Big Ears Music Festival: Knoxville's Coachella for Introverts*
- Jared Hagemann
- Apr 5
- 4 min read
"So, what exactly is Big Ears?" remains a common refrain amongst Knoxville locals each year in March, yet putting an exact answer into words is a tall order.
Big Ears is a music festival, sure, but the wide range of genres and performance spaces is so wide that most normal people simply respond "oh... okay."
Unlike most large music festivals, the selection of acts isn't as simple as popularity or social media following---in fact many artists have next to no social media presence (or none at all), something that would be a nonstarter in most music festivals.
Looking at the lineup poster, the amount of unknown names can seem daunting, but luckily the festival offers great resources for learning about the performers, big to small.
(Of course there are more well known headliners, including Rufus Wainwright, Les Claypool, Waxahatchee, etc.)
Ultimately, Big Ears is a music festival for music lovers and those with a more liberal understanding of what music is and can be.
One of my favorite performances was 133 Years of Reverb, a Jonny Greenwood composition performed by James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy, which involved the organists playing specific notes inside the St. John's Cathedral that vibrated the building and your body, making some involuntarily start crying.
That experience was borderline transcendental, leaving me feel almost high upon walking out into the real world. Was it music? I don't know but it was definitely an experience, nor am I going to pretend to know what exactly music is.
During that same time, the diversity of acts performing concurrently ranged from jazz to country to ethereal Irish folk, and it should note be noted that this is truly a world festival, with performers from every continent except Antartica. (Note: I'm not sure if anyone from Australia performed this year)
When it comes down to it, that incredible diversity of acts sets Big Ears far apart from anything else in the world, and it's what draws people from all around the world to visit our little city and attend.
If you're looking for a more in depth look at each day of the festival, our friends at Blank did a great series of writeups you should read.
What makes Big Ears work is a fortunate byproduct of Knoxville's layout, thanks to the density of venues, hotels, and other amenities within close walking distance that few cities in the world can accommodate, which in turn brings significant foot traffic into businesses along the festival path.
Speaking to an employee of Jacks coffee on 100 block of Gay St., Big Ears is their busiest weekend of the year, and the shop expands their menu to better serve Big Ears attendees.
This clear impact spreads across downtown, with packed restaurants and shops all catering to the weekend's visitors, though that foot traffic didn't necessarily spread beyond the festival path for some businesses (for example, there were several attendees from out of town I spoke on Sunday to that did not even know Market Square existed).
The impact is real though, for 2024 in the Big Ears Annual Report included that $69.8 million was contributed to the local economy, and more than 32k people attended.
Despite the abundance of venues & performances at any time, at many times during the festival long lines awaited attendees, particularly those with general admission passes, which became a commonly overheard gripe, sometimes leading to outright heckling of those in the VIP and Premier lines.
The festival also offers a handy shuttle service, but this year the shuttle route was expanded without increasing the number of buses, leading to long wait times and long ride times depending on where you were headed.
Yet, through it all, the organization and professionalism of the Big Ears staff, venues, the city, and everyone in between truly was remarkable. For example, the efficiency and speed of the Mill & Mine bartenders even at peak times is always impressive.
Okay, so getting back to what on earth Big Ears is and what it's all about, it's honestly just a festival for people who love music and have diverse tastes in music, the kind of people who truly mean it when they say they love all music.
Obviously not every show is for everyone, but the ease of being able to walk to another performance featuring a completely different style of music is unmatched anywhere in the world.
A guy I met from Chicago, who has been to festivals all over the world, described Big Ears best: Coachella for introverts.
The listening room aspect of many shows and the fact that all shows are indoors, many of them quite dark, really hammer that home. The most social places at the festival are the lines and the smoking areas.
So, yeah, I doubt anyone who's still puzzled by what Big Ears exactly is will learn anything from this article.. so... uh... yeah... hmm... I'm gonna... go... you can shut off the lights when you're done...
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