Today marks the return of Southern California’s premier celebration of new wave, post-punk, and gothic rock as the Cruel World Music Festival takes over Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Now in its fourth iteration, the festival continues its tradition of resurrecting the sounds of the ’80s alternative scene with headlining performances from New Order and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Since its pandemic-delayed inaugural event in 2022, Cruel World has firmly established itself as the essential gathering for devotees of dark wave, synth-pop, and post-punk. As Goldenvoice, the festival’s organizer, aptly describes it, this is an event “for the outsiders, sad girls and lost boys” (Instagram, @cruelworldfest).
Today’s lineup represents perhaps the festival’s most ambitious programming yet, featuring not only established icons but also two significant reunions that will undoubtedly serve as major draws. ‘Til Tuesday will perform their first show in 33 years, marking an extraordinary reunion of their original lineup for the first time in 35 years, according to Stereogum. Meanwhile, Death Cult—the earlier incarnation of The Cult featuring Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy—will deliver a one-time-only reunion set that has longtime fans buzzing. Beyond the headliners, the supporting cast reads like a who’s who of alternative music pioneers. The Go-Go’s, America’s most successful all-female rock band, join synth-pop innovators Devo and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. ’90s alt-rock stalwarts Garbage share billing with ska legends Madness, darkwave revivalists She Wants Revenge, and punk pioneers Buzzcocks, creating a cross-generational tapestry of alternative sounds. Former Yazoo vocalist Alison Moyet rounds out the eclectic lineup.
Cruel World has experienced its share of challenges since its conception. Founded in 2020, the inaugural festival was postponed until 2022 due to the pandemic. The 2023 edition faced weather complications when lightning strikes forced an early shutdown, leading to rare makeup performances by headliners Siouxsie and Iggy Pop. Previous iterations have featured an impressive array of alternative royalty, with Morrissey, Bauhaus, and Blondie headlining in 2022, followed by Siouxsie and Iggy Pop in 2023, and Duran Duran taking top billing in 2024, according to Wikipedia.
The Rose Bowl’s Brookside area has been hosting multi-stage festivals since 2017 and provides an expansive backdrop for today’s dark musical gathering. Festival-goers should note this is a cashless event, with all transactions handled via credit cards, contactless methods, or cash-to-Visa conversion stations. Tickets for today’s event ranged from General Admission at $249 to the premium Clubhouse experience at $1,029, with GA+ ($349) and VIP ($459) options in between, according to Visit Pasadena. Beyond the music, Goldenvoice has partnered with the Rose Bowl Operating Company to donate $250,000 to the Eaton Fire Relief & Recovery Fund, adding a philanthropic element to today’s proceedings.
As the Los Angeles Times noted in their review of the inaugural festival, “Cruel World time-travels back to that moment when synthesizers were supplanting guitars and rebel teens born into baby boomer hegemony were hungrily seeking new sounds, ideas and hairdos.”
Today, that time machine powers up once again, as Goldenvoice proclaims “darkness descends on Pasadena” while “fans from across the country prepare to arrive at Cruel World for a day of nonstop music, community, and memories.” For attendees making their way to 1001 Rose Bowl Drive today, the promise of that rare festival alchemy—where nostalgia meets contemporary relevance—awaits across the festival grounds as some of alternative music’s most influential architects gather for a single day of post-punk communion.
For tickets and more see here: https://cruelworldfest.
