New Salt Lake indie music festival announces lineup for September shows
May 28, 2024, 9:33 PM
Big names and local bands will be sharing the festival stage at Love Letters -- Salt Lake City's newest indie music festival. (Love Letters Music Festival)
(Love Letters Music Festival)
SALT LAKE CITY — Some familiar faces will be returning to Salt Lake City for the newest indie music festival. Love Letters Music Festival’s inaugural year will be headlined by Joji, Quinn XCII and Ashnikko, festival organizers announced Tuesday.
Headliners will be joined by 58 other groups during the three-day event.
Love Letters festival is put on by Salt Lake company S&S Presents, which also hosts the Kilby Block Party. Unlike Kilby, Love Letters will cater to a younger, Utah-based audience, said Nic Smith, managing director of S&S Presents.
“Love Letters fest … appeals to a different kind of audience in Salt Lake,” he said. “All of these groups have played Salt Lake before.”
Where Kilby features indie rock “legacy bands” and targets older listeners, Love Letters shines a spotlight on local groups. About a third of the lineup are pop-adjacent local bands looking for their first chance to play a festival stage.
“There might be some people who really like both sets (Love Letters and Kilby Block Party), but they’re pretty different,” Smith said. “I think there’s probably a 10% crossover here.”
Beeson, the Utah-grown solo project of Jane Beeson, is one of those crossovers. She’s played Kilby and is coming to Love Letters, where she’s looking forward to playing for some of her original fans.
The state’s music scene stands out with a lot of raw talent, she said, and fans who are engaged, fun and discerning listeners.
