Summerfest headliner predictions

Before winter hits, Summerfest tends to announce a show or two for people to daydream about, and buy tickets for, during the cold season.

That didn’t happen for the 2018 edition. It’s been the longest fans have waited for a Summerfest headliner announcement in years — although eight of the annual 11 shows at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater are locked in, Summerfest Vice President of Entertainment Bob Babisch said at the annual board meeting for parent company Milwaukee World Festival Inc. earlier this month.

Who’s been booked for the Big Gig? Summerfest officials’ lips are still sealed, with Babisch saying the first announcements are coming in January.

But we’ve put together a list of 11 educated guesses based on known routing information, the amphitheater’s typical demographic mix, and Summerfest’s past booking history.

1. Bon Jovi: Milwaukee fans have been “Living on a Prayer” for seven years waiting for Bon Jovi to come back. Between new music coming out in 2018 and the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, it’s a good bet Bon Jovi will tour this summer. Recent runs have largely been in stadiums, and that could mean a return to Soldier Field in Chicago. But if Bon Jovi opts for the smaller Wrigley Field, Summerfest stands a chance of scoring a date, as it did booking a couple of Tom Petty shows in 2017 around his Wrigley gig.

2. Chance the Rapper: The Chicago superstar headlined Lollapalooza in his hometown in 2017, and staged his own festival at Guaranteed Rate Field (home of the White Sox) in 2016. 2018 likely will be a down year for him with a lot of time reserved in the studio, so this could be Summerfest’s best chance to book him, especially if they offer to schedule several of Chance’s friends on side stages, similar to a deal struck with the Chainsmokers for Summerfest’s 50th.

3. Florida Georgia Line: Wisconsin’s four big country music festivals have announced their lineups for 2018 — and, shockingly, Florida Georgia Line isn’t playing any of them. The country duo is doing festivals this summer, so perhaps Summerfest is going to be its Wisconsin play. The band does have a lot of affinity for the festival; they crashed Luke Bryan’s Summerfest show in 2014, and played the fest before Florida Georgia Line was big.

4. Halsey: The third-highest-ranking female artist on Billboard’s Year-End Charts is poised for a second leg of her “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” tour, especially since a single from that album cracked the top 10, and the album’s stickiest track, “Strangers,” hasn’t been positioned yet for radio. An amphitheater summer tour following that song’s likely radio campaign makes a lot of sense.

5. Harry Styles: The One Direction breakout is at the United Center June 30, but off the two days prior — which coincide with Summerfest’s second and third day. It’s possible the tour’s holding out to announce a second Chicago show, but considering this is Styles’ first arena run as a solo performer, the promoter may decide to spread the exposure and book him in Milwaukee. And while the tour’s structured for indoors, it’s already making one exception for an outdoor gig at Hersheypark.

6. Imagine Dragons: Milwaukee was the first market to put Imagine Dragons in heavy rotation, and the band attracted such a large crowd to its Summerfest Miller Lite Oasis show in 2013 that fest officials let in between 5,000 and 7,000 people for free, making our list for one of the 50-year-old festival’s 10 most memorable milestones. It hasn’t hit Milwaukee yet for latest album “Evolve,” and with two Top 10 singles, it almost certainly will. Expect a return to Summerfest, this time in the amphitheater, where the band belongs.

7. Kesha and Macklemore: The pop star and rapper, respectively, recently announced a joint amphitheater tour for this summer. It stops in Kansas City June 26 — the day before Summerfest opens — then picks up again in the Midwest on July 10, so Summerfest might pick up a date at the beginning or end of their break.

8. Lionel Richie: I predicted there’d be a Richie Summerfest date in 2017, and I was wrong. But this summer, he’ll be fresh off judging the resurrected “American Idol” on ABC. He’ll likely capitalize on that, and his recent Kennedy Center Honor, with his own summer tour.

9. Luke Bryan: Will Summerfest book the same amphitheater headliner three years in the row for the first time? If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen with Bryan. He, too, will be coming off an “Idol” gig, as well as his fourth consecutive chart-topping album, “What Makes You Country.” Another telling fact: Bryan has been booked for only one Wisconsin summer show, at Country Thunder in July. Bryan has headlined at least two Wisconsin festivals each summer since 2013.

10. Pixies and Weezer: The alt-rock acts announced a summer tour in November, and are off for three Summerfest dates before the tour picks up in the Midwest after a brief break July 6. Sometimes Babisch breaks up amphitheater tour packages (in 2015, for instance, Third Eye Blind was booked for a side stage), but Pixies and Weezer have co-headlined Summerfest’s main stage before, and given the timing, could do it again.

11. Sugarland: After venturing into solo careers, Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush are back together, releasing their first song as Sugarland in seven years. A summer tour seems appropriate for Sugarland, and since the Wisconsin country festival lineups are spoken for, perhaps Summerfest will land a date.