BIG EARS 2022: Zorn, Shabaka, Low, Arooj Aftab, Annette Peacock, Dawn Richard, Nubya Garcia, L'Rain, Damon Locks, Lido Pimienta, more more more!

Pardon the street teaming, but a few more artists announced, in particular Patti Smith. (She was supposed to be at the canceled '20 fest.) Solo sets by Lage and Medeski, other interesting stuff.

https://bigearsfestival.org/big-ears-announces-second-wave-artist-additions/

ok haven’t posted here in like five years but I am incredibly excited about this lineup. like, beyond amped.

I bet some of y’all who’ve attended previously will know: if I stay outside of town, is parking near-downtown doable? And how likely am I to get shut out of performances if my ticket is GA?

I only got shut out of tiny places like the Pilot Light, but then again I had the mid-level Premier tickets.

Yeah, the only places it seems to be a problem are the small venues. I think Wolf Eyes shut down the Standard

You can definitely park downtown, especially in March. There are a lot of garages. I've found the shut-out thing variable, there are definitely shows that if you really want to be at, you want to get there early (even if it means skipping something else). You can usually tell by looking at the schedule which shows in any given slot are going to be the big draws.

A bunch of downtown parking garages are free in the evenings and on weekends: https://www.downtownknoxville.org/explore/parking/?t%5B%5D=96&view=map&q=&_=1635304005563&ajaxcall=1635304017

Your best choice is probably the State St. Garage which is one block from the TN Theater and two from the Bijou Theater: https://www.downtownknoxville.org/state-street-garage/

Yeah, any of the public garages, if you wait until after 8 or so to leave you don't have to pay at all (even if you park there in the morning/all day).

I'm vaxxed and boosted... Any advice on how not to get Omicron at Big Ears?

zorb ball

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0280/1473/9549/products/89223_ziploc_gallon_storage_bags_1_800x.jpg?v=1576176350

N95 mask at all venues, avoid the UT campus? Eat in your hotel room?

For a moment I thought this was the campaigning thread haha

I wouldn't worry about it. By the end of March there will probably be a new strain.

http://www.nme.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GettyImages-89266817.jpg

Speaking from on the ground in Knoxville, I'd say it's possible Omicron is gonna burn through here like a forest fire. It may be long since peaked by the end of March. On the downside, the state Legislature has made it literally illegal to require vaccination to enter a venue — BUT they can require a negative test, and accept a vaxx card as a substitute. So dumb.

This thing is 10 weeks away, what are our odds

i have these same questions

so say we all

Think positive

Schedule is here...

https://bigearsfestival.org/festival-schedule/

I'm not even past Thursday and it looks impossible

https://bigearsfestival.org/festival-schedule/

i say this every year but i really need to go one of these days.

lol at scheduling the sparks and low shows where they overlap, there will be tears

As much as I love the music, my legs and back are too old for the hard hustle of getting from venue to venue and the no-seating venues, not to mention the impossible choices of multiple programming tracks.

Yo, especially after covid! I went to one show in the space between Delta and Omicron after a year or w/e of lockdown and my back was like FUUUUCK YOOOUU

Yo, especially after covid! I went to one show in the space between Delta and Omicron after a year or w/e of lockdown and my back was like FUUUUCK YOOOUU

i am trying to get back to jogging at least partially so that i can toughen my feet up so that i can be out nights

lol at scheduling the sparks and low shows where they overlap, there will be tears

think I gotta go w low

my question is, do they kick ppl out of the venues between shows? or can I hang out and get a good spot for the next one

jeff parker against sons of kemet, honestly rude imo

still so excited tho

can't wait for the day when I can just ship someone my entire head to take along with them and then just get it fedexed straight back to me afterwards before the memories start leaching out

Thursday and Friday are just way too loaded and Sunday is pretty sparse I know they gotta work around artists’ schedules but they should try to even it out.

my question is, do they kick ppl out of the venues between shows? or can I hang out and get a good spot for the next one

They clear the venues iirc.

ugh

I have fewer terrible conflicts than I was afraid of, partly because of some people playing more than once. But there will be hard choices, plus yes the physical limits of what one can endure. (One trick for me is to work in shows at the Bijou or Tennessee, which are seated, between the standing venues when possible.)

I just sprung for the VIP tickets cause I haven’t gone anywhere in two years.

xpost - I was bummed when I saw the 75 Dollar Bill / Damon Locks conflict on Thursday, until I saw 75 Dollar Bill was playing again the next day.

Also because I remembered that I'm not actually going to this.

is there a map of the venues? i know where they are mostly but it'd be nice to be able to look at a map to plan things out

is there a map of the venues? i know where they are mostly but it'd be nice to be able to look at a map to plan things out

Yeah, Mill & Mine is most removed, except for the Tennessee Amphitheater which is over in a park. (Not to be confused with the Tennessee Theatre, which is just a few blocks from the Bijou.) All walkable but takes a little time from one end to the other.

yeah, I've been to all these venues before and I've gotten the map at the event, I guess I'm just surprised there's not one on the website!

likely old but
https://bigearsfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BE19-MAP-Digital-2-01-1024x904.png

nice - ty!

I have passed along the suggestion of a map on the website. Agree it would be helpful.

Here's a quick Google map of the festival sites: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1W0ouVIHAZPOlttxBAhp5FFTinKvwSZA2&usp=sharing

So what’s the deal is the Tennessee Amphitheater outdoors? If so, they must be really confident it’ll be nice in late March. I was there in 2018 and it was quite chilly that year. Unusually chilly, I was told. The weather was nicer in 2019 but I remember at least one cold rainy day that would definitely put a damper on anything outdoors.

I know we have more than a month to go, but apart from Ron Miles, no one else has backed out yet.

The Amphitheater is outdoors, and yeah ... hoping for decent weather. It's covered, but not heated. (The weekend that would have been Big Ears 2020 was, naturally, the nicest weather that weekend has had since Big Ears started.)

Georgia Ann Muldrow has also backed out btw. She is not playing indoor shows right now.

https://t.co/fBGNnrfKpy pic.twitter.com/1WvuTB7JgV

— Big Ears Festival (@BigEarsFestival) February 25, 2022

App dropped with map!

Yeah this was the first year of a complete sell-out. There weren't even any day tickets left.

the ppl were ready

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/big-ears-festival/recap-arooj-aftab-joe-henry-caroline-shaw/?fbclid=IwAR1G0KOmaKcwkSz-3258FdqAmi6P6EoHFvdOKcBgsLkNpSCCkPHKdzFrWi8

Geoff Himes writeup in Paste

Himes makes big pronouncements-

re Jason Moran--

The 47-year-old pianist, perhaps the best jazz artist of his generation,

And the central paradoxes of our lives—the tension between creation and destruction, between hope and loss—are never fully resolved, and we can always use new approaches to the same old problems.
Every year, the Big Ears Festival provides a useful arena for reconsidering these issues.

Immanuel Wilkins, the alto saxophonist who is justly being hailed as the best young jazz artist of the decade

I'll suggest "a useful arena for reconsidering the central paradoxes of our lives" as the festival's new tagline.

Good idea. Ha.

Just reading author N*d S*blette in an email talk about his faves at the fest. He was there showing his work in progress movie "Tierra Sagrada (Sacred Ground)" about religious Cuban singing and dancing rituals. His faves were:

Miguel Zenón with the Spektral Quartet; Val Jeanty; and Jason Moran

I saw about 15-20 minutes of the movie, taking a breather between other things. It was cool. I also saw some of Val Jeanty, who was also cool. I heard raves about Zenon. (And Moran, I mean, of course.)

Dude the Moran set got absolutely batshit. He started just playing this low piano noise rumble that turned into a sucking abyss somehow?

I didn't make it to Moran, which I hated to miss. The two sets I saw by him a few years back (including w/Milford Graves!) were amazing.

This festival sounds amazing.

just got my pass for next year :)

got mine too

Thread for next year's:

Big Ears 2023