Staged Haze Takes Bonnaroo 2024: Our Recap

This past weekend, Staged Haze took our first trip to Manchester, TN to cover Bonnaroo. I had pretty high expectations going into the weekend, because everybody I know that has set foot on The Farm described it as a life changing event. There was a tiny fear in the back of my head that the weekend would not live up to the enormous hype it had received from all angles.

That fear dissolved immediately upon my arrival on The Farm. Bonnarroo is a unique festival in that it’s just as much about fostering community as it is about enjoying live music. It’s one of the only festivals in the world where the majority of the attendees camp on the festival grounds throughout the weekend. I wish I had the time to explore the campsite, called Outeroo, more than I did, but there were about 140 set to choose from across Thursday, June 13 to Sunday, June 16.

The Bonnaroo lineup was rich with different genres and artists from around the world, there was truly something for everybody. I want to make special note of how many queer artists, specifically queer women were included in the schedule. It’s not something I take for granted, as it was not long ago at all when this was not common place. To see an artist like Megan Thee Stallion, an openly bisexual Black woman, play on the same day as the new lesbian superstar, Chappell Roan, is a privelege I take extremely personally, especially during Pride month.

This festival is not for the sleepy. The sets run well into the night and when Centeroo winds down for, the party continues in Outeroo. It’s a festival that is seemingly best enjoyed if you fully immerse yourself in the ethos, which includes camping with thousands of strangers under the Tennessee sky. While I didn’t get the chance to do that this year, my weekend at Roo changed me, and I cannot wait to go back next year.

I watch at least one song of 40 sets across the weekend, here are the standouts at Bonnaroo 2024.

Thursday

Michigander

I started my weekend at That Tent with Michigander and a couple hundred Roo attendees eager to make the most of this jam-packed weekend. Jason Singer, the mind behind Michigander, shared a high energy performance of his indie-rock catalog that dates back nearly a decade. The four-piece band lent itself to a more rock sound than any of Michigander’s recorded music, energizing the crowd for the long journey ahead. Originally from Michigan, now based in Nashville, Michigander makes the type of music that feels like a nice summer day with your friends, a perfect sound to kick off the nice summer day with a couple hundred thousand friends.

A highlight from the set was “Let Down,” a song off the 2021 Everything Will Be Ok Eventually EP. Singer led the crowd in a chant, repeating “I got high hopes, I got high hopes, but they let me down, they usually let me down.” Toward the end of the song, the band pulled away and slowed down, leaving Singer and the crowd to fill the tent with their voices, singing over and over “I got high hopes, I got high hopes.” I was shocked at how vocal the crowd was, given how early in the weekend this set was, but the idea of having high hopes must have really really resonated. Everybody at that set knew it was going to be a magical weekend.

Say She She

Say She She was such a fun and unexpected standout. The Brooklyn-based trio shined at That Tent in their head-to-toe dazzling outfits and ethereal choreography. They sounded as good as they looked, with harmonies so interwoven it was hard to believe they didn’t all share one mind. The three members, Priya Malik, Sabrina Mileo Cunningham, and Nya Gazelle Brown, are all classically trained singers and share a love for disco. I briefly chatted with them ahead of their set, learning that the group formed after Cunningham heard her neighbor, Malik, singing through their shared wall in their Brooklyn apartment building. They later met Brown and started singing all together, releasing their first album, Prism, in 2022.

I loved that it looked like they were having fun together on stage. While maintaining impressive control of their voices, the three would dance together as if they were just messing around in a jam session. The funk influences, slick vocals, and groove-fueled choreography made it feel like That Tent was transported back to a 1970s discotheque.

Medium Build

The Medium Build set at That Tent was one of my most anticipated of the weekend. I have made it a central goal in the past year to share Nick Carpenter’s music with as many people as will listen. The Alaska-based artist has been finding his sound for the past decade, working toward the moment he’s in right now. This year’s release of his first album since 2019, Country is an indie-rock-fueled supernova in the Medium Build catalog. It’s welling with radical vulnerability, chronicling childhood insecurities that have matured into pathologized trauma responses.

Carpenter has been unimaginably busy this past year, touring nonstop, signing with Island Records, and finding time to be one of the most attentive and engaging artists I communicate with online. Still, he treated his Bonnaroo set with such care and gratitude that, if he was exhausted, I could not tell.

About two hours before his set, I ran into Carpenter backstage. He has such a way of making everybody in a room feel seen, it’s one of his greatest gifts. I asked him how he was feeling and he shared he’d just had an emotional moment with his dad and brother, who joined him at the festival. Later, on stage, he shared a similar anecdote. Through tears, he recounted a story of his brother calling him from the crowd of Radiohead’s 2006 Bonnaroo performance so they could listen to “Weird Fishes” together.

Unfortunately for the crowd, the set started about 20 minutes late, seemingly because of sound issues. The technical difficulties continued throughout the performance, shaking the vibes onstage only a little bit. Carpenter has the capacity to riff and entertain regardless of what he’s doing, so he took a few breaks early in the set to thank the crowd and crack some jokes.

One standout was “Rage,” off the 2023 Health EP. The emotion that reverberated through every muscle and every guitar string during that song sent me into another universe where we’re all free from the systems that fuel our rage. At the end of the song, he invited the packed tent to scream with him, cleansing the air for the weekend ahead.

The Medium Build set ended with a special rendition of “Cutting Thru The Country,” for which I will be accepting partial writing credits. At the end of our conversation before his set, I informed Carpenter that the crowd would go crazy if he replaced the lyrics “cutting through the country on my way to you” with “cutting through the country on my way to Roo.” To nobody’s surprise, that punny word change landed perfectly with the excitable crowd and I left That Tent feeling seen and validated in more ways than I can count. Thank you Nick Carpenter, see you in New York this week and every single other chance I get for the rest of my life.

Nation of Language

Geese

Friday

Baby Queen

The big takeaway from South African artist Baby Queen’s performance is that she is a rock star, not a pop star. Bella Latham created the Baby Queen persona to grow comfortable as a performer, and the result was a Bonnaroo performance oozing with swag and bravado. Commanding This Tent in one of the coolest outfits of the weekend, Baby Queen performed songs off her debut record, Quarter Life Crisis (Deluxe), in a surprisingly rock-forward manner. With standouts like “Buzzkill,” “kid genius,” and “Dover Beach,” Latham showed that her low register vocals pair well with a charmingly too-cool-to-care stage presence. Her energy ebbed and flowed to each song’s needs and her British rock influences came out in a strong way, at one point she doused herself with Liquid Death and reached around her bassist to cheekily mess around on his instrument.

Latham had quite the journey to get to Bonnaroo this year. I had the opportunity to briefly chat with her after her set and she explained that the Baby Queen persona allows her get out of her own head. “It’s something I will never truly understand. There are a lot of sides to me that are really insecure and I think Baby Queen is the side of me when I get really drunk. If I have two shots of tequila and a glass of wine, that’s Baby Queen at that point,” she shared. I praised the way she arranged the music, noting it was heavier than I anticipated and she said, “I wanted it to feel more alive because my body doesn’t naturally move the way a pop star’s body moves. I can’t dance or anything. When I first started performing, and now when I perform more of my pop songs, I feel so uncomfortable because my body doesn’t move in that way. I like to move like a boy.” She shared that her main inspiration for movement onstage is Michael Jackson, because “nobody has ever moved on stage the way he moves. Next time I come to Tennessee, I’m going to do the moonwalk.”

Abby Holliday

The best thing about a music festival like Bonnaroo is that there is so much new music to discover. At any stage, you could find your next favorite artist, or at the very least, catch a stunning performance from an artist you hadn’t previously known. Abby Holliday was my weekend standout in this category. It can be really hard to break through the noise in the indie/singer-songwriter space, but I’m so glad the Nashville-based artist was invited to perform at the Who Stage on Friday. Her vocal quality and stage presence reminded me a bit of Julien Baker, especially during “Immortal” and “Couch Comrade,” both from the Couch Comrade EP. She elevated her natural sound with some synth-based vocal effects, which has previously taken me out of a performance, but Holliday’s use felt like a thoughtful creative decision rather than a crutch or gimmick.

I left the set excited to listen to her entire discography and resonate with her lyrics brimming with 20-something chaos and self-discovery. The standouts were “Eggshells,” “IDK WHAT I WANT,” and “Immortal.”

The Japanese House

It was during The Japanese House’s set at 3:45 pm on Which Stage that I realized how much the heat had taken a toll on everybody at Bonnaroo. The turnout for this set was smaller than I expected, likely because people were finding shade and hydrating. The Japanese House was an act I wouldn’t miss for any reason.

Amber Bain has been making dreamy synth-pop under The Japanese House for just over a decade, signing to The 1975’s label, Dirty Hit, in 2012 after meeting Matty Heally through mutual friends. Her latest record, In the End It Always Does, is her bravest and most ambitious project yet, displaying raw lyricism that acts as a gut punch alongside masterfully crafted synths.

The set was mellow and vibey, perfect for swaying softly in the peak heat. Bain worked through her catalog, playing fan favorites like “Follow My Girl,” “Saw You In A Dream,” and “Dionne.” She looked effortlessly cool in her casual jeans and simple tank top, clearly disinterested in creating any sort of flashy statement that distracts from the performance. In front of a backdrop of clouds that mirrored the Tennessee sky, she was joined onstage by a band fitted with a saxophone player, making “Sunshine Baby” one of the standout songs of the weekend.

Dominic Fike

I have to admit that my expectations for this set were low. I have never been an avid listener of Dominic Fike, but I was familiar with the hits, “Babydoll,” “3 Nights,” and “Mona Lisa.” I understood his bad-boy charm to be a main attraction to his music but as his set at What Stage unfolded I found myself impressed with Fike’s commitment to performance and undeniable talent. That is not to say he was not also playing into his role as “Hot Rockstar,” because he did plenty of unnecessary flexing and made clearly calculated moves to present as sexy as possible.

This was the first performance I caught at the main What Stage and I was shocked at the turnout for Fike. I felt completely out of the loop watching thousands of people around me singing along to songs I had never given the time of day. Fike did a great job energizing the crowd, buzzing around the stage with his guitar, he was clearly comfortable with the number of eyes on him. After this set, I had a new appreciation for Fike’s music, but I do think his stage presence and the live grit did most of the heavy lifting for the music. His music is best enjoyed live, perfect for a festival.

Lizzy McAlpine

A singer-songwriter performing a set at 7:45 on Which Stage, three short hours before T-Pain headlined said stage, could have been an unremarkable and energy-depleting disaster. If there were any fears that this would be the case for the Lizzy McAlpine set, I’d like to squash those now. The 24-year-old enigmatic lyricist performed seated, with a six-piece, perfectly orchestrated band. It was conceptually simple, McAlpine sang with her eyes closed for the majority of the set as the six other individuals onstage built a set for her lyrics to live within. It was a perfect slot for the Philly-raised singer-songwriter; the sun set over The Farm as she pulled from her well of hits dating back to her rise in 2020.

I found myself emotional during “Ceilings” as I thought about how far she had come since she first posted poignant snippets of her songs on TikTok. She’s probably the biggest and brightest star to come out of the early years of the app that has now become a staple in artist marketing campaigns, mimicking what McApline did so naturally, sit and play unreleased tracks.

I’ve really been enjoying the trend of artists performing their work as if they are in the studio, with headphones on, not engaging much with the audience in a traditional way. When it’s executed well, meaning when the band sounds full and the artist has the voice and lyrical prowess for the crowd to latch onto, all of which McAlpine’s set had, it can be even more powerful than a high engagement, full energy display.

Some of the people I love most in this world are massive fans of Lizzy McAlpine and her vulnerable and disarmed performance of songs like “Doomsday,” “Drunk, Running,” and “Vortex” felt like an opportunity for me to grow closer to these people through my appreciation of her work. It was one of the most personally important sets of my weekend, and I think many in the crowd would say the same.

Maggie Rogers

When I saw that Maggie Rogers was playing Which Stage right before T-Pain, I was nervous. I knew the prodigal indie-pop star was an impressive vocalist, but I had never seen her take the stage to prove she could perform to a massive crowd, many of whom were waiting for one of the biggest names of the weekend. When Rogers confidently came out in the off-duty ballerina outfit she has continuously donned for her current “Don’t Forget Me” tour, my apprehensions fell away.

Rogers floated across the stage while holding a strength in her crisp, twangy voice throughout the entire set. She shared a tender moment during the opening song, “It Was Coming All Along,” voicing that this was her first time playing Bonnaroo and it was something she had been dreaming about since she was a teenager. After her speech, she went into the final chorus, singing “My world’s a honey shade of blue, it was coming all along.” I was moved to tears, knowing this song on this stage just took on a new meaning for Rogers. “Love You For A Long Time” is one of the greatest songs of the past decade, so to hear that live with thousands of loving strangers was a life-altering experience.

David Kushner

The Driver Era

Faye Webster

Khruangbin

Post Malone

Saturday

Trousdale

I shared my Saturday afternoon with Trousdale at This Tent. The LA folk-pop trio, Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones, created a magical environment through perfected harmonies and a clear love of performance. The three wore matching outfits of different colors, pink, blue, and green, creating a congruity while maintaining individuality among the group. This sentiment rang true in their individual performances as well, each taking turns to showcase their vocal prowess throughout the set.

The trio reminded me of the movement that happened in the late 90s when country girl groups rose in popularity, which was arguably some of the most fun music to come out of the 90s. Reminiscent of The Chicks or SheDaisy, this trio’s sound is a pop sun, country moon, folk rising, if that means anything to anybody. “If I’m Honest,” a song they just released a live rendition of ahead of the release of the deluxe version of their debut Out Of My Mind, was aptly a standout.

Like any good trio, the three took on specific roles onstage, each strengthening the other through their own specialized skills. D’Andrea mastered the keyboard while Jones strummed the guitar and Greene led vocals and tambourine, all harmonizing like they’d been doing it for their entire lives.

While catching up with the band after their set, I was surprised to learn they had only been playing together for a few years. They met at the University of Southern California, where they all went to study music. The three originally intended to all be solo acts, but once realizing the potential their harmonies had, they began writing and performing together. The crowd at Bonnaroo also recognized the power this trio held. The first few rows of people were some of the most energetic and excitable I saw this early in the day all weekend, knowing every lyric to every song. I asked the group how it has been to develop those relationships with fans. D’Andrea shared, “ That’s the number one goal and I feel like we all share the value that fans are the most important thing. People that are listening and people that are connecting to it and then connecting to each other while they’re listening to it is the most important thing.”

We briefly spoke about the decision to put out a deluxe version of their debut Out Of My Mind. Jones explained “We were trying to figure out other ways to keep shining a light on the album because we worked on it for about two years, and we’re super proud of it. It’s the first album we’ve ever made and we were really taking charge and produced it ourselves. And I think that a lot of people tend to say, ‘Oh my god, I love the record, but seeing you guys live is even better than the record.’” Greene added, “I also think we live in such a consumer culture where music is just digested so quickly, and people expect something new so quickly. We spent so much time collecting these songs and then also producing them which we’re learning how to speed up the process for the future. I think we learned a lot from making that album and want to sit with it longer.”

Ryan Beatty

When I made my way onto The Farm on Saturday morning, through the security checkpoint in my comically large rental Ford Explorer, I had Ryan Beatty’s 2023 Calico cranked to a dangerous level. He was another one of my most anticipated acts of the weekend, as I had seen him late last year and knew to expect a beautiful, chill, heartfelt set. At the security checkpoint, I had to hop out of my car so they could inspect it for contraband, so I kindly turned the volume down a few notches. As I walked through the metal detector, I looked to my right and was met with Beatty himself going through the same process, along with his crew. He stood off to the side and I regret not waving or expressing any excitement for his set, but he looked so stoic and peaceful and I didn’t want to disturb that.

Later, I stood as close as I could to the stage, knowing there would be a massive band, all of them experts in their craft, and I would want to learn as much as I could about the way they used their instruments. Beatty came out in the exact outfit he wore through security. I half expected him to change, but this vintage tee and perfect-wash denim combination was certainly true to his form. He sat center-stage, took a breath, and opened with a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind.”

Beatty’s performance is best experienced if you lean in, taking note of every instrument, every breath, and every single word that comes out of his mouth. Calico was one of the best lyrical pieces of 2023 and watching the way he enunciates and extends certain words to emphasize the molasses-sweet meanings can be life-changing if you allow yourself the freedom.

The night before Beatty’s performance, I pointed at the moon and told my friends I thought I could make out the details of its surface better in Tennessee than I could in Brooklyn. We shared a tender moment looking at the night sky. About halfway through his set, Beatty shared that he had spent a lot of time in Tennessee this year and how much he loved the sky. Looking at the perfect blue, the exact color of the Calico album, he said “The sky just looks different in Tennessee.” He closed the set with “Bright Red,” holding pieces of ice from the ice bucket he brought on stage to keep cool in the midday heat. My friend Max turned to me and noted that he did not think it was possible to get chills in near triple-digit degrees. That’s the power of a Ryan Beatty performance.

Bakar

The biggest schedule conflict of the weekend was Bakar and Ethel Cain performing at different tents at the exact same time. Entirely different sounds, but both are immensely talented artists in their own genres. It was a tough decision, but I ended up going with the set that I knew would be more energizing because at that point the weekend was halfway over and the heat exhaustion was getting to me.

Bakar, or Abubakar Bakar Shariff-Farr, is an English indie rock artist best known for his 2019 smash “Hell n Back,” which garnered success upon initial release in 2019 and then hit the algorithm on TikTok in 2023, sending it into Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first time. I had no idea how much fun the set would be, but he was the life of the party in This Tent on Saturday. I had never heard somebody shout out their hometown more in one set than Bakar did. A few times throughout the performance, he would take a break from singing and play classics from other London artists, such as “Smile” by Lily Allen and Lancey Foux’s “Lancey or Lancey.” It was an in interesting use of time, but it landed really well with the crowded tent. During these breaks in singing, he would dance around, coming out onto the speakers and holding the mic out for the audience to sing along. When he performed his songs he also treated those as a sing-along session, keeping the audience engaged with standouts like “Alive!” and “1st Time.”

Brittany Howard

Brittany Howard was the perfect Bonnaroo performer. Best known as the lead vocalist in Alabama Shakes, Howard has been performing as a solo artist since the 2018 band hiatus. Her rich history as a musician and performer allowed her to move around Which Stage with such coolness, despite the nearly unbearable heat. Everything about the set was calculated perfectly, there was a flow in the songs that the crowd couldn’t help but sway along to, Howard’s vocals were some of the weekend’s best, and the atmosphere the band created felt great to live in for the hour-long performance.

Howard’s music is groovy, soulful, and gutterally emotive. She played songs off her 2019 debut, Jaime, as well as her 2024 breakup album, What Now. The set was elevated by two backing vocalists, standing stage right, performing simple and effective choreography as Howard swaggered across the stage. My favorites from the set were “He Loves Me,” “Stay High,” and “History Repeats.”

Reneé Rapp

One of my favorite qualities in a performer is when they love attention. Similar to Dominic Fike, 24-year-old Reneé Rapp made it clear on Which Stage that she loved being there. When a woman knows she’s hot and talented, her confidence can radiate through thousands of people. That’s what it was like to watch Rapp on Saturday evening.

The queer Broadway-trained popstar has had an exciting few years, from acting on Max’s The Sex Lives of College Girls and playing Regina George in Mean Girls (2024) to releasing her debut album, Snow Angel, in 2023. Given her background, the enormity of this set did not shake Rapp, but I’m not sure anything could. Hailing from North Carolina, Rapp took time onstage to express how happy she was to be back in the South, explaining that she was finally eating good food again. The award for funniest stage banter of the weekend easily went to Rapp; everything that came out of her mouth when she wasn’t executing transcendent vocal runs was comedic gold that can only come from a performer born to be on stage.

I was lucky enough to find myself right in front of the stage for the first few songs and I felt myself getting nervous because of how beautiful and talented she was. I must note how good it felt to watch an openly queer woman perform songs on a main stage and be not accepted, but adored, by thousands of attendees. She sounded effortlessly perfect throughout the entire set, obviously, but her bangers like “Talk Too Much,” “Pretty Girls,” and “Tummy Hurts” stood out with a live band amplifying the heavier rock qualities of the arrangements. When closing the set, Rapp confessed that she had to end with a ballad because she lives for the drama. Sending us off into the night with “Snow Angel” could have been a lackluster ending, but the song built until the final chorus engulfed in a fiery display of otherworldly vocal stamina and electrifying guitar riffs.

The Maine

D4VD

Cage The Elephant

Sunday

Chappell Roan

This was the big one. With the world watching, Chappell Roan was set to take This Tent on Sunday afternoon. After seeing the crowd she pulled at Governors Ball the weekend prior, the Bonnaroo team made the genius decision to bump her set to Which Stage, minimizing the safety risk that could have occurred if 50,000 people (minimum) tried to fit under a tent.

The energy in the crowd right before the popstar came out could power a small village. People were forming theories about her outfit, after the iconic Chappell Apple seen in NYC, and discussing her recent and brave statement about how overwhelming the overnight success had become. There was a sympathy in the air, everybody wanting the best for the 26-year-old with the world freshly at her fingertips.

The set began aptly with a search engine appearing on the backdrop, and the words “am I gay?” autofilling, resulting in a wikiHow Am I Gay? Quiz displaying in front of the crowd of tens of thousands. For those unfamiliar, this was a nearly universal experience for many queer teens growing up. The backdrop dissolved into a massive rainbow and from side stage, out came Chappell Roan dressed in a latex nurse outfit, complete with syringes and a stunning drag makeup look.

The persona Kayleigh Rose Amstutz created is the most exciting move in pop we’ve seen since Lady Gaga, though I wouldn’t dare compare the two artists. The performance was technically stunning, it’s easy to forget that behind the avant-garde design of the entire Chappell Roan package there is a woman with immense vocal talent. Despite the heat, the popstar’s energy did not wane during any point in the set. She danced around from stage left to stage right while flawlessly belting “Baby, why dont you come over? Red wine supernova, falling into me.”

The most impressive element of the set was how airtight it was. She has not had the years of experience at this level that some others have, and still each song flowed into the next perfectly, the band meshed perfectly, she engaged with the audience perfectly. Everything was perfect. To choose standouts from the set would be impossible because it was like watching a Shakespearean comedy.

Before her final song, “Pink Pony Club,” Chappell Roan thanked the crowd for attending the last stop of the second leg of her tour. The set held a significance for a few reasons but notably, she recently and bravely spoke about how she felt overwhelmed by the overnight stardom. Her commitment to performance was unbreaking, but just behind the white face paint, there was a girl that was experiencing a transition that few others in the world could understand.

There was a magic to Chappell Roan’s set that, arguably, no other artist right now is capable of topping. It was an amalgamation of her one-of-a-kind creative direction, incredible talent, and the notoriety that has recently followed her. The audience played a massive role in the show. She has done something special by cultivating an environment that feels impossible to not want to be a part of. Therefore, everybody showed up to the set to not feel left out. In return the massive crowd energized the popstar and she gave it all back to the crowd; it works cyclically. The temperatures at the Chappell set reached a high for the weekend and there was fear of an incoming storm, but the storm held off and the thousands of Chappell Roan fans, either long-term or newly won over, showed up ready for the heat, just to be part of something huge.

Carly Rae Jepsen

I really wish I had more to say about the Carly Rae Jepsen set, which is not to fault the seasoned pop icon. She’s a popstar that I’ve been rooting for from the backseat for years and I was excited to finally see pop excellence executed on the What Stage. There were warnings of thunderstorms looming on Sunday afternoon, and unfortunately Jepsen’s set got cut extremely short due to the sky finally breaking.

Before the show abruptly ended, the 38 year old superstar bopped around stage singing perfect pop hits like “Now That I Found You,” “Anything to Be With You,” and “Run Away With Me.” With her flowy blue dress and crimped hair, she could have passed for a freshly transitioned mermaid. She made the most of her time, beaming with euphoria during the Saxophone solo in “Run Away With Me.” After seeing Jepsen, it’s clear she’s an artist that knows how to facilitate a great time. There was something so earnestly sweet about her stage presence that I couldn’t help but feel moved by. I hope to get more time with her in the future.

Megan Thee Stallion

How did I get so lucky to exist at the same time as Megan Thee Stallion. How did I get so lucky to exist at the same time as Megan Thee Stallion and find myself in the in the pit at her Sunday night Bonnaroo set. It could be controversial to say, but the Houston Hottie is the best woman rapping right now, and certainly the best live rap performance. She emerged onto the stage in a yellow bedazzled two piece set, accentuating the body she so openly loves. The 29 year old rapper has done something really empowering for women by sharing songs about sexual liberation and self love. The crowd full of women of all ages was rooting for this 5’10, objectively perfect human, maybe because they saw themselves in her masterful wordplay or because it’s just fun to uplift women. Her well of hits is deep and she did not shy away from playing tracks from her early Tina Snow era.

She commanded the stage, challenging the first few rows to show off their knowledge of her lyricism by pitting the right and left sides of the crowd against eachother in a rap battle to “Sex Talk.” It was entertaining to watch the Hotties vie for her attention, and she happily gave it when it was due. Throughout the set, she would point out members of the audience that were rapping along to her satisfaction. She also would engage with fans by commenting on their signs, she had a way of making people feel special.

When she was rapping, she was in the zone, moving perfectly to the beat. I cannot emphasize enough that when I say moving perfectly, I mean moving in a way that 99.9% of people cannot move. My eyes were genuinely dry after this set because I blinked as few times as I could, as not to miss any moment with the most perfect woman in front of me. Similarly to Chappell Roan’s set, there were no obvious standouts, because the entire performance was one continuous display of excellence. With that, go relisten to “Body,” “Freak Nasty” and the song that Boomers love to hate “WAP!”

Fred again..

The finale of the weekend was none other than british DJ, Fred again.. Music is so beautiful in that an artist can come along and entirely transform the way you view a specific genre. To me, Fred Again.. shifted the way I view electronic dance music in the most profound way. The 30 year-old musician, born Frederick John Philip Gibson, started his career as a co-writer and producer, with credits on hits like George Ezra’s “Shotgun,” and Rita Ora’s “Let You Love Me.” It wasn’t until Fred’s 2019 debut, Actual Life, that it became clear just how talented he is as a producer and DJ. His music breaks through the noise of some other EDM music because it’s based in clear and expressive emotion. His signature style is to sample music and spoken word that channels feelings of grief, pain, love, and humanity and amplifies the feelings by manipulating the beats, transforming the sound into something a body can move freely to while experiencing the euphoria of feeling understood by a song.

Knowing that the magical weekend was coming to an end, I couldn’t help but begin to prematurely grieve. The crowd for Fred was massive and it felt special to share this collective joy that had built up over the weekend. As if he knew exactly what everybody was feeling, he opened up about wanting this to be a magical show for everybody. It was his first time performing in the South, and he expressed his expectation that it would be one of the best shows of his career. With the encouragement of those words, the crowd gave everything they could, dancing and throwing glowsticks for the nearly two hours he performed. He closed his set with a mashup of two of my favorite tracks of his “Strong” featuring Romy and “Angie(i’ve been lost)” featuring Angie McMahon. He asked everybody to sing over McMahon’s lyrics “I’ve been lost, I’ve been lost for a while” in between Romy’s own “you don’t have to be so strong.” The result was a choir of thousands coming together to affirm ourselves and the strangers around us that things can be impossible to navigate and we can take moments, entire weekends even, to free ourselves from the expectations of the world and just dance.

Jake Wesley Rogers