors, predicted and even made false 'confirmations' about 2008's Lollapalooza's lineup. Rumored artists include Black Lips, Bloc Party and MGMT.

Bottom line: There has not been one artist or group confirmed for the Chicago-based festival in 2008 by Lollapalooza organizers.

Apparently, part of the reason for the delay is to keep 'the buzz' going to help sell tickets (when they go on sale) and to try to drown out all the chatter surrounding many other music festivals this year, two of which are new festivals for 2008: Rothbury (more on that later) and Coachella East (aka APW).

Radiohead will headline two of the three nights of Coachella East, so that should be amazing. The fest is being held Aug. 8-10, 2008 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.

It is very possible that Lolla organizers' delay in announcing a lineup could ultimately kill ticket sales, so if the delay is to keep fest goers in suspense to sell more tickets, that strategy may just end up doing the opposite.

Closer Look at Lolla

In 2004, the Lollapalooza music festival tour was canceled due to low ticket sales. Since then, the fest has stopped touring and landed in Chicago for an annual festival.

While Lollapalooza 2007 was considered a come-back of sorts, organizers of the event must be nervous about ticket sales for 2008. What they seem to fail to realize is that the sooner they announce the lineup and ticket sales, music lovers around the country - and world - can start making their plans to go.

On the other hand, and this is not hypothesizing, waiting much longer than the end of February to announce the lineup - or even a headliner tease - means that many people will either make plans to go to another music festival (some already have), or just forget it altogether (others have already done this).

Nevertheless, the rumors and speculation continue (when the lineup is announced, it will be published here first).

You can also check out more about the Lolla fest 08 and sign up to get the latest news, plus artist profiles, tour schedules, MP3s, articles and more from artists and groups playing at music festivals in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe and around the world.


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Labels: 2008 Festival Lineups, 2008 Music Festivals, Chicago, Festivals, Indie Rock Festivals, Lollapalooza, Lollapalooza 2008