North Coast Music Fest announces impressive lineup

Three months ago, we first heard that another big three-day festival would be putting its stakes in Union Park over Labor Day weekend. Based on the bundle of local promoters behind the North Coast Music Festival—React, Silver Wrapper, Metronome Chicago, Kingtello and Cold Grums—we predicted the newcomer bill would lean heavily on hip-hop, electro and jam, like most of their shows at the Congress, etc.

Frankly, the bookings far surpassed our expectations. Hats off, guys. Wisely, North Coast is sticking to three genres that Pitchfork and Lolla tend to overlook—Ibiza meets hackey sack and drum circles. Yeah, it's a little bit hippie and a lot bit rave, but you'll actually see people dance here. However, hipsters can still get their chin-scratching fix with dusty revivalist Mayer Hawthorne and jazzbo laptop guru Flying Lotus.

Here's the slate, so far:

Chemical Brothers
Nas & Damian Marley
Umphrey’s McGee
Disco Biscuits
Moby
Benny Benassi
Paul Van Dyk
Cold War Kids
De La Soul
Mayer Hawthorne & the County
Jay Electronica
Boys Noize
Flying Lotus
Pretty Lights
Benga
Jakob Dylan & Three Legs
Laidback Luke
Future Rock
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Green Velvet (Live)
Phantogram
Van Ghost
Two Fresh
The Uglysuit
Loyal Divide
Paul Kalkbrenner

North Coast Music Fest runs Friday, Sep 3, to Sunday, Sep 5. Grab tickets at northcoastmusicfestival.com. $35 for single-day passes. Three-day passes start at $65.