PREVIEW: Northside Festival 2017

Northside Music Festival 2017…Stacked!

Kamasi Washington, Miguel, and Dirty Projectors will headline SXSW-esque music festival in Brooklyn this week in Brooklyn-located music and culture festival. Along with stacked headliners, there will also be “Innovation” events, NYC and industry-focused talks lead by NPR, Bust Magazine, and even mayor Bill de Blasio in conversation with Buzzfeed. The event takes place from today, June 7 to Sunday, June 11.

As far as festivals go, this one is affordable, with music badges (access to all music events) available for $75. The jump to the next badge, which gives you access to the Innovation stages mentioned earlier, is large at $500 a badge. However, for $75 you get access to all music events, essentially a mini SXSW, but in summertime, and in NYC.

Starting Thursday, venues across Williamsburg will be hosting a variety of label, corporate, and music-mag founded showcases. There are 37 participating venues hosting art shows, concerts, and talks by leaders in entertainment, technology, and of course, music.

NYC locals will recognize Brooklyn staples participating in the event, among them: Knitting Factory, Rough Trade, Alphaville, Sunnyvale, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bazaar, Baby’s All Right and Union Pool. The main stage will take place at McCarren Park. Bar favorites such as Skinny Dennis, Pete’s Candy Store, Alligator Lounge, and The Gibson are also participating.

Stacked showcases at these venues have been organized by Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan, AdHoc, PopGun, SoFar Sounds, Tiny Engines Records, Exploding in Sound, Orange Milk Records and more.

In addition to the headliners (and in order of my bias) the bands Hoops, Joy Again, Purr, Jay Som, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Girlpool, Ian Sweet, Active Bird Community, The Spookfish, Fond Han, Peaer, Stove, PC Worship, Machine Girl, Elvis Depressedly, Spencer Radcliffe & EE, Horse Jumper of Love, Sean Henry, Downtown Boys, Washer, Baked, gobbinjr, Kal Marks, The Sediment Club, The Hotelier, and many more will be performing!

Some exciting Innovation events are a Soundcloud Case Study, a Live Podcast Taping of See Something, Say Something and NPR’s Snap Judgement, BUST’s Poptarts Podcast, and Vision to Victory: How Squarespace, Waze, & Boxed have Pioneered from Start-Ups to Industry Leaders.

WTBU will be covering Northside 2017, so check back in for more coverage of the festival!

-Allie Miller