Kevin Bronson on May 7th, 2016

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Iron & Wine, the Specials, De La Soul, Sylvan Esso and Squeeze head up a genre- and generation-spanning lineup for the inaugural Music Tastes Good Festival scheduled for downtown Long Beach on Sept. 23-25.

The lineup was announced at a party tonight. It also includes Dr. Dog, Warpaint, Gallant, the Melvins, RX Bandits, Deltron 3030, Living Colour, Twin Peaks, METZ, Las Cafeteras and Nick Waterhouse. There are 54 artists in all, including a host of local luminaries.

Three-day GA passes will cost $120 (a $240 VIP option includes a gourmet dinner, swag and preferred viewing area). Single-day passes will be $25 for Friday, $75 for Saturday and $35 for Sunday. Tickets go on sale May 13 at noon here.

On Friday night, MTG, which is co-presented by KCRW, will kick off with a block party featuring craft beer and local vendors. Four stages of music will follow on Saturday (when VIPs can enjoy a farm-to-table dinner), and the festival winds up Sunday with more music and a Bloody Mary brunch.

The festival’s founder-curator is musician Josh Fischel (Bargain Music), a Long Beach resident. “Being the world class city we are, we have been long overdue a festival that mirrors the passion and diversity that we experience from our neighbors everyday,” Fischel said in a press release. “It’s time to show off Long Beach and draw the rest of the world in. Veteran promoter and talent buyer Jon Halperin booked the festival.

Halperin is among the promoters flying the Long Beach flag. “The problem with Long Beach has been the proximity to Los Angeles; it’s hard to get bands to play here,” he said. “If you have the opportunity to play in L.A. where your record label is, where you’re management is, you’re going to play in L.A. So Long Beach gets neglected in that sense. … The last good indie-rock festival here was probably All Tomorrow’s Parties, which was on the Queen Mary in the early 2000s.

“We have this crew of people who live here and we all have Long Beach pride, and that’s how it call came together.”

The lineup can be described as diverse with a purpose, with rock, punk, hip-hop, ska, folk, reggae, soul and world music. “When you look at it, it’s not gonna seem like it makes sense,” Halperin said. “But I’ve told people it’s like Coachella without electronic music or FYF with only a few distortion pedals.”

The full lineup is listed beneath the flyer:

The Specials
Iron and WIne
Sylvan Esso
Squeeze
De la Soul
Dr.Dog
Warpaint
Gallant
Deltron 3030 w/ the 3030 Orchestra
RX Bandits
MELVINS
Living Colour
Twin Peaks
Vintage Trouble
Girlpool
Las Cafeteras
P.O.S.
Easy Star All-Stars
Metz
Kate Tempest
Nick Waterhouse
Cody Chestnutt
Le1f
Pokey Lafarge
Christian Scott
Hippo Campus
Son Little
Open Mike Eagle
Skinny Lister
Los Master Plus
Riothorse Royale
Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas
Foy Vance
The Dead Ships
The Sound of Urchin
The Ziggens
Cambodian Space Project
Dustin Lovelis
Rudy De Anda
Lemolo
Spare Parts for Broken Hearts
Machineheart
Spider
Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Solo & Indre
Pregnant
Lp3 & the Tragedy
Neighbors to the North
Bootleg Orchestra
Golden Drugs
Special C
MC Imprint
The Lost Weekend
Sister Crowley

Kelsey Heng contributed to this report.