You know how people say children are the future? That’s bull$hit. Brooklyn’s Northside Festival is in the future. It’s balls-to-the-walls, “will.i.am beamed in via holograph to discuss his thoughts on the 2008 election with Anderson Cooper,” George Jetson marrying an iPhone FUTURE. It’s forward-thinking music, film, and entrepreneurship events scattered across that bastion of flying cars and robot indie rock bands, Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
This festival is so future-oriented that it EVEN TAKES PLACE IN THE FUTURE. June 13-20, to be exact, with NExT: The Northside Entrepreneurship and Technology Expo kicking things off with a bang. NExT’s free innovation expo takes place in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, with an entrepreneurship conference held in various venues within walking distance. The expo will include over 100 booths and presentations, with everything from Windowfarms, a local startup that lets city dwellers grow luscious, vitaminy lettuce all up in the space of their very own windows, to the Voxiebox, “the world’s first Volumetric Entertainment System,” which basically seems like a thingie that makes 3D real and in front of you. FUUUUUUTURE. Red Bull Creation is putting on a 72-hour innovation marathon from June 12-16 at McCarren Park.
Then of course, there’s the music. From June 13-16, almost 350 bands will rock your space robot faces, both during free McCarren Park concerts, ticketed shows, and during Williamsburg Walks (that dealie where they close down streets and people can walk around in them just like poor people in the PAST did). This year’s lineup features the first NYC performance in 26 years of the Greg Ginn-fronted Black Flag, plus the mighty Swans, Lambchop, Son Volt, Iceage, a collabo between Rhys Chatham and Oneida, WHY?, Merchandise, The Soft Moon, Chelsea Wolfe, Twin Sister, Milk Music, Kisses, Lower, Destruction Unit, Good for You, Greg Ginn & The Royal We, and more gloooorious more to be announced. If you wanna add your band’s name to that list, you can submit your music prior to April 13 at Sonic Bids and ya know… see what happens. Badges for the music portion of the fest are on sale now.
• Northside Festival: http://northsidefestival.com
More about: Black Flag, Rhys Chatham, Swans
