Jeff Tweedy, Robert Glasper, Weyes Blood to Play Big Ears 2027
The Big Ears Festival has revealed its 2027 lineup, confirming that the eclectic music, art and film event will return to downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1-4 April. The festival is known for bringing together artists from across genres including jazz, folk, rock, electronic and experimental music, and this instalment is no exception, with headline names spanning Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, jazz pianist Robert Glasper, and singer-songwriter Weyes Blood.
Other top-billed acts include Oneohtrix Point Never, guitarist Bill Frisell, and the supergroup Dinner Party, featuring Glasper alongside Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder. The wider bill features Thundercat, Wednesday, Natalie Merchant, Mavis Staples, Courtney Barnett, Sylvan Esso, Norah Jones, Sleaford Mods and Dirty Projectors among dozens more, with the festival hosting over 250 performances across roughly two dozen venues in the city.
- Big Ears Festival 2027 runs 1-4 April in Knoxville, Tennessee
- Headliners include Jeff Tweedy, Robert Glasper and Weyes Blood
- Over 250 performances across around 24 venues
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Big Ears is an annual arts festival held in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, that mixes live music with visual art and film screenings across dozens of venues in the city centre. Unlike single-genre festivals, it's built around genre-blending, pairing jazz, folk, rock, electronic and experimental performers on the same bill, which has earned it a reputation among music fans as one of the more adventurous events on the American festival calendar.
The names attached to a given year's lineup are the main way the festival draws attention, since they signal the range of artists it can attract, from established songwriters to jazz musicians and genre-crossing acts. Robert Glasper, for instance, is a jazz pianist who often collaborates with musicians from hip-hop and R&B backgrounds, while Jeff Tweedy is best known as the frontman of the rock band Wilco.
Festival lineup announcements like this matter mainly to music fans and to Knoxville itself, since events of this scale bring visitors and revenue to the city over the event's few days each spring.