Atlanta’s Music Midtown

Bringing in a variety of big-name artists from across all musical genres, Music Midtown knows how to pack a park and stack a lineup. Originally conceived by two Atlanta-based music promoters in 1994, the festival was designed to rival the popularity and success of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. And though it ran annually in Atlanta from 1994 to 2005 — and during its peak years drew in more than 300,000 attendees annually — the promoters had to put the fest on hiatus for six years, citing excessive expenses. However, after revamping it in 2011, Music Midtown made a revival and has been going strong in the park ever since.

Now located in Piedmont Park (Atlanta’s own Central Park), Music Midtown pulls in phenomenal acts from all across the country to play in our own backyard, and at an unbelievably affordable price too. (Tickets hover around $125 for a two-day pass.) The 2013 lineup featured Journey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stone Age, Imagine Dragons, Arctic Monkeys, 2 Chainz, Phoenix, Cake, Weezer, Kendrick Lamar, The Neighbourhood and Capital Cities, and 2014 is slated to be even better. With three different stages spread throughout the 189-acre park, the 2014 fest — with a line-up of Eminem, Jack White, the Zac Brown Band, John Mayer, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Bastille, Run DMC, Gregg Allman, Fitz and The Tantrums, B.o.B, twenty one pilots, NEEDTOBREATHE, Third Eye Blind, and Mayer Hawthorne — is aiming to be the biggest one yet.

So get your tickets for Music Midtown 2014 (occurring Sept. 19–20) now, before they go up in price. Keep in mind, parking will be a pain (and excessively expensive), so carpool or consider riding the MARTA train to either the nearby Arts Center or Midtown stations. And if it rains, just mentally prepare yourself to get a little muddy while dancing. Actually, it’s more fun that way.