Experimental Music Festival Launches This Summer
According to Peter Margasak’s Post No Bills blog over at the Reader, there’s a new music festival being launched in Chicago with a focus on experimental music. The Neon Marshmellow Fest will take place August 20-22 at Viaduct Theatre.
Red Electric Rainbow
We should give them credit for their guts and gumption. It’s not easy starting a music festival and I can see a number of problems arising from an experimental festival. Funding, promotion, advertising and ticket sales are all areas where any kind of show is bound to have problems. Targeting a genre like experimental music could open up an even bigger can of worms in that it has a very specific target crowd. The average music fan probably won’t be interested in paying $30 to listen to a 17-minute Aeolian wind harp drone while being visually assaulted by a purple strobe light. On the other hand, experimental music is notoriously under-represented at local venues, so hopefully there will be a market for the three day fest.
While founders, Daniel Smith (Red Electric Rainbow) and Matt Kimmel (Acid Marshmellow blog) are waiting on a number of acts to confirm, they have a partial list posted. The confirmed acts include: Astral Social Club (UK), Emeralds, Telecult Powers, Skin Graft, Caboladies, Fragments, Tiger Hatchery, Dog Lady, Sunglasses, Red Electric Rainbow and PissPissPiss MoanMoanMoan