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 Dedstrange Records co-founder Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival over the course of the past couple of years have featured a few hundred handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from across Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the States.
By design the festival normally takes place about a week or so before SXSW; the festival’s co-founders have long viewed New Colossus as a pre-SXSW stopover that will give its lineups an opportunity to organically gain exposure, while filling a critical void in the city’s festival circuit.
Obviously, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, New Colossus wasn’t able to happen as scheduled last year, but New Colossus and 18th Ward Brewing hosted a live, (mostly) outdoor concert series featuring local and regional acts at the brewery’s Bushwick location.
The main festival happened this year — and I saw a lot of great acts and befriended a band or two. Of course, more on that later. I’m very behind on my photo editing. But that kind of busy is a good thing in my world, you know?
The outdoor showcase has gone on its second summer. And although I haven’t been able to make every single showcase because of travel and my beloved New York Rangers making a deep postseason run, but I’ve gone to a great number of them so far.
One of the great things about the Summer Sunday showcases at 18th Ward Brewing is that people bring their kids and their dogs. And babies and dogs make things infinitely better in my book.
Sadly, last Sunday was the last Summer Sunday for the year, but someone brought this adorable and very good boy to a showcase, that had to be moved indoors because of rain.
