WASHINGTON — Just six days after the 9:30 Club sent local music fans into a frenzy by teasing a comeback of the beloved HFStival, headliners were announced Tuesday.
Organizers announced The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie will headline the show at Nationals Park on Sept. 21. Both bands will perform their massive 2003 albums "Give Up" and "Transatlanticism" in their entirety.
Billed as “One Day, One Stage,” other performers on the bill include Incubus, Bush, Garbage, Jimmy Eat World, Girl Talk, Violent Femmes, Tonic, Filter and Lit.
It's been 20 years since D.C.'s biggest festival went quiet at RFK Stadium in 2005.
In the '90s, the summer show brought the world’s biggest music acts to D.C.
“We had the Foo Fighters, we had The Ramones, we had Tony Bennett,” former WHFS music director and DJ Bob Waugh told WUSA9.
Waugh is one of the men behind the HFStival. For years, he spearheaded the logistics of it. He convinced hundreds of artists to make D.C. their summer music destination. Over time, bands began planning tours with a stop at RFK Stadium for the festival.
“It got to a point where bands were planning their summer tours around the HFStival,” Waugh said. “They knew they wanted to be in D.C. around Memorial Day.”
From 1993 to 2004 the HFStivals roared on. Each summer more fans came and more bands signed on. But in 2005 the radio station underwent a cataclysmic change. It was a sudden and unannounced format change. In one day, the station went from alternative rock to Latin music on 99.1 El Zol. Not long after that, HFStivals stopped as well.
Now, the festival is back for a new generation, hosted by IMP concerts, the owners of the 9:30 club, Anthem and Merriweather Post Pavilion. The organizers said the lineup is meant to bring back the memories of the original HFStival, but also set it up to be the future DC summer concert festival.
"I would like it eventually to be best of the old and best of the new- people we think will become the classics," IMP CEO Seth Hurwitz said.
Tickets are available through a lottery system beginning Tuesday though June 16.
“We used this lottery system when we opened The Atlantis with 44 ‘underplay’ shows, and everyone appreciated that they had the same chance at scoring tickets,” Hurwitz said. “It’s a fan-friendly system for what’ll be a high-demand festival. This will be a show for everyone who went to HFStival in decades past and those who weren’t around to be a part of the scene."
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