Voted #1 Best Music Festival: JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL

On Wednesday, March 27th at 12:00pm EDT, USA Today announced the winners of their 10 Best Music Festivals People’s Choice Award. Up against some very popular and worthy contestants, Joshua Tree Music Festival found itself ranked number one! The top ten festivals are as follows:

• Joshua Tree Music Festival
• Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
• CMA Fest
• Island Hopper Songwriter Fest
• Monterey Jazz Festival
• Electric Forest
• Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
• Sea.Hear.Now Festival
• Austin City Limits Music Festival
• Newport Jazz Festival

Other festivals in the running included were:
Life Is Beautiful Music & Art Festival, Las Vegas, Nevada
Outside Lands, San Francisco, California
BottleRock Napa Valley, Napa, California
Rendezvous Music Festival, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Beyond Wonderland Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Indio, California
Lightning in a Bottle, Buena Vista Lake, California
Lollapalooza, Chicago, Illinois
Northern Nights Music Festival, Piercy, California
Shaky Knees Music Festival, Atlanta, Georgia

The selection process began with USA Today’s panel of music festival aficionados hand-picking 20 essential festivals from coast to coast where music fans can enjoy several artists (and even genres) in one place. Public voting opened, and Joshua Tree Music Festival quickly rose to number one.

Joshua Tree Voice reached out to the festival’s founder, Barnett English, for his response:

“Wow. The extended Joshua Tree Music Festival family is beyond thrilled to win the USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Best Music Festival award! Yes, it feels good to be recognized. It’s especially meaningful, as we were the only small, independent, family friendly, community-centric festival that made the list of (20) nominees. BIG thanks to the kind folks at USA Today for the nomination, and to all the JTMF fam and friends who voted for us up to the top spot.

We appreciate the national exposure, as it helps spread the good word about the joyful revolution that is the Joshua Tree Music Festival. Being small and independent means we get to conscientiously curate a magical experience. But it also means we’re always striving to be financially sustainable. So, we hope this exposure helps bring a few new JTMF devotees into the mix. We need to grow some, but not so much as to alter the vibe, coziness, and intimacy that we’ve nurtured for so long.

Never been? Here’s what you can expect: Love. Joy. Laughter. Euphoria. Real connections. Life-affirming human interaction. Intense feelings of happiness. Transcendent live music experiences. Voracious listeners. The lustfully compassionate. Hugs. That incommunicable thrill of a group deliberately united in exaltation. A place where the whole family can have fun camping out together. If any of those things are missing in your life, then we hope to see you here in May for the 22nd Spring Joshua Tree Music Festival, Thursday – Sunday, May 16-19, 2024

Barnett English has been chasing goosebumps his whole life, and he’s brought countless numbers of them to the Joshua Tree Music Festival grounds. These photos are past artists who have graced the JTMF stages: (First page) Alison Russell, Thomas Mapfumo & Blacks Unlimited. (Second page, going clockwise) Robbie Krieger of The Doors (top center), Bernie Worrell of the Talking Heads & Parliament-Funkadelic, Elle King (blond hair, tattoos, guitar), Kinky (black cowboy hat and guitar), Fareed Haque of Garaj Mahal (bottom right), Chali 2na of Jurassic Five, The Avett Brothers (two guys, white shirt, black shirt, banjo), Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (one guy blue turquoise suit), ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF JOSHUA TREE MUSIC FESTIVAL.