UPDATE 2: That leaked poster we had to take down was 100 percent on the mark. Major Lazer, RL Grime, Above & Beyond and Zed's Dead are your Sunset Music Festival Headliners. Check out the full poster at the bottom of this post.
Music leaks are prevalent because breaking news and rumours in the industry are, and always have been, a hot commodity.
UPDATE: We've taken the speculative Sunset Music Festival poster down at the request of WME, a Beverly Hills talent agency that represents dozens of electronic artists. We're waiting on an official statement from the agency regarding the takedown.
Whether its gossip or new music, artists are always fighting to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to surprising fans with updates. It is a plague, however, that's become more widespread in the music festival industry. In today’s world, not even live music organizers are immune to announcement leaks.
Case in point: Tampa’s very own Sunset Music Festival (SMF). Despite being almost two months away, SMF fans have been deprived of big announcements regarding who'll take the stage on May 27 & 28. That is, until yesterday when a supposedly leaked lineup surfaced on social media.
When it comes to leaked lineups, it’s pertinent to be suspicious until news is verified by official festival organizers; SMF isn't making an official announcement until March 28, and emails to Tampa Sports Authority (managers of Raymond James Stadium) and SMF have yet to be returned.
Read: Tampa Sports Authority votes to retain Sunset Music Festival in 2017, with conditionsHowever, recent examples do give some credence to believing the SMF leak. Just look at what happened to our own Okeechobee Music Festival and Chicago's Lollapalooza. Both fell victim to leaks days before the official announcements, and both leaks held up when the lineups were made official. Hell, an EDMtunes.com post regarding Sunset's leaked lineup is now mysteriously unavailable.
So should potential festival goers buy their weekend passes based on the new leak? We argue that buying tickets to SMF based on this news is worth the bet.
To fans already immersed in this year’s festival circuit, many of the names on the leaked SMF lineup are familiar. What’s more is that the weekend prior to SMF finds the beaches of Gulf Shores, Alabama playing host to the widely popular Hangout Festival (where the lineup is confirmed).
Both festivals would share a headliner in the trio Major Lazer, who is rumoured to be closing out SMF on May 27. South Carolina duo Louis the Child — whose recent viral hits “Blasé” and “It’s Strange” — also appear on the Hangout and leaked SMF lineups.
Since both Hangout and SMF are situated on or close the Gulf of Mexico (and separated by enough mileage to take proximity/radius clauses out of the equation), crossover between the lineups makes sense.
Read: The top 13 moments of Okeechobee Music Festival 2017
Now, If what’s good for Okeechobee (which sold out for the second year in a row) is good for SMF, then you really have an argument.
The aforementioned Louis the Child are in a club of Okeechobee alumni who are also rumoured to be playing in Tampa come May. Snails, Kill the Noise, and RL Grime, all on the leaked SMF lineup, have also made appearances at Okee's Grove stage over the festival’s two year run.
After more digging, we discovered that RL Grime shares the same booking agent with many names on the purported bill.
Bandsintown's website has RL Grime scheduled for May 27 at Raymond James Stadium. Are they reacting to leaked rumors or do they know something we don't?
"We are an aggregator of concert information and we curate from hundreds of sources worldwide – mostly primary ticket sellers and booking agencies," is how Bandsintown describes their operation. "We use these dates as the foundation, and give artists the option to edit and/or add additional dates to the system through Bandsintown Manager."
CODA Music Agency, based out of London, also represents Above & Beyond, Zed's Dead, Dusky, Getter, Louis the Child, Slushii, and Snails — all of whom are on the leaked SMF lineup.
Consider the lineup for Atlanta’s Shaky Beats — happening May 5-7 — and even more of the leaked SMF lineup seems plausible. Zed's Dead, RL Grime, Snails, Louis the Child, Slushii, and Getter are all on Shaky Beats’ confirmed lineup and the leaked SMF bill.
So, tell us what you think. Is this leaked Sunset Music Festival lineup the real thing? This guy thinks we'll see 40 of the 44 in Tampa come May.
