What makes a great music festival?

Filed Under: Excited About, New Colossus, New York City — By: Elke Nominikat

In anticipation of The New Colossus Festival 2023

[First published in our weekly newsletter, February 13, 2023.]

Certain key ingredients are needed to create an interesting music festival. It starts with an attractive city. Then, of course, isn’t it all about the performing artists? The music itself. You would want to showcase some of the finest musicians the hosting city has to offer, but at the same time, you’d want to welcome artists from other places in the world. What about the location of the stages and venues? With winter festivals, you’d need to keep it indoors, so no baseball fields and the likes possible. As a festival attendee, it’s nice when you can walk everything on foot and don’t have to rely on pedicabs or taxis or the like.

The New Colossus Festival, at home in New York, seems to be able to offer it all. In the heart of the Lower East Side, the festival welcomes music lovers from all over the globe to see showcasing artists from the US, Canada, and Europe. From March 9 to March 13, more than 130 artists are performing on smaller and bigger stages alike. Thanks to the close proximity of the venues with the Bowery Electric and Heaven Can Wait building the farthest out, it is possible to get a really good taste of the current state of Indie rock (lots of shoegaze!) and pop music. With a badge, the five days event pass, you can float in and out of venues and shows and can catch as many performances and artists as you can.

Now in its fourth year, the New Colossus Festival has seen it all, and we remember each installment fondly, with the 2020 one maybe still the most unforgettable, when we danced on the brink of the outbreak of the pandemic! Were you there? Let us know.

We hope to connect with fans, and bands come March 8th and are especially looking forward to the exquisite daytime programming and the daytime shows. With the festival schedule being out, we have our favorites identified and marked our calendars accordingly. Stay tuned when we reveal our favs. See you at the festival!

Photo credit: Elke Nominikat

Capturing THUS LOVE’s mesmerizing show @ Arlene’s Grocery, one of the highlights of last year’s festival. The Battleboro, VT, post-punk trio plays again this year. Don’t miss their two shows! More info here.