A preview of Michigan’s Faster Horses Festival 2024

July 17, 2024

Country Revelry: The fans at Faster Horses 2023. (Photo/Eric Stoike)

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Stay calm, it’s Michigan’s largest country music festival.

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The rollicking Faster Horses Festival party returns to the grounds of Michigan International Speedway in Jackson County this weekend, and the lineup features a host of rising country stars, from Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson to Tyler Hubbard and Hardy.

And for Michigan-born, up-and-coming country singer Sadie Bass, playing at Faster Horses for the first time this year, it’s a long-awaited opportunity to perform at a major festival in her home state.

Sadie Bass (Photo/Eric Stoike)

“I’ve been to this festival when I was 18, 19, 20, and usually there’s just a huge crowd of excited people,” she said. “I just expect the energy to be high.” (Read more about Bass in an interview with Local Spins and a podcast of Friday’s radio show on Local Spins.)

The festival, which has been taking place for a long time now, has repeatedly been the scene of controversies and deaths in the past.

Last year, Rolling Stone found that there had been seven deaths at Faster Horses in just nine years, with survivors demanding accountability from a festival that drew a “college-age crowd” and hosted “loud indoor parties into the wee hours.” Previously, MLive.com conducted an investigation into sexual assault at the festival, with one editor noting that “not everyone is safe at Faster Horses.” Read more here.

In response, the festival released this statement last year: “We work hand-in-hand with local and state authorities each year to develop and enhance safety measures and will continue to work with authorities and local partners as appropriate. In recent years, we have implemented new procedures such as the ‘See Something Say Something’ initiative and the AWARE program based on feedback from our fans. Faster Horses Festival has always been about fostering a strong sense of community and the safety of that community remains our top priority.”

FASTER HORSES FESTIVAL BASICS

Lainey Wilson (Photo/Eric Stoike)

WHEN: Friday-Sunday (19-21 July)
WHERE: Michigan International Speedway, 12626 US-12, Brooklyn
WEBSITE: https://fasterhorsesfestival.com/
THE RIDE:

125 miles (1 hour, 53 minutes) southeast of Grand Rapids
84 miles (1 hour, 24 minutes) east of Kalamazoo
83 miles (1 hour, 22 minutes) west of Detroit
60 miles (1 hour, 2 minutes) south of Lansing
233 miles (3 hours, 39 minutes) southeast of Traverse City

THE PREPARATION: Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Old Dominion, Hardy, Cody Johnson, Riley Green, Tyler Hubbard, Shane Smith & The Saints, Jackson Dean, Sawyer Brown, Ashley Cooke and more.

TICKETS: General admission weekend passes start at $289, with various VIP options added to that total price. These are available online here. Passes do not include camping ($259 – $1,285) or parking ($65 – $155). Camping information/fees can be found here; parking passes are available at fasterhorsesfestival.com/parking.

THE SELECTION OF ARTISTS YOU CANNOT MISS

Jelly Roll, Friday, 9:55 p.m., Main Stage – Nashville hip-hop artist and country singer Jelly Roll is a sought-after artist. He won New Artist of the Year at last year’s Country Music Association Awards and is a three-time CMT Music Award winner. In just one month, his latest single, “I Am Not Okay,” has garnered over 15.7 million listens on Spotify.
Listen/See: “I am not okay”

Lainey Wilson, Saturday, 9:45 p.m., Main Stage — Another rising star, this Louisiana native has won more than a dozen major music awards since 2021, including a 2024 Grammy for Best Country Album for “Bell Bottom Country.” (Incidentally, she was also nominated for Best Country Duo Performance for “Save Me” alongside Jelly Roll (above).) She also boasts a Michigan connection on Faster Horses: Multi-instrumentalist Sav Buist of The Accidentals (aka Sav Madigan) is performing with her touring band this summer.
Listen/See: “Country is cool again”

Jelly Roll (Photo/Joe Maroon Photography)

Riley Green, Sunday, 7:35 p.m., Main Stage – Alabama native Riley Green claims his latest studio album is “Ain’t My Last Rodeo.” A recent concert review in Washington’s Spokesman-Review raved that Green and his band delivered “an all-around great show with high energy, outstanding fan experience and musical excellence.”
Listen/See: “The worst way”

Kip Moore, Sunday, 5:45 p.m., Main Stage – While some fans were disappointed when country singer Ernest dropped from the festival line-up, his replacement by Kip Moore is likely to delight many attendees. His biggest hit, “Somethin’Bout a Truck” from 2011, has 219.5 million plays on Spotify and counting.
Listen/See: “A kind of bar”

MICHIGAN’S OWN: Sadie Bass, Saturday 1:50 p.m., next from Nashville Stage – The Bath, Michigan native has long been a regional favorite, making a splash on “The Voice” in 2022 and making a name for herself nationally by performing at numerous high-profile festivals. With recording plans and new music on the way, Bass says she’ll be sure to perform a few fan favorites at Faster Horses, including “Holy Ground” and “Wake N’ Bake,” a popular single she released last year.
Listen/See: “Wake N’ Bake”