Cake, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Tank and the Bangas will headline the Mill Valley Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday, May 13-14. Returning to Friends Field for its second year, the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce also announced today that the outdoor all-ages festival will expand to two days. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, Jan. 24, at noon.
The headliners are nothing short of Northern California itself, as told through the history of rock. Alt-rockers Cake formed in Sacramento in 1991 and still call the capital city home. They’ll be joined by Oakland’s own Michael Franti along with his longtime hip-hop and funk backing band, Spearhead.
Catapulted to national fame after winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2017, Grammy Award-nominated spoken-word shapeshifters Tank and the Bangas are scheduled to appear at the festival main stage as well.
Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew, former members of the Talking Heads, will perform the 1980 album Remain in Light, along with other favorites, following up a similar set at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2022.
Other performers include rhythm-and-blues outfit The Dip, contemporary soul artist Durand Jones, soul blues favorites Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears, as well as Grammy-nominated Appalachian multi-instrumentalist Valerie June.
Emerging Bay Area artists Orchestra Gold, an African psych-rock band from Oakland, as well as those Lollapalooza darlings, Mill Valley’s own The Alive, round out the festival.
As festival culture continues to proliferate, the Noise Pop-produced Mill Valley fest debuted last year with a multi-genre lineup of artists that included Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Lettuce and Liz Cooper.
Mill Valley Music Festival
🗓️ Saturday and Sunday, May 13-14
🎟️ $219-$449
📍 180 Camino Alto, Mill Valley
🔗 millvalleymusicfest.com