The 2013 music festival season officially launched with Coachella last month. You might think the music fest season kicks off with South By Southwest, but SXSW is not really a music fest as much as it is a music free-for-all, sort of like New York’s CMJ Music Marathon that happens each October is. In the past few weeks, there has been a stream of music festival news, line-up announcements and plans. It’s always stunning how fast it comes around and then goes away as the summer wanes. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here; summer hasn’t even officially started yet.
The big music festival news this week is all about the Sasquatch Music Festival that is held each year at The Gorge out in the badlands of central Washington state near the town of Murray. Over the past few years, Sasquatch has really become one of the premier festivals in the U.S., not only for the expansive beauty of the surrounding area, but most notably for the amazing line-up (and the very interesting characters that show up – especially from cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Vancouver; Canadians can be very rowdy, believe it or not). The promoters have managed to put together one amazing line-up after another since the festival’s inception in 2001, but most especially over the past four to five years.
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Sasquatch 2013 Day Two (Saturday, May 25th) headliners scheduled to perform on the main Sasquatch stage include Sigur Ros, The xx, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, among others. Performing on other stages around the festival grounds on Saturday will be artists like Empire of the Sun, Tame Impala, Devendra Banhart, Divine Fits, Atlas Genius, Laidback Luke, Totally Enormous Extinct, Porcelain Raft, Surfer Blood, Akron/Family, and Suuns. See the full Sasquatch Saturday schedule and listen to our Sasquatch 2013 Day Two playlist via Spotify.
Sasquatch 2013 Day Three (Sunday, May 26th) headliners include Mumford & Sons, Elvis Costello, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Dropkick Murphys, The Tallest Man on Earth, Danny Brown and others. Scheduled to perform on other stages Sunday include artists such as Primus 3D, Grimes, Shout Out Louds, DIIV, Fang Island, Baths, Azari & III, The Presets, Shad, Hundred Waters, and Wake Owl. View the full Sunday schedule for Sasquatch and listen to our Sasquatch 2013 Day Three playlist.
Sasquatch 2013 Day Four (Monday, May 27th) headliners to close out Sasquatch 2013 include The Lumineers (pictured above), The Postal Service, Cake, Imagine Dragons, Ryan Bingham. Set to perform on other stages on closing day include artists such as Alt-J, P.O.S., Twin Shadow, Dirty Projectors, Gold Fields, Chvrches, Steve Aoki, Toro Y Moi, Ariel Pink, Beachwood Sparks, Menomena and Grieves. See the full schedule for Monday and our playlist for Sasquatch 2013 Day Four.
Preparing For Sasquatch
If this is your first journey to Sasquatch, there are a few things you’ll need to know. First, make sure to bring enough blankets, a good sleeping bag, plenty of warm clothes and socks and rain gear. It can get damn cold out in the big open spaces at night and it can also be chilly during the day as well. The extended weather forecast for the festival this year predicts a 30% chance of showers on Friday and a 20% chances of showers on Sunday. The daytime temps this year, unlike previous years, is forecasted to only be in the low 60s and the mid to high 40s at night. Add the wind into the equation, and it can literally feel like near freezing temperatures (particularly of note to festival goers from California making the 1,000+ mile trek to The Gorge ). One of the things that can easily ruin your experience is to be cold or chilly all night. Plus, if it is going to be damp, that will make it feel even colder. The biggest factor in that is the winds; there are like three trees in the entire area, so there’s not much protection from the winds. We found out the hard way our first time out.
Bring plenty of sunscreen too. We’ve seen many red baked people on Day Two who were obviously suffering. The winds, and often times the clouds, can really be deceiving – you can get just as much of a sunburn even with cloud cover at this time of year. One of the worst things, especially before the summer has started, is to get burnt and have to suffer for the final three days of the fest. Baseball caps, long pants and comfortable shoes are good too. Oh yeah, and the always useful ear plugs, plus sunglasses. It can also get really dusty so sunglasses and hats are not only useful for the sun, or the glare of the sun through the clouds, but also for the dust. As with all outdoor spaces where festivals are held, please respect the land. The Gorge is a beautiful, ancient place, and there is nothing worse then seeing a beautiful place get trashed. The same goes for the local people. Every festival goer makes an impression and represents the festival itself, and everyone is a better person for showing the utmost respect to the local people and the land.