After teasing fans for over a week, The Maine have officially revealed their big news: the second edition of 8123 Fest. The fest will take place from January 18th to January 20th, 2019, back in their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.
Back in 2017, The Maine celebrated the 10 year anniversary as a band with the first 8123 Fest where played their 2011 release Pioneer in full at the first night of the festival, before having an all-inclusive set the next night. Back in December 2017, they tweeted out their desire to do it every other year and asked fans to vote between taking the festival to a new location, or keeping it in Arizona. Although the fan vote was to take the festival to a new location, the band elected to keep it in their hometown.
We are thinking we will do 8123 fest every other year. At first we were talking about doing it in different locations but now feeling like it is really special that it stays in Arizona where everything is based for us. What do you think??? 🌵
— The Maine (@themaine) December 29, 2017
8123 Fest will once again be 3 days, with a setlist full of requests on January 18th to kick off the festival. On the second night, the band will performing their debut album Can’t Stop Won’t Stop in full and throwing a “Make America Emo Again” afterparty, and January 20th will include a meet and greet with the band. “We couldn’t be happier to announce that 8123 fest is back in January!!!!” The Maine wrote on their Instagram, “3 days, bigger lineup, and we couldn’t help but notice today is the 10 year anniversary of our first album “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” so to celebrate we will be performing the album in full for the first and last time at the festival!”
The band had been relatively quiet on how they wanted to celebrate the 10 year anniversary for Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, which turned exactly turn years old yesterday (when they made the announcement). Back in April, guitarist Kennedy Brock mentioned they had some ideas on how to celebrate and mentioned that “We are very happy and excited about the future of our music and band. We’re trying to do our best to pay homage to it, I think, as well as to take steps forward also.”
While the band has yet to reveal the rest of the lineup for the festival, they have already promised a “bigger’ lineup. Three different VIP bundles will go on-sale today, with three-event passes going on-sale on July 13th, two-event passes on July 19th, and single-event passes going on-sale when they reveal the lineup.