News : Lightning in a Bottle Adds More Than 100 Artists to 2022 Lineup

After two years off during the pandemic, Lightning in a Bottle is returning in a big way for 2022.

On Tuesday (Feb. 22), the festival unveiled a major lineup expansion, with more than 100 acts being added on three additional stages. This addition includes rootsy live trio Dirtwire, DJ/producers including Adam Freeland, Joe Kay of Soulection, Henry Pope and Mimosa, along with a variety of performers spanning music, dance and spoken word.

These additions fill out an already heavy-hitting lineup, with Lightning in a Bottle 2022 hosting electronic favorites including Kaytranada, Griz, CloZee, Glass Animals, SG Lewis, Maya Jane Coles, Four Tet, Black Coffee, Jon Hopkins, the Desert Hearts crew and many others. See the complete main lineup below.

Lightning in a Bottle 2022 will happen at Buena Vista Lake near Bakersfield, Calif., over Memorial Day weekend, May 25-30.

Like many independent promoters, Lightning in a Bottle producers, the Los Angeles-based Do Lab, were hard-hit by the pandemic, with the founders at one point considering scrapping the event altogether. In March 2020, The Do Lab was hit with a pair of class action lawsuits related to their original refund policy. (Similar suits were brought against SXSW and Ultra Music Festival and other major entities like Stubhub.) These lawsuits were settled by early 2021.

“The lawyers were like, ‘Look, just pay us and we’ll go away,'” Do Lab co-founder Jesse Flemming told Billboard in March 2021. “That was the easiest option to get out of the whole thing, so we settled with the lawyers and they took the money and whoever was in the class action, it was probably like a dozen people, they all got a little bit of money and that was it.”

As the pandemic persisted, Do Lab co-founders — brothers Josh, Jesse and Dede Flemming — pared down the company to just themselves and one other employee. They assured, however, that they were “firing up the cylinders” for 2022, and with Tuesday’s announcement it appears that the Lightning in a Bottle machine is back at full power.

“Thankfully, because of the way that we are as an overall family and organization, although we had to let everyone go, we still have everyone’s support,” Dede Flemming told Billboard last March. “We can still call up contractors and old employees and bounce things off of them, and they’re happy to contribute because they still believe in what we’re trying to create and we still have their support.”

In April, Do Lab will also host its annual stage at Coachella in Southern California.