Shaky Knees Festival announces new dates and move to Piedmont Park next year
Shaky Knees has big plans for 2025.
The annual Atlanta festival, which features many indie and rock acts, will move from Central Park to the larger Piedmont Park next year, the event said in an email on Tuesday. It’ll be held Sept. 19-21 — a pivot from its early May dates.
“Crowd surfed our way to Piedmont Park,” the festival wrote in the brief announcement.
Representatives for the festival could not be immediately reached for more details on the changes.
The three-day festival, which will be in its 12th year, features roughly 60 acts and attracts at least 50,000 fans from around the world. Last year, Shaky Knees was held in Central Park. Headliners included Foo Fighters, Weezer and Noah Kahan.
The big announcement offers some relief as the state of music festivals have trended downward this year — in Atlanta and beyond. A recent NPR analysis noted that festivals worldwide are being scrapped as big acts focus on their own amphitheater, arena and stadium tours. One MusicFest, weeks before its 15th anniversary last month, scaled back to the smaller Central Park venue. Other Georgia festivals like Imagine (citing inflation and other logistical issues) and Music Midtown canceled their 2024 dates altogether. It’s also worth noting that Music Midtown’s most recent incarnation, from 2011 until 2023 (with breaks in 2020 and 2022), was held at Piedmont Park around the same time of year as the upcoming Shaky Knees.
Although SweetWater 420 will return to Pullman Yards next year, tickets for last year’s festival were reduced to a $10 donation due to low sales. Major acts like Black Pumas and Beck were dropped from the lineup.
Popular U.S. festivals like Coachella and Burning Man struggled with ticket sales this year. Earlier this month, Pitchfork Music Festival, which has been held in Chicago for nearly two decades, announced it would not return next year.
Last year’s Shaky Knees Festival was held May 3-5.
About the Author
DeAsia is a music and culture reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She focuses on the intersection of arts, culture and diverse communities, as well as how emerging social trends are being expressed through the lens of the Atlanta aesthetic. DeAsia's work can be seen in Pitchfork, Essence, Teen Vogue, Elle and more.
