125th Rochester Lilac Festival music lineup released

ROCHESTER, N.Y. The Rochester Lilac Festival released its music lineup on Thursday for the festival, which runs May 12-21.

This year’s 125th Lilac Festival wants to show both local and national bands with a wide variety of music taste.

“A lot of people don’t realize the wealth and depth and breadth of good talent there is here in Rochester,” Lilac Festival Producer Jeff Springut said. “And a lot of these bands, as I’ve mentioned, are breaking out of Rochester and playing around the country.”

Having a lot of local bands is important for the organization, but local doesn’t mean the same music taste.

“The headliners, I guess the overall flavor of this year’s headliners and festival is variety,” Springut said.

Springut wants to bring as much variety as possible and some of that involves going outside of our area to find it.

“I preview a lot of bands, I listen to other promoters tell me who they like that are new and upcoming because a lot of the time we don’t have the budgets to present the really popular national acts, so we look to discover bands that are looking for exposure,” Springut said.

Springut says he has gone from New York to Nashville to Dallas to find some of these bands. The lineup will have music all the way from 50s and 60s oldies to New Orleans R&B.

“I got to tell you, one of the things I love about Rochester, I love about Monroe County is we’re a festival town,” Monroe County Executive Adam Bello said.

Headliners like the local Zac Brown Tribute Band, Mikaela Davis and The Record Company from Los Angeles will be joining the 10-day free festival that over 500,000 people attend every year.