That’s the conceit of a festival like Hopscotch. The top-line acts are usually indie darlings, but the heart of the thing lies in the middle-tier and the club shows.
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Right, I get what Hopscotch is. I’m just saying that if we’re gonna have another music festival, maybe having it be more like Bonnaroo or any of the other ones I see in Boston, Ocean City, etc. where there’s better known acts, different types of music, and something for a wider range of people.
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Don’t worry, Raleigh city is speaking with Live Nation..
The acts will be famous and heavily monetized
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FTFY lmao. You want a pop-festival, which is fine, but again - to say Hopscotch doesn’t have something for everybody is disingenuous at best. You just have to be willing to listen to more than what Top 40 radio forcefeeds you 
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For better… or for worse lmao
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I haven’t listened to the radio in probably 20 years. I have no idea what is popular or not. I’m just making the point that I see the lineup for numerous music festivals across the country, and there’s many bands I like, plenty others I recognize, and many that I don’t. Saying “normies” implies that there’s some kind of competition to be cool or in the know about certain music scenes, or that people need to be hungry to find new music to be able to go to a music festival. I’m saying that there’s a lot of people from 35-65 that don’t want to go to clubs to hear unknown bands at Hopscotch. That’s an untapped market to consider if the city is trying to get another music festival. I don’t have a problem with Hopscotch, or Dreamville and the bluegrass thing (which I’m way less interested in personally). They’re great for the city. I’d just be happy to have something a little more mainstream as a bigger draw, if anyone was asking my opinion. Which, admittedly, no one is.
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Jake, Gucci is right to an extent.
The ethos of hopscotch and that type of talent buyer/fan is to find obscure acts. There is an unspoken point system based on how many obscure musicians one is familiar with
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I agree. Hopscotch has its place for the underground scene. Then a more mainstream festival has its place for the masses. Both are awesome experiences and there’s nothing wrong with having a preference for one or the other.
The mainstream festivals usually have side stages with plenty of acts that are kind of in-between the Hopscotch level popularity and T40 level - this is the sweet spot for me personally.
I also love what Charleston does with High Tide fest.
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¿Porque no los dos?
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To be fair Big Ears in Knoxville pulls huge crowds from all over the country and features almost exclusively high-brow art music. So there’s definitely a market for that stuff.
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Four more years! Four more years!
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Heads up that a lot of today’s (free) Dreamville events are happening all day downtown on Harrington and Commerce Place - which if you recall/will indulge me - was a City sponsored P3 project that “opened” last November. If people are around, I encourage you to stop by and enjoy what is hoped to be one of downtown’s main third place/tactical urbanism kinda spaces. It’s also First Friday so there’s that.
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I am on the train from Kannapolis now and the train is full of people headed to the Festival!
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Took these as FF was winding down, but the Dreamville pregame (or whatever they’re calling it) was absolutely slammed. Love to see it!
However, it did take my R-Line about 10 minutes to get past a single block of West St. next to RUSBUS. I will be complaining more than I’ve ever complained if they don’t put in a bus lane there when the BRT comes, especially as warehouse district events become more common.
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The Dreamville pre-party was still going on when I went by a little bit ago. Between everything going on tonight, downtown across the board was as active and lively as I’ve seen it in a long time. Every area had things going on.
Another event happening downtown:
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Big festival, tiny 
car. 
Right out my window illegally parked. But who’s reading those paper signs. They don’t look real anyway and this car takes up like 15 inches tops.
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My pics from the top of the Ferris wheel at Dreamville. It was a special weekend. Big thanks to Cole for plugging the new version of the festival during his performance. That should go a long way in driving excitement for next year.
Side note, I met so many folks from out of state. It was incredible to see downtown completely canvassed post festival. Wherever you went, it was lively. There was a saxophone on Fayetteville St too and I thought of @trueurbanist. Apparently he is actually out there pretty often!
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a permanent ferris wheel seems like a home run at Dix
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