This was supposed to be the year of Dave Matthews Band‘s hiatus from touring. Instead, the long-running jam band has asked its fans to save the date for a series of three-day festivals to be staged across the country over the summer, each of which will be headlined by DMB.

“2011 is our 20th anniversary as a band and we want to celebrate by playing music together,” the band said in a statement on the official DMB Web site. “While we are still taking the year off from touring, we have decided to plan four multi-day, multi-artist music events that will take place this summer.”

Specific locations have not been revealed, but a general timeframe has been laid out for the Dave Matthews Band Caravan, as official fan site Warehouse bills it.

The Caravan begins with a June 24-26 event somewhere in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic region, followed by a July 8-10 stop in the Midwest. From there, the plans get hazier. DMB’s official Website notes that the third and fourth festivals will fall sometime in August and September.

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Regions have not been assigned for the latter months, but the West Coast and South seem to be the other probable regional stops. DMB rarely delves into Canada for more than one or two shows per tour, so a designated festival for the provinces seems unlikely.

DMB will headline a set each night of the various mini-festivals, though the rest of the billing is not yet confirmed. Full lineup information — as well as more dates, exact locations, and ticketing details — “will be announced soon,” the band states.

Plans for a touring hiatus were first announced in May 2010, immediately before DMB started its summer 2010 tour schedule. A round of “final” concerts before the hiatus were later revealed for November.

The hiatus came as a surprise since the band has toured every year since its first public performances in 1991. In an interview with Billboard magazine, frontman Dave Matthews had said that he planned to “recharge my creative juices and…not have the safety net of touring with the band for a year and just see what my head comes up with.”

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