Detroit’s Mo Pop Festival, which has hosted major names in indie rock, pop, and hip-hop over the past decade, has been indefinitely suspended.
Producers AEG Presents announced late yesterday (February 28) that the boutique festival is going on “hiatus from the annual outdoor festival model,” referring to the July festival staged in downtown Detroit. The company added in the announcement that it will introduce the Mo Pop Presents brand, which will program “specialty activations and concert tie-ins” in metro Detroit.
Mo Pop had moved last summer from West Riverfront Park to Hart Plaza, where the 2022 line-up included Big Sean, Jhené Aiko, Glass Animals, Euphoria star Dominic Fike, Wet Leg, Khruangbin, girl in red, and Tiny Jag.
‘This is not a goodbye’
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, rumors of its potential demise had been circulating around the city and the industry in recent times. AEG said that the festival had faced “unexpected challenges” after the two-year absence caused by the pandemic. A statement on the festival website reads: “This is not a goodbye. This is our ongoing love letter to our fans and Detroit.”
Fans of Mo Pop are being invited to sign up for a newsletter to be informed of Mo Pop Presents events. “Although we may look different,” said organizers, “we promise to continue our mission to showcase up and coming artists along with welcoming back some of your favorites from Mo Pop over the years.”
Among the major names to play the festival in recent years were Bon Iver, Modest Mouse, Lizzo, Big Sean, The 1975, Vampire Weekend and, in 2018, as she began her rise to global prominence, Billie Eilish. Total audiences across the two-day event in recent years had averaged some 30,000.
Mo Pop launched in 2013 as a one-day event held at Freedom Hill in the Sterling Heights suburb of Detroit, with artists such as Andrew Bird and Old Crow Medicine Show. It moved to West Riverfront Park in the city two years later.
Read uDiscover Music’s guide to the 2023 festival season.