Spring Awakening Music Festival

Fans of cyber-electro-funk masters Daft Punk have had an exciting week, even if some of the news about the Parisian house duo is dubious. The first update came courtesy of Nile Rodgers, the creative force behind legendary disco outfit Chic. According to Rodgers, he's just begun hanging out with the boys from Daft Punk, casually kicking around ideas and song stems with the fruits of these informal sessions paving the way for a new album. This, at least, we can look to as the promise of a new Daft Punk record in the not too distant future.

The second news bite about the boys should, at least at this point, be taken with a grain of salt. Earlier this week, Nick Isasi, a writer for the Live Music Blog, stumbled across an unfinished website for a new electronic music festival in Chicago. The fest, called Spring Awakening, is said to be taking place the weekend of June 16 (different sources have different dates listed) at the Bears' stomping grounds, Soldier Field. Catching the site before it was replaced with a static page directing visitors to Facebook, Isasi managed to nab screen shots that point to big-shot names like Skrillex, Afrojack, Wolfgang Gartner, and the motherload of them all, Daft Punk as headliners.

Spring Awakening will be organized in conjunction with React Events, the Midwest promotions engine behind the Mid, select bookings at the Congress and hippie-leaning Labor Day rave North Coast Music Festival. The company's head of press was tight-lipped about the festival when contacted earlier today but did confirm that an official announcement would be coming as early as next week. So as we hold our breath in the hopes of dance gods Daft Punk returning to our fair Windy City, we may not have to hold it for long. 

Personally, I think there's about a .001% chance that Daft Punk would do a one-off in Chicago without new material to stand behind, but I could be wrong. For those wondering why they wouldn't just be at React's other festival, well, Union Park simply couldn't support an act of Daft Punk's size. And while the images on the recently vanished website could have just been a designer playing up his dream festival thinking no one would see it and take it as fact, Skrillex, Afrojack, Gartner and the like are all acts that React books frequently and certainly not outside the realm of possibility. If nothing else, Spring Awakening presents Chicago with its own version of Electric Daisy Carnival, a sure success for the organizers, and if Daft Punk does indeed wind up as the headliner, then we might just have an epic summer on our hands.