Woodsist music festival has announced its 2021 lineup, which is set to feature headliners like Kurt Vile, Yo La Tengo, Parquet Courts and more. After the success of the 2019 rendition of the fest, it’s looking to expand by featuring more space, more local food vendors and of course, more music. The festival will take place at its usual Arrowood Farms in Accord, NY on September 25-26, and tent/RV parking will be available nearby the festival site. Tickets to Woodsist can be purchased on the official Woodsist Festival website. 

Kurt Vile will take on the festival, playing alongside acts like Natural Information Society, Steve Gunn and more on Sunday. In April, Vile revealed he’ll be releasing his next studio LP in 2022, after signing with Verve Records. The singer-songwriter also took part in the Food for Love livestream fundraiser in February, which raised money for the New Mexico Association of Food Banks. The livestream featured several other musical acts like David Byrne, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jackson Browne and more. He performed a solo rendition of his track “Runner Ups” from the 2011 album, Smoke Ring for My Halo.

Indie rock band Yo La Tengo will take the stage on Saturday, which also features performances by Woods, Kevin Morby, Bridget St. John and more. In February, the group contributed to a 20-song tribute LP for the New York-based poet Allen Ginsberg, called The Fall of America: Poems of these States 1965-1971. The tribute also featured Devendra Banhart, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Andrew Bird and more. In December, Yo La Tengo performed some songs from their 2020 EP, Sleepless Night, during a Hannukah livestream concert. The live stream also featured a performance by a longtime friend of the group, Amy Rigby.

Woodsist Festival will see the return of several acts like Woods, Kevin Morby and Anna St. Louis. Woods released their 10th studio album, Strange to explain, in May of 2020. Frontman of Woods, Jeremy Earl, recently teamed up with Glenn Donaldson of Skygreen Leopards to form a new band called Painted Shrines. The duo released their debut LP, Heaven and Holy, in March of this year.

As part of the festival’s expansion, new faces will make their first appearances at Woodsist 2021, including 75 Dollar Bill Big Band, Joshua Abrams’ Natural Information Society and Laraaji.

Photo credit: Stephen Hoffmeister