AL.COM: Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Chili Peppers top 2020 Hangout Music fest lineup

By Lawrence Specker | lspecker@al.com

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Post Malone and Billie Eilish will top the bill at the 2020 Hangout Music Fest, event organizers announced Tuesday.

The roster unveiled Tuesday morning via social media mostly confirmed a purported lineup leak that had been widely circulated by festival watchers, with topline acts including the Chili Peppers, Eilish, Malone, Marsh Mello and Lana Del Rey, plus Cage the Elephant, Juice Wrld, Illenium, Kane Brown, Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Louis the Child, RL Grime, The Head and the Heart, Jhene Aiko, Megan Thee Stallion, Quinn XCII, Madeon, Finneas, The Band Camino, Oliver Tree, T-Pain, Moon Taxi, Big Wild, Tove Lo, Wallows, Alec Benjamin, Bea Miller, Chelsea Cutler, Doja Cat, Dominic Fike, Getter, Jai Wolf, Mt. Joy, Omar Apollo, Orville Peck, Saint Jhn, Scarypoolparty, Shallou, Snakehips, Surfaces, Yungblud, The Aces, Barns Courtney, Blunts & Blondes, The Glorious Sons, Missio, Whipped Cream, 99 Neighbors, Bailey Bryan, Bren Joy, Dan Luke & the Raid, Duskus, Elderbrook, Kennyhoopla, Lucii, Luttrell, Mattiel, Memba, Raveena NOTD, Paul Cauthen, Perto, Pluko, Regard, SNBRN, Softest Hard and Taska Black.

A quick look at 2020’s top acts:

Billie Eilish poses in the press room with the award for new artist of the year and favorite alternative rock artist at the American Music Awards on Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. She is one of the headliners announced for the 2020 Hangout Music Fest. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Billie Eilish – This 17-year-old singer-songwriter has exploded to international fame in 2019. To grasp how big it is for the festival to book her, consider one paragraph from the cover story Rolling Stone ran in July: “Eilish’s debut album, ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,’ was released this past spring and has already been streamed more than 2 billion times. The week it came out, she had 14 songs in the Top 100 — more than any other female artist ever. Last week she was touring Australia, tomorrow she leaves for a festival in the U.K., and for the rest of the month she’s playing amphitheaters and arenas across the U.S. — every one sold out.”

Red Hot Chili Peppers – The veteran funk-rock act has been here before, and when it headlined the middle day of the 2012 fest it straddled the line between being a huge crowd pleaser and being really weird. That powerful, chaotic set featured extended jams and spoken-word interludes as well as plenty of hits. A local reviewer compared it to seeing “a dragster turning doughnuts in a parking lot or a monster truck launched onto a NASCAR track.” An MTV review said it was “a testament to both their versatility and their dedication that the Chili Peppers' Saturday-night set at the Hangout Festival was anything but by the numbers, as the band jammed long and hard, stretching songs to the breaking point (and beyond) … At several points, they seemed to be making it up as they went along.”

Post Malone – An artist whose style blends rap and singer-songwriter influences, Malone has had two recent No. 1 albums, 2018’s “Beerbongs & Bentleys” and this year’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding.” Chart-topping singles include “Rockstar” featuring 21 Savage and “Sunflower,” a collaboration with Swae Lee that was featured in the movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” His single “Circles” currently tops the Billboard Hot 100.

Marshmello – This masked DJ was able to rack up a string of hits anonymously until 2017, when Forbes confirmed he was DJ-producer Chris Comstock; Forbes also ranked him among the world’s highest-paid DJ’s, with estimated pretax earnings of $21 million in the 12 months prior to June 2017. Top singles include “Happier” with Bastille, “Friends” with Anne-Marie and “Wolves” with Selena Gomez.

Lana Del Rey – This singer-songwriter’s “stylized noir-pop,” as allmusic.com describes it, has generated plenty of love-it-or-hate-it polarization over the years, but critical acclaim has solidified around her most recent album, 2019’s “Norman F***ing Rockwell.” Her best-known songs include “Summertime Sadness” remix with Cedric Gervais; “Don’t Call Me Angel” with Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus; and “West Coast.”

The 2020 Hangout Music Fest takes place May 15-17 on the beach in Gulf Shores. Full information can be found at www.hangoutmusicfest.com. A presale for American Express cardholders starts at 8 a.m. Central time on Friday, Dec. 6. A second presale through Tunespeak begins at 10 a.m. Central time Friday; registration at the festival website is required to participate. The general ticket sale starts at 10 a.m. Central time on Monday, Dec. 9 through the festival website. General admission passes are $299. VIP tickets are $1,099 and Super VIP passes are $1,699. Payment plans will be available; additional fees apply.

Top-tier Big Kahuna and Cabana packages also are available, though prices have not been published. Perks range from access to a Super VIP dining room to the ability to “Indulge yourself at Hangout’s world-famous backstage Artist Beach featuring swimming access, private lounging, luxurious meals and a backstage cocktail lounge.”

Top acts at the 2019 edition of the festival included Travis Scott, Khalid, The Lumineers, Cardi B, Vampire Weekend and Kygo.

Read the full story here: https://www.al.com/life/2019/12/eilish-post-malone-chili-peppers-top-hangout-lineup.html