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Milky Chance, a German rock band best known for their 2013 hit "Stolen Dance" headlined Saturday's lineup.
Milky Chance, a German rock band best known for their 2013 hit “Stolen Dance” headlined Saturday’s lineup.
Shannon Tyler/The Daily Northwestern

CAPTURED: 2024 Winnetka Music Festival

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Welcome to The Daily’s photo blog: Captured. This is a space for The Daily’s photographers to share their best work, including photos from weekend performances and events around the community. You can contact the photo editor by emailing [email protected].

The 2024 Winnetka Music Festival brought big names like Milky Chance and Band of Horses to the North Shore suburb. With 30 acts spread between two days and four stages, the music festival brought in its biggest lineup to date, according to Val Haller, the festival’s founder and music curator.

Haller curates a blend of quality music including notable names and emerging artists. Her goal has always been to provide opportunities for bands and connect them to a new audience to hopefully create new lifelong fans.

Milky Chance, who headlined Saturday night, is a German indie rock band who emerged onto the global music scene with their first single “Stolen Dance” in 2013. 

The band brought a mix of Berlin club beats with strobe lights and electric keyboard riffs and their folk fan favorites. 

Ax and the Hatchetman rocked the daytime mainstage with their funky rock fusion songs. The young Chicago-based band has attracted fans across the nation. 

Covering The Strokes’ “Last Nite,” lead singer Axel Ellis passionately sang to his bandmates and the audience. 

Michigander, a band hailing from Michigan fit right in with their alternative rock and emotionally raw lyricism. 

British-born and multiple time grammy-nominated artist Yola brought her soulful funky pop to Winnetka. 

Her talent drew a large crowd to the main stage as she sang, danced and played guitar as the sun went down. 

Ur Mom rocked the Chapel stage during the early afternoon of the festival with their fusion of rock, blues, alternative and everything in between. 

Lead singer Maura Wolf’s hauntingly hypnotic voice accompanied by bassist Andrew Vucsko-Cameron’s energy and Hinds’ wild riffs (and hair), Ur Mom is making a name for themselves. Their music, a blend of each of the members’ music inspirations, is raw and real with songs like “Sushi (with your ex)” about jealousy and relationships and “OCD” about receiving a diagnosis for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. 

Widemouth, an alternative folk rock band from Northwestern, shared their thoughtful lyricism about relationships, love and adolescence to the festival’s decadent yet intimate Chapel Stage. 

Rayland Baxter is an alternative folk artist from Nashville with a critically acclaimed album “Wide Awake” under his belt. Baxter covered Mac Miller’s “Small Worlds” and closed out with his most popular song “Yellow Eyes.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which song Ax and the Hatchetmen played as well as the number of members in the band. The band did not play “Peach Trees” and it is a band of six members, not seven. The Daily regrets the error.

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