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Recent years have proven that some artists should stick to songwriting and leave festival-planning to festival-planners (Ja Rule learnt this the hard way). The National, however, shouldn't be mistaken as strangers to the practice—Bryce Dessner founded Cincinatti's MusicNOW Festival back in 2006, organized Copenhagen’s Haven alongside Aaron Dessner and helped curate a night of Pitchfork Music Festival Paris last year with the rest of the band. (Aaron also cofounded Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.)
The National has already announced a new MusicNOW-associated event, Homecoming, that they'll be presenting this April (also in Cincinnati), but as if that resume wasn't extensive enough, they're bringing those skills back to their beloved former home base of NYC for a new event this September.
Titled "There's No Leaving New York," this two-day mini-fest will take place at Queens’ massive Forest Hills Stadium on September 29 and 30. Aaron Dessner has been quoted as saying that the event was inspired by wanting to recreate the energy of the band's Forest Hills show last October, which was one of their "favorite shows in the history of the band."
The National is heading the lineup, with a host of big-name openers that includes Future Islands, Phoebe Bridgers, U.S. Girls, Bully, Cat Power, Cigarettes After Sex, Jason Isbell and Adia Victoria. Keep your eyes peeled this week, as tickets go on sale April 13.
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