Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia thrust the spotlight on to Liverpool on a global scale once again, Getintothis’ Peter Guy wraps up some final thoughts while Keith Ainsworth provides a stunning summation of all the best bits.
That was the weekend that was. Liverpool Psych Fest for many won’t be remembered but wistfully reflected upon through a haze of screaming guitar pedals, delayed thoughts and tangled feelings.
It bent our minds and ripped through our body and that was just the cauldron overflowing with sweaty sausages…
Psych Fest is in its infancy, yet it feels naturally at home in Liverpool and in Harvest Sun and Bido Lito!, the chief organisers have tapped into something which already feels like an integral cornerstone of the music calender; there’s a rich platform they’ve already sought to build upon, not least the genuine international flavouring of the musical delights on offer.
As Getintothis‘ Part Two review touched upon there’s an ocean of contemporary psychedelic music to mine and while sometimes the festival seemed narrowly bent towards the guitar-orientated fuzz-rock currently en vogue it successfully posed the question of what is Psychedelia while peppering the billing with a more deft avant garde experimentalism. The elitists had a field day, the music fans simply lapped it up.
The second Liverpool Psych Fest was a triumph not merely on a musical level but the programming, with the small cinema programme, the talks and Sam Wiehl-led design and lighting proving a revelation. The master-stroke was the Arts Council funded Sonic Boom collaboration with Heretic Designs; a mini chamber of hypnotic wallpaper married to aural dystopia – Laura Ashley interiors this was not.
But it’s the very concept, realisation and happening that’s so special – Liverpool Psych Fest is a developing cultural landmark for the city, and is fast becoming an important fixture for music lovers all over the world to discover; an event which cast the industry spotlight on Liverpool while bringing the masses flocking to Merseyside – and they will certainly come again.
Soak up our reviews and galleries, and below are Keith Ainsworth‘s visuals.
* Getintothis reviews Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2013: Camp and Furnace & Blade Factory, Liverpool – day one.
* Liverpool Psych Fest: Camp and Furnace, Liverpool – picture gallery part one.
* Getintothis reviews: Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2013: Camp and Furnace & Blade Factory, Liverpool – day two.
* Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia 2013: Camp and Furnace & Blade Factory, Liverpool – picture gallery part two.
Crowds enter the void…
PSYK merch
Sonic Boom and Heretic Designs installation
Mind Mountain
Base Ventura
Dead Horse One
Kult Country
Yeti Lane
Cosmic Dead
Lorelle Obsolete
Carlton Melton
Plankton Watt
Drones
…and still they came
Dead Meadow
The Oscillation
Night Beats
Psychic Ills
The KVB
Moon Duo
Mordant Music Miasma
Warm Digits
Opening talks on Day Two
Woken Trees
Alfa 9
Novella
Maston
DJ PSYK
The Resonars
The Wands
Paperhead
Soft Walls
Shindig Caravan
Charlie Boyer
Jacco Gardner
Cold Pumas
Singapore Sling
More drones
The Liminanas
Hookworms
Hookworms
Fuzz
White Manna
PSYKD
!!!
Mugstar
Trans
Trans
Clinic
Further reading on Getintothis:
Getintothis exclusive: Liverpool Psych Fest 2013 returns with two-dayer at Camp & Furnace.
Getintothis reviews the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia featuring The Time And Space Machine, Dead Skeletons, Wolf People and more at Camp and Furnace.
Getintothis‘ Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia – picture gallery.
Getintothis talks to Will Sergeant on his love affair with psychedelic music.
