Co-founded back in 2018 by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, former Lorimer Beacon founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events‘ and Dedstrange Records co-founder Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival over the course of the past couple of years has featured several hundred handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from Canada, the UK, the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong and of course, the US.
Since its founding, the festival has quickly established itself as the first stop in New York and in the US for a growing number of emerging and buzz worthy for a growing number of emerging and buzz worthy international artists. Notable festival alumni include a number of JOVM mainstays including GIFT, Penelope Isles, The Orielles, Thus Love, as well as Pom Poko, Pom Pom Squad, Sid Simons, Sobs, Water From Your Eyes, Peel Dream Magazine, Kiwi Jr., and a growing list of others.
The festival’s fifth — er fourth? — edition will take place March 6, 2024 – March 10, 2024 in some of the Lower East Side’s best and renowned independent venues including Mercury Lounge, Berlin Under A, Arlene’s Grocery, Bowery Ballroom, The Bowery Electric, Heaven Can Wait, Pianos, and more. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of this past year, you’d recall that earlier this year, the festival’s organizers announced the first wave of artists, which featured an eclectic array of artists from across the US, Canada, the European Union and more.
The first wave of artists included the following:
AY WING & CHUUWEE (DE/CH/US)
Bells Larsen (CA)
Bruiser and Bicycle (US)
Canned Pineapple (UK)
CHAII (NZ)
Chavez Cartel (AU)
church crush (US)CLT DRP (UK)
Coral Moons (US)
Crows (UK)Crystal Canyon (US)
Cucamaras (UK)
Data Animal (DE)
DD Island (US)
Diary (US)
Dirty Sound Magnet (CH)
Durian Silo (US)
DYE CRAP (FR)
Factual Brains (US)
Family Jools (UK)
flirting. (UK)
Flowers for the Dead (US)
FRANKIIE (CA)
Getdown Services (UK)
Head North (US)
Heffner (US)
Hiding Places (US)
Holiday Ghosts (UK)
Hollows (UK)
HUGMYND (UK)
Housewife (CA)
Human Colonies (IT)
Iceblynk (US)
Idle Hours (UK)
iskwē (CA)
Jelly Kelly (US)
Keep (US)
King Bug (US)
Kingfisher (SE)
KT Laine (CA)
Langkamer (UK)
Last Waltzon (CA)
Lavender Blush (US)
Los Premios (ES)
Love Language (CA)
Loveseat Pete (US)
Loviet (CA)
LOW-RES (SE)
Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys (DE)
Luge (CA)
Moon Walker (US)
Nara’s Room (US)
Niño Disco (US)
NOBRO (CA)
Oceans (AU)
Orange Doors (US)
Orchestra Gold (US)
OSKA (AT)
Palomino Blond (US)
PANIK FLOWER (US)
Petite League (US)
P.H.0 (US)
Phantom Handshakes (US)
Phantom Signals (US)
Phantom Wave (US)
Prewn (US)
Programmique (US)
Radio Trapani (IT/NL)
Raue (US)
Retrofile (CA)
Rip Pop Mutant (CA)
Roost.World (US)
Rosier (CA)
Ruby Tingle (UK)
Saloon Dion (UK)
Sasha Cay (CA)
Scrounge (UK)
Sham Family (CA)
Shelf Lives (UK)
Shunk (CA)
Silent Mass (US)
Silver Liz (US)
Slash Need (CA)
Spyres (UK)
Starcleaner Reunion (US)
Strawberry Launch (US)
Subsonic Eye (SG)
Sugar For The Pill (GR)
Sun Entire (CA)
sunnsetter (CA)
Swutscher (DE)
Talking to Shadows (US)
Teddy Hunter (UK)
Telula (US)
The Band Cope (US)
The National Honor Society (US)
The Tazers (ZA)
The Wesleys (CA)
Two-Man Giant Squid (US)
Ugly (UK)
Uninvited (UK)
Venus Grrrls (UK)
Vox Rea (CA)
WAN (PE)
Winona Forever (CA)
The New Colossus Festival closes out the year by announcing the second wave of artists and bands comprising their handpicked lineup for 2024. The lineup includes:
airu (ES)
Big Bliss (US)
Bloody Knives (US)
Boy With Apple (SE)
Carinae (US)
Chalk (UK)
Hot Garbage
(CA)Currls (UK)
Data Animal (DE)
DIVES (AT)
Dream Nails (UK)
Earth Dad (US)
Earth Tongue (NZ)
Empty Nesters (CA)
Friend of a Friend (US)
Georgie Boyd (UK)
Hadda Be (UK)
Hause Plants (PT)
High. (US)
Hotel Lux (UK)
Hotel Mira (CA)
Keegan Powell (CA)
La Sécurité (CA)
Mary Shelley (US)
Melody Fields (SE)
MINAS (UK)
Mother Tongues (CA)
Nicole Yun (US)
Outer Shapes (US)
Paper Lady (US)
PAPISA (BR)
“partygirl” (US)
Pony Girl (CA)
poolblood (CA)
POSTDATA (CA)
Rain on Fridays (US)
Reme (ES/UK)
RIP Dunes (US)
Sara Parigi (IT)
Sarakiniko (FR)
Stuck In The Sound (FR)
Tagua Tagua (BR)
The Gulps (UK)
Them Airs (US)
Ultra Q (US)
William The Conqueror (UK)
Wince (US)
Wynona Bleach (UK)
yael s. copeland (US)
There’s an updated festival playlist featuring sections of tunes from the artists and bands playing next March. Y’all can check that out here:
There are already a handful of bands from the festival’s first two waves that I’m really excited to catch. But I’m also looking forward to discovering some new favorites over the next few months.
Festival badges are available here.
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