Artsquest announced this morning that The Chainsmokers, a massively popular pop/EDM duo, will be headlining the Sands Steel Stage at Musikfest 2019 on August 2.
The show, the second announced for next year’s festival, comes on the heels of the announcement earlier this month of a co-headlining show with Train and the Goo Goo Dolls. Today’s announcement represents one of Musikfest’s first forays into a genre which has seen few outlets in the Lehigh Valley. Notably, the Allentown Fair hosted its first and only EDM act with Deadmau5 in 2015, while the Sands Event Center has seen its share of DJ/Producers like Tiesto and Hardwell circle through its bookings in the past years.
The duo, which has been critically dismissed as mediocre and formulaic at times, is nonetheless one of the most popular DJ groups today, with ubiquitous poppy hits dominating the airwaves since their satirical single, “#SELFIE” hit the scene in 2014. Since then, DJs Alex Pall and Andrew Taggart have gone on to release a never-ending stream of hits like “Don’t Let Me Down” featuring Pittsburgh native Daya. Their biggest hit to date, “Closer,” which was a certified Diamond record with Halsey, garnered them massive success, although Halsey recently comically derided the song at a Lehigh University performance.
Last year the group released Memories…Do Not Open, their debut LP featuring the hits “Paris” and “Something Just Like This,” the latter featuring Coldplay. The Chainsmokers have since been putting out a steady drip of singles, the most recent being “Beach House,” in anticipating of their next album titled Sick Boy, due out some time next year. In just a few days Pall and Taggart will hit the small screen during ABC’s airing of the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, taped earlier this month in NYC.
Tickets for the show are $79-$99 and go on sale to the general public on Friday, December 7.