Live Concert Photography: New Colossus Festival 2020: MOSCOT and AdHoc Presents Showcase at MOSCOT Eyewear 3/13/20 feat. Luke De-Sciscio, Jackie, Connor Martin, Wyldest, and Hussy

Live Concert Photography: New Colossus Festival 2020: MOSCOT and ADHoc Presents Showcase at MOSCOT Eyewear 3/13/20 feat. Luke De-Sciscio, Jackie, Connor Martin, Wyldest, and Hussy

Co-founded by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, Lorimer Beacon‘s founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events and Lola Live’s Steven Matrick, the second annual The New Colossus Festival took place between March 11, 2020-March 14, 2020. The festival featured more than 100 handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from the US, Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, and Singapore. By design the festival took place just before SXSW: the festival’s co-founders view the festival as a pre-SXSW stopover that will give its emerging acts an opportunity to organically gain exposure – while filling a critical void in the festival circuit.

The festival’s second year found the festival expanding by leaps and bounds: while still featuring showcases at venues across the East Village and Lower East Side including Berlin Under A, Lola NYC, Pianos, The Bowery Electric, Arlene’s Grocery and The Delancey, the festival expanded to include scheduled showcases at The Bowery Ballroom and the recently added MOSCOT Eyewear, as well as Ludlow House. Unfortunately for all of us, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic during the festival’s second official day — and the world since then has spiraled even more out of control than ever before.

As a result of the pandemic, last year’s New Colossus Festival wound up being the last pre-COVID festival — and the last live music I’ve had a chance to see in person in close to a year. Now, as a great deal of you readers, who also follow me on Twitter and Facebook may remember, my mother was diagnosed with cancer in the beginning of the year. With mom being a part of the high risk category — she’s in her late 60s, has high blood pressure and at the time, had cancer — I had to cut my coverage of the festival a day short, out of a preponderance of caution.

Of course, much like my coverage of Winter Jazzfest early last year, I had intended to write an extensive review of New Colossus — but 2020. However, i did take a shit ton of photos that I’d love to share with you over the course of the next week or so. You’ll see photos of JOVM mainstays The Orielles, Beverly Kills and Hanya, as well as a bunch of acts that I hope you’ll check out and love.

March 13, 2020 is a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life: it’s the last full and night of live music I’ve experienced as a result of the pandemic. The day started off with a lovely afternoon of incredibly talented singer/songwriters performing in the incredibly intimate and kitschy environs of MOSCOT Eyewear in the Lower East Side. So in this post, photographs of charming British singer/songwriter Luke De-Sciscio, who sang gorgeous love songs as the world was ending; Canadian indie rock act Jackie, while they performed certified anthems; New York-based singer/songwriter Connor Yorke Martin; British singer/songwriter Zoe Mead and her critically acclaimed project Wyldest; and British singer/songwriter Sophie Nicole Ellison and her JOVM mainstay recording project Hussy. Check out photos below.

Luke De-Sciscio