Musical Mystery Tour

Where to spend more than one day rocking outdoors (bring your deodorant)

Music Festivals are hot, sweaty, crowded and, depending on the location, leave my lungs coughing what I can only hope to be dirt. Then, stick it in the Midwest to add unpredictable weather and unbearable humidity to the cocktail of discomfort. But none of that is enough to stop me from dumping $200 on the opportunity to see so many of the year’s best bands crammed into just a few days. Here are four of the top Midwestern festivals coming up this summer, three of which managed to sneak a Springfield band or two in the lineup.

Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival

When: June 5–8
Where: Lawrence, Kansas
How much: $159
Must-see bands: The Flaming Lips, Cake, Built to Spill, Big Smith (local), Jah Roots (local).
Before reading the lineup, I’d always thought going to Wakarusa involved a mandatory patchouli marinade before bartering for a ticket with hemp sandals and a shirt you swore Jerry Garcia wore. Yes, acts like Keller Williams and Leftover Salmon are still going to be there, but they’re alongside bands like Tilly and the Wall and Mates of State. I guess I’ve been uninformed about the festival’s reinvention.

Cornerstone

When: June 30–July 5
Where: Bushnell, Illinois
How much: $155
Must-see bands: mewithoutyou, Here I Come Falling (local), One Star Story (local).
For its 25th anniversary as a festival, it may not have gotten some of the more popular Christian indie acts of years past (Copeland, Mute Math, the no-longer-Christian David Bazan), but Cornerstone is the longest of the nearby festivals. And the sooner you order your ticket, the better the deal becomes. It’s close enough, it’s Christian, and you could probably talk you parents into paying for it—even if you’re far too old for parents to be paying for anything.

Pitchfork Music Festival

When: July 18–20
Where: Chicago
How much: $65
Must-see bands: Public Enemy, Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, HEALTH, The Dodos.
Pitchfork might be the FOX News of music review sites–read reviews to get angry, not enlightened–but that doesn’t stop it from bringing an outstanding lineup for the second year in a row. Given that it’s so cheap comparable to the music (I’d pay $65 to see Public Enemy alone), I almost expect to show up and listen to an awkward narrative vaguely addressing why no bands were actually good enough to play it.

Lollapalooza

When: August 1–3
Where: Chicago
How much: $190
Must see bands: Radiohead, Battles, Wilco, Broken Social Scene, Ha Ha Tonka (local).
Originally started by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, Lollapalooza is no longer the road show waving popular alt rock as its flag. Now, it stays put in Chicago for three days, and this year it has musical acts combining my teenage angst (Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Flogging Molly) with my snotty, hipster elitism (Girl Talk, Black Lips, Grizzly Bear) to make one satisfied, substantially poorer customer.