Why Knoxville's Big Ears was Spin's 'Music Festival of the Year'

Big Ears is one of those music festivals that attracts a global audience while somehow remaining under the radar in its own hometown.

Now in its 11th year, Big Ears returns to the Scruffy City for its four-day run in March with artists including Jon Batiste, Herbie Hancock and Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

Big Ears doubled its attendance last year from the 2019 numbers at 8,000 attendees per day. Now, that popularity could grow even more, after the music festival founded by Ashley Capps got some major attention from national music magazine Spin.

Capps posted on Facebook that he was "honored and grateful" for Big Ears Festival to have been selected "Music Festival of the Year" by SPIN.

"Thanks to everyone ? our staff and extended team, near and far; the artists and their teams; the fans; our colleagues and partners ? for coming together to make Big Ears such an unforgettable experience, year after year," Capps wrote.

Spin magazine highlighted 'revelatory' experience of Big Ears

Last month, Spin published its "Editors’ Picks: The Best (& Worst) of Everything Else in 2023," picking everything from Song of the Year to Comeback Artist of the Year and even Most Boring Musical Moment.

Senior Editor Ryan Reed, a Knoxville resident, wrote that while he is not typically a music fest fan, Big Ears is a "godsend."

"You can stroll around from gorgeous theaters to dingy indie clubs to hole-in-the-wall venues, soaking in avant-garde jazz and electronica and classical and experimental rock and other fascinating sounds that defy categorization," Reed wrote. "What you won’t find is the same homogenized artist lineups that seem to decorate every mainstream festival marquee."

Reed said 2023's Big Ears festival experience was "revelatory, as always," citing shows he saw that included the atmospheric jazz-funk of Pino Palladino and Blake Mills, stirring art-folk lullabies from Ichiko Aoba, the multimedia digi-sample odysseys of Oneohtrix Point Never and improvised electric madness (John Zorn).

"With every passing year, Big Ears feels more like home to me ? and more like an institution for listeners seeking the sublime," Reed concluded.

Liz Kellar is a Tennessee Connect reporter. Email [email protected].

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville's Big Ears was named Music Festival of Year by Spin magazine