Jay-Z at last year's Glastonbury Festival.
Hip hop superstar Jay-Z is stepping up to replace the Beastie Boys as the headliner for the opening night of this year’s All Points West Festival, organizers announced late last night.
APW, held at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, N.J. From July 31 to Aug 2, is the first American music festival to feature Jay-Z.
The Beastie Boys canceled tour dates and postponed the release of their new album after Adam “MCA” Yauch announced Monday that he needs treatment for cancer in his parotid gland and in a lymph node.
Jay-Z performed at a variety of overseas festivals last year, including the U.K.’s Glastonbury, Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, Norway’s Hove Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival in London.
The Grammy winning artist joins Tool (Saturday) and Coldplay (Sunday) as headliners of the three-day festival. Other performers over the course of the long weekend include Echo & The Bunnymen, My Bloody Valentine, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, MSTRKRFT, Gogol Bordello, The Black Keys, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Arctic Monkeys.
While festival organizers clearly fee that Jay-Z’s unprecedented appearance will more than satisfy most ticketholders, they will issue refunds for single-day tickets because of the Beastie Boys cancellation. Refunds are available where the tickets were purchased.
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