Best Emerging Festival (2020)

The Same Same But Different Music and Arts Festival features four stages for live tunes, float parties and beach activities on the lake and more than 15 workshops covering topics like yoga, meditation, dance, painting and intentional movement.
Photo courtesy of Same Same But Different Music and Arts Festival

This family friendly festival, hosted in cities across the United States, includes an evening of live music, great food, dancing and the headline event, a lantern launch where festival goers release their biodegradable lanterns into the night sky. A “Leave No Trace” policy and dedicated cleanup crew means no lantern is left behind.
Photo courtesy of The Lights Fest

This three-day, multi-genre music festival brings together names like Carrie Underwood, Pitbull, Third Eye Blind and Nelly in the Twin Cities metro area. The inaugural event took place in 2019, and 2020 is already looking to be bigger and better.
Photo courtesy of Twin Cities Summer Jam

This new music festival combines daytime ski activities with after dark electronic music parties in two of the nation’s top ski resorts, Vail and Lake Tahoe. This “immersive alpine festival experience” will feature acts like Bob Moses, Griz, Claptone and Eli & Fur in 2020.
Photo courtesy of Powabunga Music Festival

This festival from Grammy-nominated rapper J. Cole has already started attracting more than 40,000 attendees for its lineup of rap, hip hop and R&B artists. Proceeds from the one-day festival in Raleigh benefit Cole’s Dreamville Foundation and the Dix Park Conservancy.
Photo courtesy of MadeNChynna / Dreamville Music Festival

Staged in the heart of Memphis at Shelby Farms Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country, Mempho Music Festival enters its fourth year with two days of live music in a beautiful natural setting. The lineup includes big names and local talent, with past performers like Beck, Post Malone and Cage the Elephant.
Photo courtesy of Keith Griner / Mempho Music Festival

This country music festival, entering its fifth year in 2020, fills Ohio Stadium with the sounds of some of the genre’s top acts. Headliners include Kenny Chesney, Florida Georgia Line, Kane Brown and Brett Young.
Photo courtesy of Buckeye Country Superfest

Secret Project embraces the world of the underground – its sounds, art and culture – in the heart of downtown LA. This festival hosts DJs and music producers who are at the cutting edge of electronic music. The event also includes street art and immersive art installations and digital art.
Photo courtesy of Juliana Bernstein / Secret Project

The mantra of the Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival is “Be. Here. Now.” The four-day event features multiple stages and a diverse lineup of talent, alongside immersive art installations, light shows, a beach, tea lounge and a village where festival goers can take yoga classes or shop for one-of-kind pieces of art.
Photo courtesy of Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival

Lost Lands Festival invites music fans to “the filthiest three days of bass music you have ever experienced.” Festival goers find themselves surrounded by giant dinosaurs and a million watts of bass that you can actually feel. Now in its fourth year, the festival attracts a mix of headbangers and EDM enthusiasts.
Photo courtesy of iStock / gilaxia