The No Fun Festival in Brooklyn, New York has a history of being amazing. It is a weekend musical festival organized by musician Carlos Giffoni that features primarily noise bands and avant-garde musicians. It is a fairly new music festival, it has only been going on since 2004. Past performers have included Sonic Youth, Cluster, Wolf Eyes, Metalux, Consumer Electronics, Religious Knives, Hair Police, Noveller, Merzbow, and Keiji Haino, and many others. Performers hail from all over the United States and the world.
The most recent No Fun Festival in 2009 included acts that were slightly more accessible, such as rock and pop bands that are still associated with the electronic music scene. It has been held in various venues around New York, including the Knitting Factory, the Hook in Red Hook, and the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
While noise and experimental music might be an acquired taste, the No Fun Festival truly epitomizes the kind of hip and avant-garde art that can be found in New York. There are many music nerds, eccentrics, intellectuals, and veteran musicians in attendance. The performances and sounds are not always easy to listen to, but they are always compelling. The creativity is incredible.
Onstage during No Fun Festival, one can see and hear handmade custom instruments, bows dragging across a guitar hybrid, modular synthesizers, effects processors, abrasive vocals, huge amounts of amplified feedback, and violin drones. It is exciting to know that there is an audience for musicians who are doing truly exciting and innovative work.
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