Festival Noize: Breakaway Nashville Music Festival, OZY, Wonderful World, Lights All Night 

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Breakaway Nashville announces Wiz, Illenium … OZY expands to two days at Central Park … Action Bronson tops ‘Louis Armstrong Wonderful World’ in Queens … Lights All Night returns to Dallas.

Breakaway Nashville Music Festival has announced Wiz Khalifa, Illenium, Lil Pump, Russ and 3LAU among the lineup for the Oct. 5-6 at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall in Music City.

The event is one of the nearly 20 put on by Columbus-based Prime Social Group, which is also part of the just-announced OMF Our Music Festival in San Francisco that aims to be the first blockchain-powered festival network. Also behind that event is electronic music artist and producer 3LAU, who told Pollstar OMF will reward fans for their involvement in festivals while the blockchain tech will power ticketing, merchandise and data collection.

Also on the Breakaway Nashville bill is Illenium, who recently came to Circle Talent Agency (now UTA) when agent Guy Oldaker joined the team. The dubstep artist has done strong headlining business with recent boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar including a sold-out Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (4,800 tickets, $100,000 grossed) and sellouts at the WaMu Theatre in Seattle (7,800 tickets) and Bill Graham Civic in San Francisco (8,500).

Lil Pump is known for the ubiquitous “Gucci Gang” and while the 17-year-old’s headlining career is just beginning to develop he’s also had strong festival showings, such as at Rolling Loud Bay Area where co-founder Tariq Cherif said, “Lil Pump shut down the Bay Area. It was crazy, it was nuts. He had the full crowd jumping, just insane.”

The rest of the lineup, with more to come according to the announcement, includes Gryffin, Lil Skies, NGHTMRE, Quinn XCII, Justin Caruso, Mike Floss, and Shaun Frank.

“Nashville has been waiting for an event just like Breakaway,”  PSG Nashville Market Manager Blake Miller said. “This place is called the ‘Music City’ for a reason. It’s not just old country; Nashville is a melting pot of young people and music that needs a millennial driven music festival which is exactly what Breakaway Nashville is.”

Prime Social Group managing partners Adam Lynn and Zach Ruben previously told Pollstar they are opening a Nashville office focusing on sponsorships.

For 2018, Breakaway Music Festival will not only expand to Nashville’s Bicentennial Capitol Mall, but also return to Columbus’ Mapfre Stadium Aug. 24-26, Grand Rapids’ Belknap Park Aug. 24-25, Charlotte’s AvidXchange Music Factory Oct. 12-13 and took place in Dallas’ Toyota Music Factory in April.  

Tickets are on sale now with two-passes starting at $99.

The only festival to be contracted with New York City’s Central Park, the music/arts/ideas/politics/food OZY Fest has expanded to two days, with Passion Pit, Grouplove, and Young The Giant among the talent lineup and speakers including Rose McGowan & Jake Tapper for a #MeToo conversation.

Others on tap for OZY, which has been called “New York’s Answer to SXSW,” are comedian Chelsea Handler, author (and previous Pollstar Live! keynote Speaker) Malcolm Gladwell, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and “Chief Food Officers” such as Marcus Samuelsson and Roy Choi.

The event takes place July 21-22 in Central Park. 

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Queens rapper Action Bronson tops the lineup of the fifth annual Wonderful World Festival which takes place July 21 at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. 

The rapper, who shares the same home borough as Satchmo himself, will be joined by eight-piece brass ensemble The Soul Rebels.

“We can’t wait to take NYC festival-goers on a thrilling ride from Queens to New Orleans and back, at the same time that we honor and celebrate the legacy of America’s greatest musical icon, Louis Armstrong,” the festival organizers, Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College, said in a statement. “For this year’s What a Wonderful World Festival, we honor Satchmo’s life in Corona by featuring one of Queens’ finest, Action Bronson, and we remember his birthplace by presenting the Soul Rebels, who will bring their New Orleans sound to the field at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.” The event is produced in collaboration with AEG Presents partner The Bowery Presents, which operates major venues in the area such as Terminal 5.

The festival will include food trucks, activities, and more, all paying tribute to the legacy of Louis Armstrong. The free festival will kick off at 4 p.m. with a limited number of VIP tickets available for $25, which includes a private viewing area and access to premium restrooms. 

Action Bronson is not only staying close to home, with the recent announcement that pop star Dua Lipa (and her dad) will bring the Sunny Hill Festival to their native Kosovo, with Action Bronson having the No. 2 slot on the bill. The two are apparently buddies. He’s also got some major European festival slots coming up. 

This Action Bronson played Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, which sold out 91,933 tickets over three nights and grossed $4.5 million with a lineup that included Jack White, Logic, All Time Low, David Byrne, Ludacris and many others May 4-6. That event just joined the Live Nation fold with the promoter’s acqusition of Red Mountain Entertainment this week. 

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The ninth annual Lights All Night New Year’s Eve festival has announced its return, for Dec. 28-29 at Dallas Market Hall in the Texas city, calling itself the biggest year-end event in North Texas.  An extremely limited number of discounted tickets are now available starting at just under $100.

Each of the previous Lights All Night events have sold out. 

Last year’s event brought more than 30,000 revelers to see top hip-hop and dance artists including Bassnectar, Marshmello, Porter Robinson, Illenium and Maxo Kkeam, Ugly God and Smokepurpp.