In Chicago, the summer music festival season begins with a raging EDM party, complete with flashy stages, famous DJs and plenty of attendees ready to celebrate the arrival of hot, sunny days. Today, Spring Awakening released the first phase of lineup announcements for the annual festival, which returns to Addams/Medill Park from June 8 to 10. As usual, it's crammed with some of the biggest names in electronic music, including an array of acts that have become fixtures of the event.
RECOMMENDED: Our complete guide to Spring Awakening Music Festival
Spring Awakening's two main stages will boast headlining performances by masked producer Deadmau5, cake-hurling DJ Steve Aoki, Chicago-born progressive house hero Kaskade and electronic hip-hop duo Big Gigantic. Dutch producer Afrojack, who played at the first Spring Awakening festival in 2012, will also return, as well as producer Porter Robinson, who will perform retro, hyperactive electronica under the name of Virtual Self.
Anyone who has been to Spring Awakening before knows that some of the festival's best discoveries are hosted on a series of curated side stages. React Presents (the company behind Spring Awakening) is booking trance acts on the Trance Arena stage, exploring grime through the Bass Kitchen lineup and providing a platform for minimal techno artists on the Requiem stage. The festival will also include stages curated by underground EDM purveyors Sunday School, Oliver Helden's Heldeep Records imprint and electronic music industry publication DJ Mag. Side stage lineups will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets for Spring Awakening are available now and the remainder of the festival's lineup will be released sometime next week. Take a look at the complete phase one announcement below.
