Big Ears 2026: Zornstravaganza II, Dirty Three, Shabaka, Cymande, Tim Heidecker, Chucho Valdes, Adrian Sherwood, Mei Semones, Orchestra Baobab, YHWH Nailgun etc etc etc

I just put people who jumped out at me personally in the thread line. Headliners are David Byrne, Robert Plant, Laurie Anderson, Zorn, Flying Lotus. Plus all sorts of people I'm excited about/interested in.

Lineup here: https://bigearsfestival.org/

Thought it’s SHABKA now

*SHABAKA

He's back to playing saxophone apparently, which is nice.

Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles and MJ Lenderman & The Wind also!

Wait which thread are we using?
Big Ears 2026

Let's use this one.

Oh sorry I didn't see the other one! I was out all morning and didn't catch that on a quick scan.

I know Cymande and Orchestra Baobab are basically legacy acts with some new members, but still super psyched for them.

I think this is Zornstravagnza III… MODS!

True. I guess I wasn't really counting the 70th birthday year as a -stravaganza per se, but it was certainly a feature.

I am cool with it but their definition of “big ears” for African music and for some other genres sure steers towards legacy acts .

How long do the early bird passes usually last?

I'm not sure but I wouldn't count on them lasting too long.

Actually looks like they're already gone.

Also apparently the Byrne and Plant concerts are separately ticketed (i.e. an extra ticket on top of the festival pass). They haven't said how much yet.

xpost dag

Actually, correct me if I'm wrong but I think they sold out as presale. Looks like tix proper are on sale tomorrow morning?

Oh you're right, that's the pre-sale for past years' purchasers. But yeah, I'd jump on it quick tomorrow.

Well, I bought my weekend pass (which might be the last thing I buy for a while, lol). 50/50 chance I will be flying solo, given expensive weird music destination festival is a pretty hefty lift when it comes to convincing people to go, but if anyone else ends up down there in a few months I'd love to say hi.

So how hard is it to juggle sets and venues? They haven't announced an hour by hour schedule yet, but each day is packed with so much, and I assume only at night, with a few more being added (and at least one disappointing cancellation in Orchestra Baobab; they cancelled their whole tour) that there are going to be some hard choices to make, especially if any require lining up early.

didn't they just do this last year

Ugh I hadn't heard that about Orchestra Baobab, that sucks. I was really looking forward to them. I wonder if it was visa issues.

Juggling shows and venues can be hard, depending on which venues. There are kind of a couple of clusters of venues where 3-4 are within a 5-10 minute walk of each other, but those clusters are more like a 20-25 minute walk from each other depending on where you're going to or from. There is a shuttle, but it doesn't really get you there faster unless you're at the farthest points. The shuttle's mostly for people who don't want to walk. (You can also use rental scooters to get around, but I leave them to the young 'uns.)

If this is helpful, these venues are fairly close to each other:

— The Mill & Mine, Regas Square, the Standard, Jackson Terminal, the Point, Jig & Reel
— Bijou Theatre, Tennessee Theatre, St. John's Cathedral

The Museum of Art is kind of off on its own, bit of a hike, and ditto the Civic Auditorium (in the other direction).

For me, if there are two shows I want to see at the same time, I can pretty easily catch parts of both sets if they're at, say, Jackson Terminal and the Mill & Mine. But that would be hard if it was the Point and the Bijou.

Also, it's not only at night, except for the first night. Friday-Saturday-Sunday, the first shows start around noon or 1, and go all the way through to 11 or 12 (later on Friday and Saturday).

And actually they have morning stuff too, that's often when the panel discussions and film screenings are.

Hmm, this is going to be tough! I mostly want to see Zorn stuff, which is fortunately primarily at the Bijou, but looking at the (semi leaked) schedule and the timing, not sure I'll be able to head anywhere else and get back in time, and that's assuming venues don't hit capacity (which they may; I think the fest said record attendance?).

Thurs. and Sunday are pretty light for me, as far as things I really want to catch. I'll have to see what those days/nights ultimately offer in terms of panels, screenings and music closer to the fest.

For Zorn stuff, all the heads basically left the venue after the show and then got back in line for the next one

Yeah, and those are shows you definitely want to line up for in advance. Especially if you have a GA pass. Premiere passes your odds of getting in are obviously better.

Hmm. I wish I could affordably upgrade my GA to a premier for a couple of the days, but it looks like the only way to do that is to buy a single day premier pass for the days I'd want, which would literally double the ticket cost.

Yeah, idk how ppl afford it. I've never been shut out of a show I don't think, but you do have to just make sure to plan ahead and get to big Bijou draws 10 min early