7 Most Dad-Friendly Bands Headlining 2017 Summer Festivals

June 13, 2017

Let’s be honest, a summer music festival is the last place you’ll see a dad. It’s expensive, crowded and filled with girls his daughter’s age dressed in ways he does not want to think about his daughter dressing. But despite all that, the headliners of summer music festivals have increasingly become dad-friendly. Here are the headliners playing in 2017 that your dad might consider braving the youthful summer crowds to see.

Ziggy Marley (Summerfest)

Dads love Bob Marley, so seeing his son is hardly a stretch. Plus, Ziggy continues his family tradition of playing reggae, a genre whose fan base is about 50/50 split between stoners and “cool dads.” He’ll be playing at Summerfest in Milwaukee on July 2nd (which happens to be the one music festival best catered for dad enjoyment, so there’s a good chance he’ll be there).

Radiohead (Coachella)

Dads have been insisting that they are cool because they like Radiohead since about 1994. Most guys who were in college when “Creep” came out are seasoned dads now, so they’re one of the few bands who can potentially rally a dad to brave the waters of Coachella in Indio, California…but it’s too late for them, as the festival took place in April. Next year, though?

U2 (Bonnaroo)

Of course your dad loves U2, and has a story about how he made out with his high school crush while listening to Joshua Tree that he tells to make you uncomfortable. They just wrapped up playing Bonnaroo, alongside Chance the Rapper, The Weeknd, and a bunch of other bands that he just “doesn’t get.”

Bob Dylan (Firefly Festival)

Bob Dylan is still making his rounds in the festival circuit, almost as an excuse for dads to have a reason to chaperone their high school children to the Firefly Festival in Dover, Delaware. “Okay honey, while you listen to Muse, dad’s going to watch a real musician” probably will be said this weekend when Dylan goes on stage.

Metallica (Outside Lands)

Your dad was super stoked when Metallica released a new album this year, and he’s going to be even more jazzed to see them live. Yeah. Jazzed. We said it. Dads love watching aging hard rockers in concert. It’s pretty much their favorite thing. It might be enough to send them out to San Francisco in August to watch Metallica in a festival setting. In fact, Outside Lands doesn’t limit itself to one dad-friendly band. They also have…

The Who (Outside Lands)

The Who will play festivals until long after all the original members have passed away and been replaced by 40-year-old session musicians who laid down some backing tracks for Endless Wire back in 2006, and your dad will at least contemplate attending those festivals until long after he’s gone to his first concert in a walker. Such is the circle of a dad’s relationship with The Who.

Now, our last entry today is a bit of a cheat, because it took place in 2016. But we had to include it, because it was the ultimate dad concert…

Literally Every Band Headlining Desert Trip (…in 2016)

Taking place over two weekends in October of last year, and set in Indio, California, the organizers of Coachella gave the world “Oldchella” because, well, just read this line up. The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, The Who. There were only two performances a day (which is about as long as a dad can stand still for a concert), and two weekends to choose from (so dads can figure out which week of football they’d rather miss). It was the ultimate dad festival. And it was expensive. The average attendee spent $1,000 there, but what price can you pay for a music festival that your dad can truly appreciate?

(The answer to that question, apparently, is $1,000).