WonderStruck Cleveland’s 2023 lineup was announced this week and people are not pleased.
The festival, rebranded from LaureLive in 2020 when it moved from Laurel’s campus to its new home at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, has in previous years featured acts such as the Lumineers and Vampire Weekend (2022), Third Eye Blind and Walk the Moon (2020), and Sheryl Crow and Foster the People in earlier festivals.
This year, the Elevation Group opted for a more diverse lineup, and one which features a genre shakeup at the top of the bill: Khalid, Walker Hayes, Nelly and Flo Rida lead the two-day festival’s headlining acts.
While plenty of familiar pop and country fare dots the bottom of the lineup, the departure at the top to hip-hop and R&B, was intentional, according to Elevation.
“One lesson we learned last year was about general awareness and name recognition,” Elevation president Denny Young told Axios Cleveland. “Duran Duran and Lorde were a huge hit for us in Columbus last year. People want to come out and hear the hits.”
Maybe, but for now, people are angry.
WonderStruck Cleveland’s Facebook post announcing the lineup has quickly become an avalanche of complaints — from people who bought tickets in advance who want different artists to play, people who don’t think the music of Nelly and other headliners are appropriate for kids, and people who are just generally angry.
While some dug the hybrid lineup, and others praised Elevation for creating a more diverse festival, the majority of commenters were intent on selling their tickets, skipping the festival, and accusing Elevation of a bait and switch.For its part, Elevation is now offering those how purchased passes in advance the chance to exchange them for tickets to one of their other festivals: “If you bought a WonderStruck Early Bird ticket AND you like one of our other lineups better, we would be happy to switch your ticket. That’s cool by us. The WonderRoad lineup is out…WonderBus and WonderWorks drop later this month. You can let us know what you want to do by contacting info@wonderstruckfest.com. The deadline to switch will be Friday, March 10, 2023.”
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This article appears in Feb 8-21, 2023.
