Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: Lizzy McAlpine

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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Though, quite possibly, your first exposure to breakout young indie pop and folk artist Lizzy McAlpine might’ve come from her ultra-viral 2022 single “ceilings” on TikTok, don’t call her a TikTok artist. Like many Gen Z singer-songwriters, social media has been an indispensable tool in building a following over these last few years, but Lizzy- who hails from the suburbs of Philly and now resides in LA- began writing music as early as middle school, before opting to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music to further hone her craft, then eventually dropping out to pursue it full time (as many a Berklee attendee has before her). After a couple of early EPs, McAlpine crafted her debut album, Give Me a Minute, while studying abroad in Spain in late 2019, with the LP ultimately arriving in mid-2020, amidst the Covid lockdown, and embracing a more folk rock and jazz rooted pop sound than her subsequent work, earning some positive buzz and praise from prominent musical contemporaries. It was 2022’s sophomore effort, Five Seconds Flat, however, that really helped reach a wider audience, boasting the aforementioned “ceilings” as well as a variety of other great singles, marking a shift to a more polished indie pop sound, boasting guests like Finneas and Jacob Collier, and refining her confessional, raw, and relatable songwriting style. The last few years have been monumental for the now 24-year-old Lizzy, from viral social media attention, late night TV appearances, collaborations with huge artists like Noah Kahan and Niall Horan, an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk, and increasingly more prominent live shows, including at The Ryman at her last outing in Nashville. Returning with her latest and first major label record, Older, earlier this year, the young singer managed to further hone her sound and writing style, penning heartbreaking and deeply personal songs with a folk-informed and baroque pop ethos, again attracting broad acclaim and further boosting her profile. The fact that she debuts at Bonnaroo on one of the fest’s main stages only confirms: Lizzy McAlpine is having a moment.

WATCH | “ceilings” (Official Video)