2024 Schedule Coming Soon!

Next week, we’ll start to unveil the full Big Ears 2024 schedule—day-by-day, hour-by-hour, venue-by-venue. Stay tuned

Laughter: The Best Medicine Playshop with Laraaji and Arji OceAnanda

We’re delighted to have New Age ambient music pioneer Laraaji return to Big Ears this year.  As already announced, he’ll perform with percussionist, composer, producer Suphala on Sunday, March 24, during the fourth installment of King Britt’s Blacktronika curation, The Soul of Experimental.

But there’s more: Laraaji will also collaborate with sound healer, musician, and Shakti Reiki master, Arji OceAnanda, to lead two laughter and sound release playshops through guided call and response chanting, internal ‘laughter-cises,’ and playful interactions accompanied by music. These interactive, invigorating, uplifting and meditative experiences will offer an opportunity to revive yourself with gentle body movement, relaxation, and periods of intuitive wisdom and deep stillness. There will be one each morning, on Friday and Saturday, March 22 and 23, at Big Ears.

Read: A Guide to Laughter Meditation with Laraaji

Kenny Wollesen’s Wolle-Sonic Massage

Since the early 2000s, drummer and percussionist Kenny Wollesen (founding member of the New Klezmer Trio and a member of the Sexmob and Himalayas groups as well collaborator with John Zorn, Tom Waits and many others) has created hundreds of musical instruments ranging from simple one-sound foley-like instruments to more complex multi-sound contraptions. In 2007, he turned his love of these inventions into a healing experience called Wolle-Sonic Massage, where audience members lay on yoga mats and are treated to individual, completely unique, totally acoustic, musical performances, where familiar & unfamiliar multi-directional sounds drift in & out, near & far. The Wolle-Sonic Massages will take place several times a day, at different locations,  all weekend long during Big Ears, with the core team joined by surprise guests throughout the weekend. You’ll want to have your eyes and ears peeled for this unique event at the 2024 Big Ears Festival.

You’ll also find Wollesen at the drum kit with Sexmob twice during the weekend, supporting Laurie Anderson’s ‘Let X=X’ on Friday evening and for Sexmob’s own concert the following day.

Read: “Musician and inventor Constructs Sonic Massage”

Pass Update:Wristbands Shipping This Week!

If you have already placed your order for Big Ears passes, your RFID-encoded wristbands will be arriving in your mailbox in just a few days. Keep an eye out for your shipping confirmation email, including your tracking number, that will be emailed to the address associated with your account from our partners at Front Gate Tickets once your pass has shipped. We strongly encourage you to register your wristbands on line once you’ve received. With your wristband, you will be set and ready to hit the ground running when you arrive in Knoxville. No in-person registration or check-in will be required and you can proceed immediately to the first event on your festival schedule. One exception:  Any orders for passes placed after March 11 (assuming passes are still available at that time) will be picked up on-site at the festival box office.

Sales and attendance for Big Ears 2024 are once again on record pace. As noted back in September, we are capping attendance for the 2024 festival at last year’s levels, so there is a strong likelihood that the festival may sell out in advance once again this year. We urge everyone planning to attend this year’s festival who have yet to purchase a pass to act as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We have another amazing weekend planned, March 21 – 24, and look forward to seeing you!

Purchase your pass here.