The first wave of lineup announcements for this years Riot Fest Denver have just been announced. We thought we would share our initial observations on some of the names that made the list. The three day festival is set to take place August 28-30 at The National Western Complex. Tickets are currently on sale and be on the lookout for a few ticket giveaways courtesy of your good friends here at Ultra5280.

1. Old School Hip Hop Returns.

The lineup includes hip hop pioneers De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, Run DMC, GZA and Ice Cube and Special Guests. This can almost make a lineup for those crazy Summer Jams they have at Fiddler's. These are some of the groups I grew up listening to so seeing them years later will definitely bring back some nostalgia. Rumor has it Snoop will be playing the whole Doggystyle record in it's entirety. I remember skipping school just to out and buy this record.

2. Modest Mouse in da House.

Leave it to us to provide for some of the most obnoxious puns. With a new record just released (you can read our review here) Issac Brook and company will be making an appearance at this years festival. Modest Mouse has always garnered this mysterious cult like following all while remaining true to themselves in many ways. We cannot wait to hear a full crowd sing-a-long of "Float On". This will separate the real Modest Mouse fans from those who only know this song.

3. Explosions In The Sky!!!!!

These Texans have always maintained a special place in our hearts. With emotional driven melodic pop symphonies, they draw your attention from the get go. Perfect music for those rainy days (Denver has had it's fair share as of late). What better place to see these Texans than at The National Western Complex. For those of you unfamiliar you can find the bands work on many film and television shows including Friday Night Lights. Hearing "Your Hand In Mine" live is already sending chills down our spine.

4. The National Western Complex

Third time is a charm. When this was announced as the venue a few months ago there were your typical grumblings about the lack of camping, smell of horse shit, the allergy inducing atmosphere, I could go on. We say lets live outside the box and try something different every year. This time instead of horses and rodeo clowns we will have Iggy Pop and Jack Black, seems like a fair trade off. Besides we cannot wait to see some of the western themed outfits that may come from this.

We all want to know who else will be headlining this year! (Photo Credit: Robert Castro)

5. Mystery headliners

There are still a couple artist to be announced. We love the anticipation, for all we know it could be somebody like Faith No More (who actually just booked a Red Rocks show this summer) to Drake (this dude has showed up at every festival anyway so why not). His dad was in town this past weekend, maybe he was doing some scouting who knows! I think this is the first festival where I have seen a non-EDM artist on the bill, which is a little weird. We would love to see some local love by including a few notable acts....pssst...Wiredogs!