photo by Brad Moore
Over the weekend, we Florida folks got a little surprise: 97x’s Next Big Thing got an upgrade. The one day music event is now taking place over the course of two days at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheater (where my very first music festival ever, Big Guava Music Fest, was held in 2014) in Tampa on December 2nd and 3rd. In previous years, NBT has had impressive lineups with The 1975 headlining last year and Twenty One Pilots headlining the year before (absolutely crushing it at the lineup game in my opinion). This year was no different:
As if seeing Paramore for the first time wasn’t enough for my greedy festival self, Florida wasn’t stopping there. X102.9 used to also host a one day music event called Big Ticket Fest. In the past, the lineup for NBT and BTF were the same. In 2015, both had just about the most beautiful lineups I could ask for (a few of which are returning to NBT2017): Twenty One Pilots, BØRNS, Glass Animals, The Neighbourhood, Walk The Moon, Andre McMahon in the Wilderness, MUTEMATH, X Ambassadors, Saint Motel, and more. I miss it every day.
I did indeed make that awful trek to Jacksonville in 2015 just for BTF because I had a cheerleading competition the day of NBT in Tampa. Sadly, we didn’t see a return of Big Ticket Fest in 2016. Well, it’s back for 2017 on December 1st, and I couldn’t be happier. The lineup will be released Monday, August 28th. One might assume it would reflect the lineup for Next Big Thing, but you never know.