MoPop has become a summer tradition for me. Every July, I look forward to the last weekend filled with great music, food, and fun. MoPop is a boutique indie music festival on the gorgeous Detroit Riverfront. It started as a one day music festival for two years at Freedom Hill but rapidly grew and expanded into a weekend long festival on the Detroit River front and has been there for the last five years. The Detroit Riverfront is doing significant renovations this year and will no longer be able to accommodate large-scale events so next year MoPop will move to a new venue but will remain in Detroit and is rumored to move to Hart Plaza or Belle Isle. I've been the last three years and I always have a great time.
They sell tickets in three phases. Phase one starts before the lineup is announced and is around $79 for weekend passes. Phase two starts after the lineup is announced and is around $100 for weekend passes. If you purchase tickets during phase three tickets are around $150 for weekend passes and close to $100 if you buy a ticket for only one day. So the earlier you purchase the better. There are also several locations where you can buy fee free tickets like Royal Oak Music Theatre and UHF.
The first year I went, the lineup was incredible including Alt-J, Phantogram, Foster the People, The Arkells, Tyler the Creator, and Vance Joy. Acts in previous years have also included Brandon Flowers, Father John Misty, The Neighbourhood, Borns, City and Colour, M83, Modest Mouse, Glass Animals and more. The last couple years have had big headliners like Lizzo, Vampire Weekend, and Tame Impala but a lot of less well known acts throughout the weekend and seems like they used to book more big name bands. I've also noticed that it's become significantly more crowded this last year and it's harder to get a good spot in front of the stage. This last year they had 33,000 concert goers in attendance.
There are two stages-a large main stage called the grand stage and a smaller stage to the right. There are no overlapping set times which is great so you don't have to decide who you want to see. I do wish the second stage was larger, or even as big as the grand stage as the acts are just as big as names and it's hard to scope out a good spot since crowds have grown over the past couple years.
The festival itself is setup really nicely. There's lots of stuff to explore. There's an arcade area which is air conditioned in a tent and a good place to hit if there's rain. There's an artist market and shaded hammock area. There's a large selection in the merch tent. The waterfront has the big MoPop sign for photo ops and usually painted pianos are setup along the waterfront. They don't allow water to be brought in but you can bring in an empty water bottle and refill it at the front of the park at the refilling station for free. They have lots of food trucks like Hero vs Villain, Treat Dreams, and Shredderz. Food trucks are setup near lots of picnic tables in the front of the park and there are also plenty of tiki bars and restaurants setup near the stages as well. Food and drink vendors have included Imperial, Antihero, Hopcat, Slows, Voyager, Lover's Only, Sugarhouse, and Dark Horse. Island Noodles is one of my fave vendors here. There are also lots of freebies and samples set up in cute tiki bars from Patron, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Deep Eddy's, Stok Coffee and more. They had onsite parking this year (next year's venue will not). Parking was $40 VIP which is all that's advertised at the gate and actually puts you farther away and harder to get out. We bought parking online for $20 and it was close and we got out easily. The surges for Lyft/Uber we're insane coming out of the event-over $100 and stayed that way for over an hour so park if you can. In past years it's been very dusty at night but this year they added sand and gravel which really helped. Overall I love MoPop. I have seen some incredible shows here with great acoustics, lighting and effects. The atmosphere and food is great, there's a lot to do, and it's a well organized event. Can't wait to see who will be there next year. read more