Shaky Knees Music Festival has only been around since 2013, but the 3-day event (May 8-10) in Atlanta has a thrilling lineup that, in our opinion, rivals any other 2015 U.S. festival.
Just consider day 1. The Strokes, Pixies, Mastodon, Brand New, TV On The Radio, and James Blake are among the bands at the top of the list, but I’m sure there are some indie music lovers out there who are even more excited about the acts that play earlier on Friday: Surfer Blood kicks things off on the main stage at 12:30 p.m. with afternoon sets across the 5 stages by the likes of The Kooks, Mac DeMarco, Tennis, Manchester Orchestra, and more.
With a lineup this good, there are sure some tough choices for attendees. For example, the 6:15 p.m. Friday time slot has Death From Above 1979, TV On The Radio, and the Mountain Goats. The 8:15 slot has Pixies, Brand New, and James Blake.
The Saturday and Sunday headliners include The Avett Brothers, Wilco, Social Distortion, Tame Impala, Ryan Adams, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Old Crow Medicine Show, and, yes, Neutral Milk Hotel.
Click here for the detailed schedule by day.
This 3rd installment of Shaky Knees takes place in Atlanta’s Central Park, which many folks don’t seem to know about even though it occupies about 17 acres at the southeast edge of Midtown:
Central Park was the home of Music Midtown for at least one year, and the festival map shows that Shaky Knees’ smaller stages will be across Pine Street in parking lots near the Atlanta Civic Center, leaving ample room for the five stages, food trucks, vendors, and various services.
The 3-day early bird passes were only $125, but the current price of $215 seems like a bargain given the sheer quality of the acts. Click here for ticket info. There are late night shows that are ticketed separately.
We covered Shaky Knees in 2014 and are thrilled to be providing some coverage again this year. We put together a Shaky Knees day 1 Spotify playlist, and we’ll soon post a single playlist with days 2 and 3. We made a few random choices here, although for the most part we chose songs that were especially popular on Spotify.
We’ll have more about Shaky Knees soon.