Franklin’s Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival is back for 2021, adding yet another exciting local event to the mix after a year without live music!
As festival season continues to shake out, and we a safe return to live music truly feels within reach with vaccination efforts keeping strong (even if the leap from small gatherings to massive festivals within mere months still sounds hard to comprehend at this exact moment in time), more and more familiar and beloved events are feeling confident in revealing their lineups. After Bonnaroo’s recent announcement of an impressive lineup for their rescheduled September event, we hoped that Pilgrimage, the area’s other large-scale fest, would soon follow suit, and, after teasing their 2021 dates and commitment to hosting a return event this year, they’ve finally made good with a lineup announcement!
A somewhat smaller affair than some of the other top-tier national events we cover, Pilgrimage always make their space count, and for the 2021 edition, which will take place Sept. 25 & 26, once again at The Park at Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin, they’ve recruited an interesting mix of Dave Matthews Band, The Black Keys, Maren Morris, and Cage the Elephant in the top slots, with the likes of Khruangbin, Black Pumas, Amos Lee, Houndmouth, Tank and the Bangas, Better Than Ezra, Low Cut Connie, and Dylan LeBlanc among the additional acts, and more still to be announced.
Founded in 2015, this year marks Pilgrimage’s sixth event, though, as you may recall, the 2018 installment was all but entirely rained out. Then, last year, as first spring then summer events canceled and postponed due to Covid, Pilgrimage was, for a time, poised to coincide with a briefly rescheduled Bonnaroo (both events eventually canceled, like all others, and Pilgrimage never announced a 2020 lineup). It’s a really low-key, well-curated, communal gem of a festival, and we hope that this year goes off without a hitch- with a great mix of headliners, we suspect it’ll have no problems capturing interest, even with an unusually stuffed fall festival slate.
As far as Covid safety, Pilgrimage doesn’t seem to have specifically outlined any special rules or precautions (we’ll update if we hear more specifics), but we expect that they, like many other fests have pledged, will continue to work with local and federal safety recommendations, and will take all precautions necessary to ensure the health of attendees (that said, we encourage you to make your own decision about attending large gatherings such as this using the most up to date information from experts, and, of course, get vaccinated before choosing to attend).
Weekend passes, available in general admission and VIP, are available now right here. With such a strong lineup, and rollover ticketholders from 2020, we expect spots to go fast (the fest has a limited capacity, and has sold out before), so don’t wait! We’ll have more about Pilgrimage in the coming months, but, for now, check out the full lineup and announcement video below!
Dave Matthews Band
The Black Keys
Maren Morris
Cage the Elephant
Khruangbin
Black Pumas
Amos Lee
Tanya Tucker
Houndmouth
Jamestown Revival
Tank and the Bangas
Valerie June
JD McPherson
Better Than Ezra
Low Cut Connie
Robert Finley
Katie Pruitt
Morgan Wade
Larry Fleet
Harlem Gospel Travelers
Hailey Whitters
Dylan LeBlanc
Anna Vaus
Blessing Offor
Natalie Madigan
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