The Northside Festival is coming to Brooklyn (June 11-14)

“This has been a long time coming, but we at The L Magazine are pleased to finally and officially announce the first annual Northside Festival. Taking place from June 11-14 in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, it is, as we’ve grown accustomed to saying, a four-day celebration of the independent music and art scene that thrives here in New York City, with live music being held at nearly every venue in the area (including some that haven’t even opened yet), and art events at some of the most relevant galleries in the neighborhood.

What bands are playing? Well, while we will be booking our fair share of shows on our own, it’s important to us that the festival has as many different voices as possible, so we’ve invited some of our favorite NYC music people to curate their own showcases full of what they think are the bands you should be listening to. There will be a pronounced focus on local artists, obviously, because that’s sort of what we do, but be on the lookout for a few special guests from out of town as well.

For the visual art portion of Northside, we’ve teamed up with the nice people over at the Williamsburg Gallery Association, who will be calling attention to area galleries with some amazing exhibitions on display…

…Four-day passes will on sale shortly at what will surely be a ridiculously low price, and you’ll definitely want to get yours quickly, not only so that you can get into every single show at Northside, but also so that you can get drunk for less money than everyone else, as you take advantage of the many drink specials we’ll have on offer all weekend.” [NorthSide Festival]

The idea behind this is to bring a sort of non-industry, SXSW-like festival to Williamsburg and Greenpoint, an area saturated with venues all within walking distance of each other. Some showcase presenters have already been announced – Kanine Records, WFUV’s The Alternate Side, Gothamist, Frenchkiss Records, and BrooklynVegan.com included.