Suwannee Hulaween Announces Lineup Topped By String Cheese, Bassnectar, Anderson .Paak, Jason Isbell

Chris Monaghan – Suwannee Hulaween

The String Cheese Incident-founded, Halloween happening Florida music festival Suwannee Hulaween has announced its 2019 lineup, with an eclectic lineup topped by Bassnectar, Anderson .Paak, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit as well as Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Greensky Bluegrass, Lettuce, Snails, STS9 and many others Oct. 24-27 at Spirit of The Suwannee Park in Live Oak, Fla.

“It’s such a great pairing to have Thundercat, Flying Lotus and .Paak all on the same show. The jamband card is very heavy for us and well stacked, and even on the electronic side there’s quite a few,” said Michael Harrison Berg, a co-founder and talent buyer for the event, adding there’s a lot of up and coming female DJ’s as well like CloZee, Whipped Cream, J. Worra & Vampa to go along with jam mainstays like Umphrey’s McGee.

With a new but still independent owner at Hulaween, Berg says this year’s event is off to a good start, with the blind pre-sale strong and lots of activity after today’s lineup announcement.

While Berg’s previous promotions company, Chicago-based Silver Wrapper, recently closed, he says there are plans for new partners to open an events company, and he’s still managing Chicago-based electronic artist Manic Focus, who is making his Lollapalooza debut next weekend.

Another event Berg is involved with, North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, has this year moved to Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island and partnered with Live Nation, with a decidedly electronic-heavy lineup Aug. 30-31.

“After nine years at Union Park and now entering its 10th year at Northerly Island, it was time for a welcomed venue change. I’ve got to tell you, we went to Country LakeShake there just to see the setup for a festival, and it’s just an absolutely amazing site and venue for a festival,” Berg said, with awesome views of Solder Field, the boat marina, Chicago’s skyline, and Lake Michigan all surrounding the view of the main stage.

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He says North Coast’s lineup, topped by Bassnectar, Major Lazer, Flux Pavilion, Tchami and others, is decidedly devoid of its usual hip-hop and jamband artists for a number of reasons.

“When North Coast first came out in 2010, the diversity made it special and was what attracted fans to it,” he says. “As people got older, over the course of a decade, their tastes became more niche and some didn’t want to see a bunch of hip-hop at their jamband festival, or a rock band at their dance event” He added that genre-specific events like the Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash hip-hop festival in Chicago have made it a losing proposition to add a handful of rap artists to a core EDM or jam event. However, adds that there are plans in the works for a 2020 all-jamband and rock band event for those fans seeking the live instrument music festival experience, void of hip hop and computer produced electronic music.