Hopscotch Music Festival returns to downtown Raleigh, N.C. for its 10th year on Sept. 5-7, 2019. Described as “America’s (secretly) best festival” and “the premiere experimental and underground festival in America,” Hopscotch features over 120 acts performing within Raleigh’s walkable downtown footprint.

2019 HEADLINERS

This year’s main stage headliners will be James Blake, Sleater-Kinney, Chvrches, Phantogram, Little Brother, Raphael Saadiq, Jenny Lewis, Kurt Vile & The Violators, and more.

Sleater-Kinney came crashing out of the ’90s Pacific Northwest riot grrrl scene, setting a new bar for punk’s political insight and emotional impact. Hailed as “America’s best rock band” by Greil Marcus in Time Magazine, and as “America’s best punk band ever. EVER” by Rob Sheffield in Rolling Stone. In January the band confirmed that they have recorded a new record produced by Hopscotch 2014 alum St. Vincent.

After the success of his first three albums, James Blake has reinvented his entire artistic process and managed to produce the best work of his career so far. The stunning Assume Form, an album about the power of love and relationships, builds on his reputation of being one of music’s most essential collaborators, while showing the world his growth as a solo artist.

Since emerging in 2013 with the glistening brightness of their breakthrough single, “Recover,” Chvrches have always projected an insularity, a subtle but unmistakable wariness about leaning into their obvious Hit Song of the Summer-writing potential. At their core, CHVRCHES are true blue Glaswegian punks. They’ve wanted to protect themselves, and protect that undercurrent of melancholy that gives depth to their sunniness.

Little Brother is the legendary North Carolina hip hop group with rappers Phonte and Big Pooh. The group formed as a trio with 9th Wonder on production at NC Central University in 2001 and went on to release their debut record, ‘The Listening’, in 2003 followed by ‘The Minstrel Show’ in 2005, both widely considered to be classic albums. 9th Wonder left the group in 2007 before the release of the group’s third album, ‘The Getback’. This will be Little Brother’s first show in Raleigh since the duo disbanded in 2010. The duo is working on a documentary about their debut record with the NC Arts Council as a part of the NC Art’s Council’s Year of Music. Phonte has performed at Hopscotch with his group the Foreign Exchange in 2011 as well as solo in 2017. Big Pooh performed at Hopscotch in 2014. Hopscotch is extremely excited to have Phonte and Big Pooh return as Little Brother for the 10 year anniversary of the festival.

Full mainstage bills are:

Raleigh City Plaza, Thursday, September 5

Sleater-Kinney

Kurt Vile & The Violators

Snail Mail

The Nude Party

Red Hat Amphitheater, Friday, September 6

James Blake

Dirty Projectors

Faye Webster

Raleigh City Plaza, Friday, September 6

Jenny Lewis

Tyler Ramsey

Red Hat Amphitheater, Saturday, September 7

Chvrches

Phantogram

!!! (chk chk chk)

Raleigh City Plaza, Saturday, September 7

Little Brother

Raphael Saadiq

Lute

Indigo De Souza with Icky Bricketts

ARTIST CURATED BILLS

For our 10 year anniversary we have decided to bring back a tradition from the early days of Hopscotch — artist curated bills. This year we have asked 10 North Carolina artists to curate bills across the weekend including Little Brother, Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, Birds of Avalon, Nest Egg, Resonancy, No Love, Solar Halos, Museum Mouth, Crowmeat Bob, and Gudiya. Full artist curated bills will be announced throughout the summer.

Remaining artists will be announced this summer.

Hopscotch is programmed by festival director Nathan Price. Jordan Benghiat, a talent buyer with Live Nation Carolinas, the company responsible for the city-owned Red Hat Amphitheater’s calendar, worked closely with Price on the festival.

Kaanchee Gandhi designed the Hopscotch poster for the 3rd straight year.

TICKETS

All remaining VIP and 3-Day passes are on sale Thursday, May 23 at 10 a.m. through www.hopscotchmusicfest.com and www.etix.com. Each of these passes allows entry into all festival clubs, three City Plaza headlining shows, and two Red Hat Amphitheater headlining shows.

Single show passes for all City Plaza and Red Hat shows as well as 1-Day passes will go on sale later this summer.

We’ve had the biggest pre-sale to day this year. Passes and tickets are limited.

PREVIOUS REVIEWS FOR HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FESTIVAL

“Hopscotch is now the premiere experimental and underground festival in America”—AdHoc

“Hopscotch is a weird and wonderful festival largely because no one group of people define it. It is not just for industry types. It is not just for teenagers with floral crowns. It is not just for the Glow People. And by being for no one in particular, it ends up being for everyone. In three days of music, I met all of those types, plus married couples, college kids, cratediggers, in-towners and out-of-towners. Come one, come all.”—Brightest Young Things, D.C.

“Hopscotch Music Festival is one of the best and most eclectic music festivals in America.” —Spin

“Hopscotch: perfection, indeed” —The News & Observer, Raleigh

“Like most who know of its perfection, I’m almost afraid to gush too much at the risk of jinxing or ruining the best three days of music experiences one can be given. It’s SXSW without the stress, corporate overwhelming smack across the face, and dare I say Raleigh, NC becomes the most special town in the world for this one weekend.Perfectly curated with a blind ear to any buzz, specific genre, or anything else…Hopscotch Festival can turn the biggest music snob cynic into a carefree music lover once again. The word perfect is thrown around lightly all over the place (I misuse it all the time), but that’s the only word to describe this dream of a music festival…PERFECT.”—We Listen For You, Louisville

“In Raleigh Thursday through Saturday, it was all about an extraordinarily cool roster of bands. With streets cordoned off throughout the downtown area, thousands of people … wandered among ten participating music venues, creating a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere.” —Rolling Stone