By all accounts, the inaugural Evolution Festival, held last August in Forest Park and featuring headline performances from Brandi Carlile, the Black Keys, Ice Cube, and the Black Crowes, was a huge success. The festival was well-attended, the weather cooperated, artists raved about the urban-oasis setting from the stage, bourbon makers and vendors moved lots of food and beverages, and crowds were treated to excellent and unique performances throughout the two-day festival.
This year, Evolution organizers are determined to build on last year’s successes with an even bigger festival and a lineup that includes the Killers, Beck, Billy Idol, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Killer Mike, Elle King, Todd Rundgren, and more than 20 other acts. The festival, held this year September 28 and 29, has also added a third stage to the experience and has planned more expansive culinary options, including a tent dedicated to craft beer.
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Evolution co-founder Joe Litvag compares Evolution’s growth from year one to year two to building a custom home. “You’re not going to build your whole dream home in one day,” Litvag says. “First you have to build a solid foundation, and that’s what we did in year one. Now, year two is the fun part. We start building the house on top of it.”
To create Evolution, Litvag partnered with St. Louis concert production legend Steve Schankman, who has been synonymous with live music in St. Louis since 1968, when he co-founded Contemporary Productions. Schankman has been involved in virtually every major St. Louis concert endeavor since, from the Busch Stadium Superjam concerts of the ‘70s and ‘80s to the July 4th VP Fair concerts downtown to the building of Riverport (now Hollywood Casino) Amphitheatre, The Pageant, and The Factory.
For Litvag’s part, he is the former head of the St. Louis office of Clear Channel Entertainment (now Live Nation); served as a senior executive for AEG Live; and was president of Danny Wimmer Presents, producer of massive multi-day festivals including Louisville’s Bourbon & Beyond. Litvag now runs his own live entertainment firm, Just Listen, here in St. Louis.
Put simply, these guys know a thing or two about staging a major live-music event, and it showed last year.
“Year one was about showing Missouri and St. Louis that we’re not just talking about doing this,” Litvag says. “We were saying last year to everybody that [Evolution] is going to be the real deal. It’s being run by an incredible team of people, we know what we’re doing, we’re proving that we can do it, and now we’re building on that.”
We’re sitting in Schankman’s 18th-floor office in Clayton, which enjoys spectacular views of what feels like the entire city, including Forest Park, where the festival will again take place on Langenberg Field. “The main thing for me is diversity,” Schankman says of his vision for the festival. “If we can’t make this for everyone, then I don’t want to do it. Diversity is something that I grew up with, so I think it’s important to do something that everyone can come to.”
To that end, the festival has booked everything from classic rock legends to country acts to hip-hop heavyweights to singer-songwriters to blues and folk troubadours to cutting-edge indie rockers, with an eye on appealing to adults of all ages.
“When we look at our lineup, I like to think of decades,” Litvag says. “We all have a decade that was our decade. For me, it was the ‘80s. But no matter what age you are, there’s gonna be something there that you’re going to like and want to see.”
If it’s classic rock that you’re after, it’s an especially rich lineup this year. In addition to ‘90s and 2000s stalwarts like The Killers and Beck at the top of the bill, the fest boasts two members of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, disco-funk icon Nile Rodgers & CHIC and ‘70s rocker Todd Rundgren, plus an ‘80s icon who will likely be inducted someday, Billy Idol.
But Evolution also focuses on contemporary music that will appeal to music lovers looking to discover something new. “If we can help everyone who comes to the festival discover at least one new act, then that’s mission accomplished,” says Litvag. So again this year, chief talent booker Jeff Jarrett has booked indie rock acts that will expose audiences to some new sonic architecture but will also provide festival-goers with some accessible new experiences in the form of Irish punk rockers Sleevens, quirky country guitar picker Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, glam rock throwback Billy Tibbals, psych-shoegaze band the Asteroid No. 4, and others.
At the same time, organizers are careful to remember what makes St. Louis unique as a music town. “When we book the lineup, we have to remember where we are,” Litvag says. “A big part of St. Louis music is rock and country, so we have to start with that and see how far we can expand those circles.” The festival is indeed rich in twang, including country rebel Elle King, alt-Americana songwriter S.G. Goodman, psychedelic indie-country band Beachwood Sparks, and retro-leaning Texas duo Chaparelle.
But St. Louis music is also steeped in jazz, blues, and hip-hop traditions; therefore, this year’s lineup also includes socially conscious rapper Killer Mike (Sunday), bayou bluesman Robert Finley (Saturday), unique folk-punk stylist Sunny War (Sunday), and soul-steeped singer-songwriter Tré Burt (Saturday).
Schankman also stresses that supporting the local scene remains an important part of Evolution. “We like to use as many local vendors as possible,” he says. “Any time we have the opportunity to employ local businesses and get them engaged we will, and we are always going to support the local artists community.”
Local yacht-punk band Nite Sprites is on the bill, as well as raw blues rockers Daddy Long Legs, whose singer Brian Hurd is a native St. Louisan. Plus, the fest is reuniting Nadine, a mainstay of the ‘90s St. Louis alt-country scene, featuring vocalist Adam Reichmann and guitar hero Jimmy Griffin. And speaking of local alt-country heroes, Jay Farrar will be on hand, too, as Son Volt plays on Sunday.
With regard to the lineup, Evolution had a couple of tough breaks this year. The original lineup featured legendary new wave band Blondie, who canceled their tour back in July, and their Evolution spot along with it. However, the festival bounced back quickly by adding Billy Idol, a suitably exciting classic rock replacement. “We’ve wanted Billy Idol since the beginning, but the timing never worked,” Litvag says. “Even this year, we wanted him early on, but at that point he hadn’t figured out his September plans yet, so we had to move on. But when we got the call about Blondie, Billy was our first call.”
Then another curveball. A few nights ago, Jane’s Addiction imploded in Boston amid their current reunion tour when singer Perry Ferrell physically attacked guitarist Dave Navarro on stage, thereby prematurely ending the concert, the tour, and, in all likelihood, the band. So with just under two weeks until the festival, Evolution organizers were again forced to scramble to find a replacement. On September 20, the fest announced that Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and Prophets of Rage would join the lineup, filling Jane’s Addiction’s Sunday slot.
Beyond the lineup, attendees will notice other changes to the festival this year in an effort to enhance the fan experience. “We learned a lot from year one,” Litvag says. “We took pages and pages of notes on ways we wanted to improve things.” That includes adding a third entrance into the festival, tripling the number of bathrooms in certain areas, and adding a third stage for music.
The third stage will be located inside the large tent located between the two main stages, so ambitious stage-hopping fans have more decisions to make this year, as some sets will overlap. The beverage focus in that tent has also changed, from bourbon last year to craft beer this year. “Bourbon brands will still be on site, as well as cigar demonstrations,” Schankman says. “But we’re going to feature a lot of our craft beers and local breweries that we should be proud of.”
The food lineup has also expanded from last year’s barbeque-heavy focus. “We’re trying to equalize the variety of food this year,” Litvag says. “There is still significant barbecue. Sugarfire is a partner of ours, and they’re there as well as a couple of others, but we’re bringing in lots of other kinds of food.” Food vendors will include Steve’s Hot Dogs, Hi-Pointe Burgers, Taco Buddha, and more than 30 other pizza, Mexican, Asian-fusion, vegan, and other options.
One other notable change: Attendees will not be allowed to bring their own chairs into the festival this year. Organizers say oversized chairs and inflatables caused space and traffic flow issues last year, so all chairs will now be rented on site and will therefore be uniformly sized, which organizers say will make for a better viewing experience for all fans. GA+ passholders pre-paid for their chairs, which they will pick up on site once they enter the festival each day.
Schankman says the changes are an effort to make everyone comfortable. “We have no interest in packing people in like sardines, because that takes away from the elevated, more mature festival vibe that we’re trying to create,” he says. “We want people to be able to spread their blankets out and enjoy themselves.”
It’s an approach that seems to be working. Schankman stresses, “We didn’t have one ejection last year. No medical issues, no security issues.”
For Schankman, it all adds up to a unique event that goes well beyond the music at Evolution. “I have some friends who aren’t really familiar with any of the bands,” he says. “They’re coming for the experience.”
But Schankman and Litvag stress that for Evolution to work, St. Louisans have to get behind it. “A music festival is an important part of the fabric of what makes a vibrant community,” Litvag says. “We’re trying to create something that has something for everybody, where everybody feels welcome, and something St. Louis can be proud of. But in order for Evolution to be successful long term, we need people to come out and experience this festival. We know it will blow them away when they do, and they’ll want to come back every year.”
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the addition of Tom Morello to the Evolution Festival lineup.
