Big Ears Festival Expands To Four Days, Announces Initial 2017 Lineup

Big Ears Festival Expands To Four Days, Announces Initial 2017 Lineup

Every year, some of the biggest names in experimental and avant-garde music descend on Knoxville, Tennessee for the Big Ears Festival. Next year, the festival, which has historically run for three days, will expand to four. The festival organizers have just announced the lineup for next year’s festival, and while it features plenty of big indie rock names, they’re not the real draw. So while Wilco might be playing Big Ears next year, they’re sharing top billing wit people like jazz composer Carla Bley, improv veteran Gavin Bryars, choral ensemble the Crossing, and free jazz comeback story Henry Grimes.

The bill for next year’s festival also features people like the Magnetic Fields, Matmos, Tortoise, Colin Stetson, Deerhoof, Rangda, Xiu Xiu, former Stereolab member Lætitia Sadier, Sir Richard Bishop, DJ /rupture, Dave Harrington, My Brightest Diamond, Six Organs Of Admittance, Philip Jeck, Horse Lords, and Joan Shelley. Blonde Redhead will play a show with ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, as will the minimalist Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. The festival is full of one-off collaborations and experimentalists who don’t often perform in public, and you can check out all the details here.

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