Portraits: New Colossus Festival, Super Bock and 18th Ward Presents Summer Saturdays at 18th Ward Brewing 8/17/24: Flowers For The Dead

Portraits: New Colossus Festival, Super Bock and 18th Ward Presents Summer Saturdays at 18th Ward Brewing 8/17/24: Flowers For The Dead

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 took place back in March. But since then, the festival’s organizers have been extraordinarily busy: Along with Portuguese brewer Super Bock, The New Colossus Festival’s organizers have begun hosting a monthly showcase that will go on until November. And their third annual summer showcase series at Bushwick’s 18th Ward Brewing started back in May. 

I was back at 18th Ward Brewing for the first time in a couple of weeks. And after the show ended, Lio Kanine quickly set up an impromptu portrait session with three of the afternoon’s bands. The first band that posed in front of me was Washington, DC’s Flowers For The Dead.