Announcing the Artists Playing the Middlelands Arena

One place where traditional, rock-centric music festivals lag behind their EDM-centric counterparts is theming. Your average fest might have an overarching theme of some sort — "we upstart smartasses" or "we book bands so cool, pretty people will come get photographed here," for example — but when it comes to stage and festival-grounds design, most of them look pretty much the same. Not that fans don't appreciate the random art sculptures that have nothing to do with the festival, because we all need places to take selfies, but there's just a distinct lack of creativity once you get past festival booking.

But EDM festivals? They've got theming down. Creating the right environment to dance is something that festivals put a lot of thinking behind, and the results are usually incredible. Sure, I know in my brain that Something Wicked takes place in a field next to a racetrack, but all credit to the promoters for making it really feel like Halloween.

Which brings us to the new festival on the block: Middlelands, taking place up at the Texas Renaissance Festival, and its blend of dance and hip-hop acts. We suspect there will be more than a few amazing things on display, and we'll find out a whole lot about their plans later this afternoon. But before that, we can announce the lineup for the Middlelands Arena, described as such:

Vine-covered stone archways encircle a Medieval jousting ring, where Middlelands Arena will be transformed into a cutting-edge immersive stage production.

Middlelands Arena performers include the one and only Danny Brown, the always exciting Flatbush Zombies, the big sounds of Seven Lions and Houston's very own Fat Tony. Take a look at the full list below: