“I think it’s almost overdue.”

Danny Kongos is on a teleconference with members of BROODS and Odesza to talk about the launching of the Lost Lake Festival, an event at Steele Indian School Park presented by Superfly, the creators of Bonnaroo and Outside Lands.

“Phoenix is such a massive city,” says Kongos, who grew up in Paradise Valley and launched a career with recordings that he and his brothers produced in the family’s basement studio. “I think it’s the fifth biggest in the country, right? But yeah, I think it’s great. Phoenix has had a blossoming music scene since… well, they’ve had multiple periods of blossoming music scenes, but lately it’s been really growing and I think it deserves something like this.”

MORE: Lost Lake Festival announces daily set times, schedule

RELATED: What you need to know about the Lost Lake Festival

Chance the Rapper, the Killers and Major Lazer are the main attractions at the three-day festival, which takes place the weekend of Friday, Oct. 20 to Sunday, Oct. 22. 

Here’s a look at the headliners, a handful of the higher-profile acts and other highlights.

Also, keep in mind that Crescent Ballroom is hosting a series of Lost Lake Late Nights shows, with Kongos Friday, a Lil Jon DJ set Saturday and Diplo Sunday.

Chance the Rapper

There’s so much joy in Chance the Rapper’s vocals. You can hear him smile and laugh and celebrate the many blessings he’s enjoyed as the underground rapper most likely to conquer the mainstream on his own damn terms. He taps into the life-affirming gospel roots that gave us so much classic soul along the way to hip-hop.

It’s contagious, euphoric and quite often funny. There aren’t many artists you could say have carved out an identity as singular as Chance the Rapper has already managed on the road from “Acid Rap” to one of last year’s most acclaimed recordings, an album called  “Coloring Book.” (9:30 p.m. Friday)

The Killers

It’s been 14 years since Brandon Flowers and his bandmates hit the mainstream with the triple-platinum breakthrough, “Mr. Brightside.” Subsequent hits include the triple-platinum “Somebody Told Me,” “All These Things That I’ve Done,” “When You Were Young” and “Human.” They’re heading to Lost Lake in support of their first album since 2012, “Wonderful Wonderful,” which recently became their first release to ever top the Billboard album charts. (9:30 p.m. Saturday)

Major Lazer

This Diplo-led EDM project, which currently features Jillionaire and Walshy Fire, has sent two albums to the top of Billboard’s dance charts while spinning off club-friendly hits as contagious as “Bubble Butt,” “Lean On” and “Cold Water.”

How does it translate in concert? The Guardian raved, “Their live show is an even more juiced-up beast. Hurtling and fidgety, it’s a 90-minute sonic assault punctuated by cacophonous dubstep drops and confetti cannon blasts.” (7:45 p.m. Sunday)

Pixies

It’s been 13 years now since these reunited Boston rockers staked their claim as the abrasive elder statesmen of the hour at Coachella while riding a wave of nostalgia for a moment based, in part, on a rejection of nostalgia.

It was brilliant, a welcome return to form and active duty that played to fans who’d seen them in their prime and kids too young to have known any better at the time alike. Thirteen years later, they’re still out there leaving fresh scars on our memories of classic alternative rock, as they did when they were blasting out the blueprint for Nirvana. (8:30 p.m. Friday)

Ludacris 

It’s been 17 years since this Dirty South rapper broke through with the dirty-as-advertised debut single titled “What’s Your Fantasy?,” offering to “l-l-l-lick you from your head to your toes.”

Subsequent hits include “Act a Fool,” “Stand Up,” “The Potion,” “Money Maker,” “How Low” and “My Chick Bad.” He’s also a successful actor, best known for his work in the “Fast and Furious” franchise. (8:15 Friday)

Haim

The soft-rock sisters recently released a second album called “Something to Tell You.” Entertainment Weekly responded with a rave that noted, “Here, HAIM deliver 11 songs of expert songwriting and fine-tuned studio trickery that sharpen their jukebox classicism; percussion-based, harmony-heavy West Coast pop-rock is once again the dominant theme.” (7:30 p.m. Friday)

Calexico

These Tucson-based desert-rock icons are eight records deep into a celebrated career. On “Edge of the Sun,” their latest effort, their Southwestern touches are offset by the straight-up country-rock of “When the Angels Played” and the soothing soft-rock sounds of a horn-driven opening track called “Falling From the Sky.” Magnet magazine said of the album, “They’ve managed to write one the hookiest, most satisfying albums of their career.” (6:45 p.m. Friday)

Crystal Castles 

Staking their claim on the more experimental side of electronic pop, they took the blogosphere by storm with 2008’s “Crystal Castles,” which NME later declared one of the 40 greatest albums of the decade. Alice Glass left the group in October, 2014, but Ethan Kath has carried on, recruiting Edith Frances, for “Amnesty (I),” an album of what Uncut hailed as “brutally effective industrial lullabies.” (6:30 p.m. Friday)

Broods

Lead singer Georgia Nott and older Caleb formed Broods in New Zealand, where they’ve topped the album charts their first two times at bat, with “Evergreen” and “Conscious.” Here in the States, they’re best known for a handful of hits at alternative radio, which began in 2014 with “Bridges,” still their biggest U.S. hit. (6 p.m. Friday)

Playboy Manbaby

These locals made our Albums of the Year (So Far) list with “Don’t Let It Be.” Highlights range from the scathing yet comic political satire of ‘You Can Be a Fascist, Too” to a spirited working-class anthem called “Cadillac Car” before bringing the party to a close with the hilarious, inflammatory social commentary of “White Jesus.”

And these songs are somehow even more effective live with the audience shouting the lyrics back at Robbie Pfeffer. (4 p.m. Friday)

Dreamcar

Davey Havok of AFI has recruited the members of No Doubt not named Gwen Stefani to explore their shared affection for the music of the New Wave era.

As Rock Sound noted, summing up their first self-titled effort: “Bearing the smart but dark pop hallmarks of bands like The Cure and Echo And The Bunnymen, it’s astonishing how the L.A. foursome’s fusion of disco, funk and hot gothic takes sounds so fresh in 2017, 30-odd years after that stuff’s heyday.” (8:30 p.m. Saturday)

Lil Jon DJ set

I’ve seen this multi-platinum rapper do a DJ set and it was wildly entertaining when you factor in his loopy cult of personality and willingness to play a bunch of hip-hop records anyone who spends a lot of time in clubs is sure to love or at the very least remember. (8:30 p.m. Saturday)

The Roots

They’re Jimmy Fallon’s house band in addition to being among the more acclaimed hip-hop recording artists of all time. And they’re amazing live, with hip-hop’s greatest drummer Questlove laying down the beat. When they shared the bill last year with Chance the Rapper at Taste of Chicago, Consequence of Sound wrote, “It’s a true testament to their drive and talent that they can continue to make classic tracks like ‘The Fire,’ ‘Game Theory,’ and ‘Seeds 2.0’ sound so vital.” (7:30 p.m. Saturday)

Soul Bugs SuperJam: The Dap-Kings play the Beatles

This could be the coolest moment of the weekend – a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration that finds the Dap-Kings paying tribute to the Beatles with a little help from their friends. OK, maybe not friends so much as other artists on the bill and a handful of ringers coming in especially for this, including Huey Lewis, Sameer Gadhia of Young The Giant, Calexico, Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot, Jr. Jr., Frenship, The Shelters, Luna Aura and Saun & Starr. (6:30 p.m. Saturday)

Lil Yachty

This Atlanta trap hero was still in his late teens when he took the hip-hop world by quiet storm with the laid-back breakthrough single “One Night.” At 21, he may be best known in the mainstream for rapping on “Broccoli.” But he hit the charts at No. 5 in May with his first proper studio effort, an album called “Teenage Emotions.” (6:15 p.m. Saturday)

Huey Lewis & the News

These ’80s pop-rockers are putting the chorus of “Hip to be Square” to the ultimate test. Will the pop hooks that made them a staple of Top 40 radio back in the days of “I Want a New Drug” and “The Power of Love” withstand the test of time on a bill that’s clearly catering to hipsters who weren’t even born when the seven-times-platinum triumph that was “Sports,” hit No. 1? I kinda hope so. (5:30 p.m. Saturday)

Kongos

It’s been three years since these brothers broke through with a platinum single called “Come With Me Now” that they’d recorded in their Paradise Valley basement. It topped the charts at alternative radio for a five-week run and was followed last year by a second Top 10 single on that format called “Take It From Me.”

Since then, they’ve moved their studio to “a little place in Hollywood,” says Danny, who adds “It’s nice to be in a different-sounding room.” (4:30 p.m. Saturday)

Odesza

This Seattle-based EDM duo will close out the festival Sunday, going on after the headliner. But there’s no reason to believe they won’t retain a huge percentage of that Major Lazer crowd.

And Clayton Knight says to expect an all-new stage show they’re premiering just before the festival in San Diego, promising a “total revamp” of the live experience with new production and new music. (9 p.m. Sunday)

Run the Jewels

Killer Mike and El-P may be hip-hop’s most dynamic duo, a point driven home in 2012 via Killer Mike’s excellent “R.A.P. Music,” which El-P produced. With Run the Jewels, they’ve taken on a more specific group identity, taking turns on the mike while El-P brings the ominous electro-rap production.

And they’ve more than lived up to the promise of that much-acclaimed debut on “Run the Jewels 2” and last year’s Christmas miracle that was “RTJ3.” (6:45 p.m. Sunday)

Juanes

The Colombian rocker has picked up 20 Latin Grammys for a reason since launching a solo career with the three-time-Latin-Grammy-winner “Fijate Bien” after releasing five albums with Ekhymosis, a band he formed at 15. His latest album, “Mis Planes Son Amarte,” a concept album about a Colombian astronaut’s quest for love, topped Billboard’s Latin charts in May. (6:15 p.m. Sunday)

Big Gigantic

Here’s what Billboard had to say about this electronic duo: “If you’ve ever seen Big Gigantic live, you know they have the power to bring people together. The Colorado duo’s shows are heart-lightening events – places where people from all walks of life can come together and dance to the sounds of sweet, sexy saxophone.” (5:45 p.m. Sunday)

MORE LOST LAKE:

Lost Lake Festival unveils food, drink lineup

More than music: Lost Lake Festival highlights Arizona artists, makers and artisans

Lost Lake Festival will feature unique gaming area from Walter Productions

Danny Brown

In 2012, this 30-something Detroit rapper was hailed by MTV as “one of rap’s most unique figures in recent memory.” And that’s before he even dropped his first Top 20 effort, aptly titled “Old,” which featured guest appearances by Ab-Soul, A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX, Freddie Gibbs, Purity Ring and Schoolboy Q.

Sputnikmusic declared it a five-star classic that “cements his legacy in the rap game.” And last year’s followup, “Atrocity Exhibition,” only raised the bar. (5 p.m. Sunday)

Highly Suspect

These Massachusetts rockers arrived at an intriguing cocktail of radio-ready alternative-rock and headbanging classic-rock echoes on last year’s “The Boy Who Died Wolf,” which Mojo wrongfully dismissed with “may alarm those who recall grunge and nu metal.” That doesn’t account for the post-punk revival moves of the exhilarating “Look Alive, Stay Alive” or the tender side they explores on tracks like “Little One.” (4:30 p.m. Sunday)

Futuristic

Futuristic, aka Zachary Beck, is a mainstream-friendly hip-hop act whose latest album, “As Seen On the Internet,” is his sixth release in five years. That’s exactly the sort of determination it takes to be seen on the internet. And he’s working it hard. His video for “The Greatest” has 23 million views. (3:30 p.m. Sunday)

Lost Lake Festival

When: Friday-Sunday, Oct. 20-22. 

Where: Steele Indian School Park, 300 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix.

Admission: $239.50 for GA three-day pass, with VIP tickets starting at $574.50. 

Details:LostLakeFestival.com.

Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2x29bFB