Back in May, Shaky Knees Music Festival announced it 2021 lineup with the legend herself, Stevie Nicks, headlining Friday night of the Atlanta festival. Sadly today Stevie Nicks announced she is cancelling her 2021 shows. Have no fear though, Tim Sweetwood and Shaky Knees always has a plan, quickly announcing the Foo Fighters as the Friday replacement!
It’s been a strange few months since Shaky Knees first announced their 2021 lineup. They certainly weren’t the first festival to announce 2021 was on; instead Shaky Knees put out their initial announcement toward the end of an over month long run of TONS of festival announcements across the country. While we all were excited for live music to be a thing again, the pandemic has not ended, and there still isn’t a guarantee that these festivals proceed (please get vaccinated so we can all continue with live music, pls!).
The Delta variant has been spreading rapidly across the US lately, a stark reminder that we aren’t in the clear. Now we are seeing new cancellations around the country, New Orleans Jazz Fest cancelled, Wildwood Revival just outside of Athens cancelled today, Bright Eyes recently cancelled indoor shows (2 Atlanta shows) among other artists doing the same, and today the news of Stevie Nicks.
Meanwhile the Shaky Knees socials had seemingly gone dark over the last few weeks, leading to some speculation that a cancellation announcement could be coming. Its going to be a wave that we are all just going to have to ride for a while. Life is different these days, and we are all just going to have to adjust on the fly. Clearly, Shaky Knees Music Festival has already been preparing and working behind the scenes to bring Atlanta a 2021 festival for the ages.
It’s disappointing to hear the news that Stevie Nicks won’t be playing this year, but it’s certainly understandable. Hopefully we will see her on the 2022 lineup, already announced for April 29-May 1, 2022. Also dropping off of this year’s lineup is the UK’s Royal Blood, who now have no US tour dates for 2021. Another big loss for many fans.
But if you are looking for a headlining act that will still move the needle in 2021, and fits a rock (typically) music festival like a glove, oh and has never played Shaky Knees Music Festival, well Foo Fighters are that band. That’s a headlining set that’s going to reverberate for miles and miles from the stage. This is going to be a fun one.
It wasn’t just the Foo Fighters announced as additions today though, the festival also has added 90’s legends Garbage, North Carolina indie pop band The Collection, and rising Tampa new wave quartet, Glove. Get excited for (hopefully) your final 2021 Shaky Knees Music Festival lineup!
1-Day & 3-Day Tickets On Sale Now!
The lineup change wasn’t the only Shaky Knees news we got today though! Lots of us SK regulars have been waiting on another announcement, and not just the full schedule.
A now tradition is the Shaky Knees Late Night Shows occurring after the festival at venues around Atlanta. While these are separate tickets from the festival itself, there are typically 5-6 shows on Friday and Saturday night (late) after the festival has shut down, featuring artists that are playing the fest (and sometimes not). Some of these shows are extra, extra special because these can be much smaller venues than those artists are typically performing at these days, making for an amazing intimate performance outside of the massive festival. Thus today’s announcement.
Letting the cat out of the bag early was Portugal. The Man, announcing a Late Night Show on Friday of Shaky Knees Festival at The EARL in East Atlanta, our favorite little 300 person venue in Atlanta! It’s been YEARS since this band has played The EARL, and you probably won’t be able to catch them in such an intimate setting for a long time. That is going to one HELL of a wild show! “Blood, sweat and beers.” Tickets go onsale at Thursday at 10am EST. These will go fast.
Of course, that’s just one Late Night Show, we expect more announcements to come from Terminal West, The Masquerade, Center Stage and more, and probably this week with PTM already making it known. You can always dig a little though to get a head start on these announcements, such as Orville Peck already having a Late Night Show listed previously for Terminal West on Saturday night. Either way, it all seems like it’s happening, and we couldn’t be more pumped.
Now we all just have to do our part to stay safe, get vacc’ed, and get out of this pandemic the best we can so that we can safely return to the live music that we all need.
Update: Shaky Knees announced this morning the full Late Night Shows schedule. Tickets are on sale Thursday morning at 10am EST. Tickets –> Shaky Knees Late Night Shows 2021
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