The annual free Cherry Blossom Festival in Brookhaven on March 28-29 will feature acts appealing to everyone from Gen Z to Gen X.
The Saturday headliner at Blackburn Park will be indie folk act the Head and the Heart. The Seattle band, which has 3.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify, has released six albums since 2011 with a raft of hits on adult alternative stations, such as “All We Ever Knew,” “Honeybee” and “Another Story.”
The band last performed in Atlanta at the Coca-Cola Roxy at the Battery in June.
Minneapolis rock band Soul Asylum, which reached its peak popularity in the 1990s with hits including “Runaway Train,” “Somebody to Shove” and “Misery,” will also perform Saturday. The band, which has 2.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, most recently performed in Atlanta in September at Terminal West
Credit: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
Credit: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
Sunday’s headliner is up-and-coming country singer Max McNown, who is 24.
McNown, the youngest headliner in the festival’s nine-year history, has more than 9 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 2.6 million followers on TikTok, two EPs, one album and two charted country hits: “A Lot More Free” and “Better Me For You (Brown Eyes).” According to setlist.com, McNown has never headlined a show in metro Atlanta.
Sunday also features pop singer Natasha Bedingfield, who broke out with her singles “These Words” and “Unwritten” in 2004 and later followed up with “Love Like This” and “Pocketful of Sunshine.” Her Spotify count eclipses the other acts with nearly 19 million monthly listeners. She last appeared in Atlanta in 2022 at the Fox Theatre as host of a “Masked Singer” tour.
The Cherry Blossom Festival’s $450,000 talent budget was about the same as last year, according to Brookhaven spokesperson Burke Brennan. Live entertainment company Live Nation helps the city book talent, he noted.
Last year, the estimated audience over two days was 61,000, he said. “It’s grown every year except for COVID year in 2021,” he said. “Success breeds success.”
The festival also features an artists market, children’s area, classic car show, food trucks and a 5K that happens a week earlier on March 21.
Credit: RODNEY HO/AJC
Credit: RODNEY HO/AJC
Headliners at the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival from past years:
2018: Keith Anderson, Craig Morgan, Edwin McCain, Five for Fighting
2019: The Wallflowers, Smash Mouth, the Spin Doctors, the Romantics
2020: Canceled because of COVID-19 (Rachel Platten and Better Than Ezra were scheduled headliners)
2021: Rick Springfield, the Revivalists, the Amy Ray Band, Better Than Ezra, Jagged Edge, Brian Littrell
2022: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Drivin N Cryin, Anderson East, Howie Day
2023: Band of Horses, Hanson, the Fray, Don McLean, All-4-One
2024: Barenaked Ladies, Live, Lisa Loeb, Sister Hazel
2025: Boyz II Men, O.A.R., Gavin DeGraw
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival
Credit: Photo courtesy of Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival
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