Bunbury 2020: Who's Coming to Town?
Cincinnati’s very own Bunbury Music Festival has finally released their artist lineup. With the festival coming up in June, fans have been eager to learn if their favorite artists would be attending. Every year the lineup is exciting, and this year is no exception.
Who are the Headliners?
Currently the top three headliners coming to Bunbury this year are Twenty-One Pilots, Marshmello, and The Avett Brothers.
Images of the three headliners from bunburyfestival.com
Twenty-One pilots are an alternative rock duo from Columbus. The band exploded with the release of their 2015 album BLURRYFACE. The album would go on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide and earn the band their first ever Grammy Award. They shattered longstanding chart records and played worldwide on sold-out arena show’s and at international festivals. They are sure to bring the largest crowd since they are the number one headliner and their fans are one of the most loyal fan groups around.
Marshmello mostly deals with electronic music such as dubstep pop, but he also has collaborated with other artists to make some unique tracks. With chart-topping singles and collaborations with artists such as Bastille, Selena Gomez, Migos, Khalid, Logic, and more, Marshmello has clocked a staggering 2+ billion streams across Spotify alone. With over 40 million monthly listeners on the platform, he's the 14th most streamed artist in the world on Spotify. He is surely going to have one of the most entertaining and pumped up shows at the festival and probably one of the largest, given his reputation.
And finally, we have The Avett Brothers who are a folk-rock group from Concord North Carolina. True Sadness (2016) achieved The Avett Brothers’ highest career debut to date hitting Number 1 on Billboard’s Top Albums Chart, Number 1 Top Rock Albums Chart, Number 1 Digital Albums Chart, Number 3 on Billboard Top 200, and scoring two Grammy nominations. In the same year, the band was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. Out of the three main headliners, The Avett brothers are probably going to draw the smallest crowd, due to how big the other two artists are.
Image of Blackbear performing in concert from thepreludepress.com
Most Anticipated artists
Some highly anticipated artists for this year’s lineup include Blackbear, Ski Mask The Slump God, and Oliver Tree. Though none of these artists are headliners, they are sure to bring in some of the larger crowds. This is because these artists are probably some of the more well known amongst the collective that have come together for Bunbury this year. The three artists all have hundreds of millions of views on their top songs such as Alien Boy (Tree), Hot girl bummer (Blackbear), and Nuketown (Ski Mask)
Who shouldn’t be on the lineup?
One thing a lot of people have been agreeing on is that the three sub-headliners are terrible, especially Melanie Martinez. Most people on social media and online forums such as Twitter and Reddit are more confused and disappointed with these sub headliners. Melanie Martinez’s music just doesn’t match to all the other artists participating in the festival. Angels and Airwaves haven't performed in years, and last time I checked there wasn’t an overwhelming need for them to perform again. And finally, Kane Brown is just there to go along with one of the song’s he has made with Marshmello, as a standalone performer, I and many others don’t think he is right to bring crowds for this specific festival.
I interviewed Alex Von Gillern ‘21, he listens to a lot of the artists performing at the festival and has even been to Bunbury back in 2016. Alex had some things to say regarding the lineup.
“I am really excited for this year’s lineup, especially the pop punk theme that seems to be circulating. I really believe that everyone on the lineup, especially the headliners are good except for Melanie Martinez, I have no idea why she is on there.”
On the more negative side of things Hunter Stratton ‘21 had some negative comments to make about Bunbury this year.
“I think Bunbury is absolute garbage this year, they couldn’t have gone further from going to a 10 to an absolute zero with this year's lineup.”
Previous year’s
2018
2018 was one of the better years for Bunbury. Even though Blink 182 cancelled, Bunbury still had some strong artists on their lineup. These consisted of artists such as Post Malone, and The Chain Smokers. Tickets for all three days of the festival were sold out, according to founder Bill Donabedian, which amounts to more than 20,000 expected attendees per day.
2019
Last year Bunbury had an interesting lineup. This included artists such as Fall Out Boy and The 1975 who are sure to have entertaining shows and bring in some large crowds. Though personally I thought this was an interesting lineup. I instead saw a lot of backlash about last year having to many varying artists and that it wasn’t what the people wanted. Fall Out Boy pretty much replaced Blink 182 because they cancelled for the second year in a row and this seemed to agitate the local festival goers.
In the interview with Alex he also agreed that 2019 was a rough year for Bunbury, but he thinks with big and exciting artists such as Twenty-one Pilots, the festival will be able to recover this year.
Karl Foltyn ‘20 from Fenwick is a fan of Twenty-one Pilots. Karl has seen Twenty-one Pilots in concert before and he had to say this about Bunbury, “I think that overall, the band is one of the most energetic performers out there, especially when they are playing at home in Ohio. Because this festival is in Ohio, I'm sure they will put on one of the best show’s they possibly can.”
Should you go?
Full lineup released from bunburyfestival.com
If you have never been to the Bunbury music festival before, then this year is the time to try it out with artists in the lineup like Twenty-One pilots, Marshmello, Black Bear, and Ski mask. It is surely going to be exciting and entertaining with all the show’s lined up. If you are still having doubts, look at myself and the interviewee's personal lineups to see if someone you like may be attending the festival. Or even take a listen to some of the music to see if you take a new liking to any of the attending artists.
Personal Lineup’s
Will Carty: Twenty-one Pilots, Oliver Tree, Blackbear, Wallows, COIN, Neon Tree’s, Missio
Alex Von Gillern: The Regrettes, The Struts, Ski Mask, Twenty-one Pilots, COIN, Wallows, Blackbear, Oliver Tree, Neon Trees
Karl Foltyn: iDKHOW, Oliver Tree, COIN, Missio, Twenty-one pilots, The Regrettes, The Struts