Take Two: Northside Backs Its Claim As An Annual Festival With Second Year
With the massive size and constantly buzzing chaos of New York, it's a bit of a challenge to have a festival and hold the attention of an audience. There's so much daily commotion that it's hard to even recognize when it's organized. However, L Magazine is going into its second round of battling the street tumult with the now-officially-annual Northside Festival this weekend in venues strewn throughout, well, the Northside.
Much like South by Southwest's invasion of Austin, Texas, Bedford Avenue will be blocked off from traffic, available only by foot; morphing into a long line of open-armed venues, roughly 30 participating, packing some of Brooklyn's finest acts like Midnight Masses, Dinosaur Feathers and Fan-Tan. Also some widely recognizable names like ?uestlove, Elvis Perkins in Dearland and A.A. Bondy will be gracing the dispersed stages.
The festival isn't designated to music alone, there will also be an impressive line-up of visual art collections, showcasing work in local galleries like Momenta Art and Like the Spice Gallery, all of which will be staying open until 9pm on Friday, June 25, so everyone can find time to come by.
This year, Northside will also be experimenting with a new film fest, with screenings of five feature films, and roughly 20 short films, including one directed by screen-haunter James Franco. All cinema will be shown at Williamsburg's new art house theater slash restaurant/bar, indieScreen. There will even be some designated time for a Q&A with film participants Odd Todd, Lisa LaBracio, Aaron Hughes, Dan Meth and Emily Hubley.
While the idea of closing Bedford Avenue and trying to maintain a polite, orderly festival might sound daunting, or even laughable, the test-run proved successful last year; and since it survived the first round, the second is bound to be more polished. My one reservation might be three distinct art-forms being presented at once, and the risk of it being too much to hold anybody's focus. New Yorkers are antsy by nature, and if there's another option, or ten other options, they're doing all of them three-times over. That being said, if the number one complaint is there being too many enticing choices, the festival seems to be in pretty good shape.
Unlike growingly infamous conferences like South by Southwest, the badge prices are still modest; only $50 for access to shows and deals with restaurants scattered through Williamsburg and Greenpoint. For a badge, or individual tickets to select shows, just pop onto the L magazine Web site with some purchasing-plastic in hand.
