Hangout Fest 2016 lineup: Florence + The Machine, The Weeknd, Calvin Harris, Alabama Shakes and more
By Lawrence Specker | lspecker@al.com AL.com
Gulf Shores, AL
Top acts at the 2016 Hangout Music Fest will include The Weeknd, Florence + The Machine and Calvin Harris, event organizers revealed Tuesday.
In fact, the festival's planners rolled out the entire 2016 lineup on Tuesday, along with a new approach to prices and shuttle ticket sales intended to streamline the ticket-buying process for patrons. The early announcement appears to give the Hangout Fest a jump on other major 2016 fests, and certainly puts it on a fast track compared to the previous edition. For the 2015 Hangout Music Fest, most of the lineup was revealed in January, with some additional acts in early February.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, via www.hangoutmusicfest.com. General admission prices are $249; that's the same as last year, but all fees are now included in the price, effectively making it a price reduction. VIP passes are $1,099 and Super VIP passes are $1,599.
The seventh annual festival will take place May 20-22 in Gulf Shores.
2016 brings a return for two home-state acts, the Alabama Shakes and Jason Isbell. It will be the Shakes' first appearance at the fest since a triumphant appearance in 2012 as the band from Athens, Ala., was just coming to international fame. Its upward career trajectory has continued, and earlier this year its sophomore album, "Sound & Color," reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Isbell played the festival in 2013 and his star too has risen in the interim: His newest album, "Something More Than Free," topped Billboard's country chart earlier this year and reached the Top 10 on the overall pop album chart.
The full lineup can be seen at www.hangoutmusicfest.com. It inclues Ellie Goulding, Lenny Kravitz, Flume, Haim, Cage the Elephant, Panic! at the Disco, Grimes, The Chainsmokers, Walk the Moon, Leon Bridges, Miike Snow, Big Grams, Run the Jewels, Foals, Fetty Wap, The Neighbourhood, Portugal. the Man, Moon Taxi, 3LAU, Courtney Barnett, Silversun Pickups, X Ambassadors, Bro Safari, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Berns, Thomas Jack, Coleman Hell, Alessia Cara, Wailers, Mayer Hawthorne, Nahko and Medicine for the People, Brett Dennen, The Struts, Atlas Genius, Vince Staples, Pepper, Raury, Snails, Stick Figure, Judah & The Lion, Tourist, Kaleo, Magic Man, Health, Alison Wonderland, The Griswolds, Hippie Sabotage, The Revivalists, GIVERS, Coasts, Phases, Bully, Lizzo, Jack Novak, The Royal Concept, Pell, Bass Drum of Death, Jai Wolf, Muddy Magnolias, Meg Mac, Lazyboy Empire, Jerry Folk, Speaker of the House, Powers, Lost Kings, Half Moon Run, Strangers You Know and Koa.
Among other points, the 2016 lineup is significant because it makes Florence Welch the first female headliner in the event's history. Florence + The Machine has had a series of dance and rock hits in recent years, including "Spectrum (Say My Name)," "Shake It Out," "Ship to Wreck" and "Delilah;" the group also has established itself as a force on the festival circuit, earning rave reviews at top-tier gatherings such as the Glastonbury Festival, Bonnaroo and Coachella.
The Weeknd likewise promises to take the Hangout Fest into new territory, with a sometimes dreamy, sometimes bizarre mix of music that ranges from Michael Jackson-style R&B to much more abstract material. The Weeknd (the stage name of Canadian artist Abel Tesfaye) has become a name synonymous with blockbuster accomplishments in 2015. In July, Billboard declared him the first artist to simultaneously hold the top three spots on its hot R&B singles chart, with "Earned It," "Can't Feel My Face" and "Hills." In mid-September, he topped the Hot 100 singles chart, the Billboard 200 album chart and the Artist 100 simultaneously, becoming the second artist ever to do so, after Taylor Swift. Also in September, he pulled off the rare feat of having one of his singles ("The Hills") replace another ("Can't Feel My Face") as the nation's No. 1 pop tune.
Harris, meanwhile, has had a multifaceted career as a producer and songwriter for other artists, a DJ and a pop artist in his own right. His song "Summer" was a hit in 2014, and other significant singles include "I Need Your Love," "Feel So Close," "Sweet Nothing," "Outside" and "Blame." In August, www.forbes.com ranked him as the world's top-paid act in Electronic Dance Music, with estimated 12-month earnings of $66 million – "tying the record for annual earnings by a DJ, which he set last year," according to Forbes' Zack O'Malley Greenburg.
Aside from prices and the lineup, organizers announced a couple of potentially significant tweaks to the ticket-buying process. An "EZ Pay" installment plan is available that splits the cost into up to four monthly installments, and shuttle tickets are no longer limited to specific routes. The idea behind the second change is that patrons can go ahead and purchase shuttle passes, rather than having to wait until they've finalized their lodging arrangements.