The Hopscotch Music Festival is slated for the second weekend in September, and it looks like a fantastic collection of 120 indie acts that will be playing throughout downtown that weekend . I can’t put it any better than their press announcement:

Hopscotch Music Festival Announces Schedule for September 9-11, 2010

“A promising new festival … bound to embody its name†— The New York Times

The Independent Weekly ’s Hopscotch Music Festival, taking place in downtown Raleigh, NC on September 9 – 11, announces its inaugural schedule. Please visit the website for schedule and ticket info: http://hopscotchmusicfest.com/schedule/?info/schedule/

With 120 bands in 10 venues over three days, Hopscotch’s schedule reflects the festival’s goal of highlighting the Triangle music scene by pairing diverse, well-known national and international artists with a multitude of excellent local bands. Raleigh psychedelic lords, Birds of Avalon , will join the visiting Akron/Family and Sleepy Sun on Thursday, Sept. 9, for instance, while renegade alt-country bands Lucero and American Aquarium play at Lincoln Theatre. Local hardcore heroes Double Negative will join Toronto’s Fucked Up at Berkeley Cafe on Friday, Sept. 10, supported by the menacing Harvey Milk and one of Raleigh’s best young bands, Whatever Brains . Meanwhile, Raekwon will be headlining a special show with Grammy-winning Durham producer 9th Wonder at the Lincoln Theatre.

On Saturday, Sept. 11, locals Megafaun host a seamless night of improvisation and song at Kings with songwriter Marissa Nadler, free jazz masters Jeb Bishop and Ned Rothenberg and electronic standard-bearers Keith Fullerton Whitman and Greg Davis . That same night, bands as diverse as Tortoise, Bear in Heaven, Dungen, Woods, Dex Romweber, Pontiak, Washed Out, Kylesa and Weedeater will fill eight other clubs in downtown Raleigh.

The festival will be headlined by two nights in Raleigh City Plaza, downtown’s crown jewel, which opened last fall. Indie rock giants Panda Bear and Broken Social Scene will headline Friday, Sept. 10, with support from Triangle favorites The Rosebuds . Hip-hop’s most legendary group, Public Enemy , will headline with a rare full-band set on Saturday, Sept. 11. Los Angeles trio No Age and Raleigh’s The Love Language will open. Advance single tickets are still available to purchase at http://hopscotchmusicfest.com/

The response to Hopscotch since its initial announcement has been overwhelming. The festival has already drawn mention from The New York Times , The News & Observer , Brooklyn Vegan, Pitchfork Media, Earfarm, Consequence of Sound, Tiny Mix Tapes and a host of others. VIP passes sold out for the festival in less than two weeks, and most of the festival’s $85 all-show wristbands are gone.

Complete Lineup

9th Wonder, Active Child, Actual Proof, Akron/Family, All Tiny Creatures, American Aquarium, Americans in France, Aminal, Aquarelle, Atlas Sound, The Away Team, Balmorhea, Bear in Heaven, Bellafea, Best Coast, Big Remo, Birds of Avalon, Black Congo NC, Bowerbirds, DJ George Brazil, Bright Young Things, Broken Social Scene, Brutal Knights, Richard Buckner, Burning Star Core, Cannabis Corpse, Caitlin Cary’s Small Ponds with Tres Chicas, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Cults, Greg Davis, Deakin, Dex Romweber Duo, Double Dagger, Double Negative, Dungen, The Dynamite Brothers, EAR PWR, ExMonkeys, First Rate People, Floating Action, Followed by Static, Ben Frost, Fucked Up, Future Islands, Golden Boys, The Golden Filter, Goner, Gray Young, Ryan Gustafson, Hammer No More the Fingers, Harlem, Harvey Milk, Horseback, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, In the Year of the Pig, I Was Totally Destroying It, Javelin, Jeb Bishop Trio, Juan Huevos, Kaze, K-Hill, Kill the Noise, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Kylesa, The Light Pines, Locrian, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Lucero, Luego, Max Indian, Erin McKeown, Megafaun, DJ Merlin, Midtown Dickens, The Moaners, The Monologue Bombs, Motor Skills, Mountains, Jon Mueller, Marissa Nadler, No Age, NOMO, Ocean, Old Bricks, Panda Bear, Pattern Is Movement, Pictureplane, Plague, Pontiak, Public Enemy, Raekwon, Rapsody, The Remix Project, The Rosebuds, Ned Rothenberg, DJ Sami Automatic, Schooner, Sightings, Sleepy Sun, spcl gst, Spider Bags, Thien, Tigercity, Tortoise, Treasure Fingers, Tyler Woods, US Christmas, Sharon Van Etten, Veelee, Vincent Black Shadow, War on Drugs, Washed Out, Weedeater, Wet Mango, Whatever Brains, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Woods, Yip-Yip.

Location

Hopscotch Music Festival is located entirely in downtown Raleigh, meaning all 10 venues are encompassed within a mere 8 block area. The participating venues include: The Berkeley Cafe, Deep South the Bar, Five Star, The Hive at Busy Bee, Kings, Lincoln Theatre, The Pour House, Raleigh City Plaza, Slim’s and Tir Na Nog.

Tickets

Admission for Hopscotch Music Festival is designed to suit a wide range of fans. Individual tickets for the shows in Raleigh City Plaza—on Friday, Sept. 10, featuring Panda Bear, Broken Social Scene and The Rosebuds; on Saturday, Sept. 11, featuring Public Enemy, No Age and The Love Language—cost $30 each. For $45, fans can buy a wristband that allows entry into all nine festival clubs for all three days. A limited number of $85 wristbands gain fans admission to both City Plaza shows and all clubs, saving $20 off of face value. VIP tickets are sold out.

In cooperation with cosponsor etix.com , Hopscotch Music Festival is offering wristbands and tickets to all fans with reduced service charges. To purchase tickets and wristbands, visit www.hopscotchmusicfest.com or www.etix.com .

About the Independent Weekly

Steve Schewel and David Birkhead, both longtime Durham, N.C., residents, dreamt of founding an alternative newspaper in the South during the early ’80s. In 1982, they hired the first editor and did just that, publishing the first issue in April 1983. In the 27 years since that debut, the Independent —or the Indy , as it’s often called — has helped change the state’s press coverage and political culture by influencing the mainstream media, pressuring political leaders and moving its readers to positive action.

The Independent has also served as a consistent and strident cultural critic in North Carolina for decades, regularly winning awards for its arts and music writing, not to mention its long legacy of award-winning news coverage.

Greg Lowenhagen has worked at The Independent Weekly since 2009; Grayson Currin has served as the paper’s Music Editor since 2006.

On The Web

• www.hopscotchmusicfest.com
• www.twitter.com/hopscotchfest
• www.facebook.com/pages/Hopscotch-Music-Festival/288992628225
• www.myspace.com/hopscotchfest
• www.romopr.com