Festival offers affordable chance to discover new cultural
music
On Oct. 14 to 15 and Oct. 16 to 18, the Culture Collide music
festivals will be underway in San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.
The festivals, which will feature the headlining acts Cloud Nothings and
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, will also be presenting numerous international
musicians, with more than 40 bands playing in the San Francisco festival
and over 60 acts from 25 different countries playing in Los Angeles.
Culture Collide festival founder Alan Miller, who also leads Culture
Collide’s editorial platform, stated that the festival offers a great chance for
the discovery of music, culture and innovation.
“We at Culture Collide have gone around the world and delegated the
search for talent and found really great talent. I think for a college student
with little travel experience, this can be a great chance for discovery,” Miller
said in a phone interview.
Because of its international focus, Culture Collide will be offering a
stage for international sounds that deviate from indie music of the North
American variety.
“Although Culture Collide primarily features indie music, there are
different types of music that come from different places. For example,
Swedish bands have great sensibilities to pop music, and you have bands
from Korea with awesome electronic sounds,” Miller said.
Along with the music, Culture Collide will also be hosting a creative
summit where keynote speakers will be leading talks, which Miller invites all
Aggies to check out for free.
“The creative summit […] is a great chance to check out the different
panels to learn about culture, the music business and technology,” Miller
Rainbow Jackson, a band hailing from the Echo Park neighborhood
of Los Angeles, won’t be traveling very far to play at the Los Angeles
festival, but stated that they are looking forward to performing with well-
known groups and discovering international bands at Culture Collide. Sam
Dagger is the lead guitarist for Rainbow Jackson.
“It is our first time playing, but we have lived up the street from the
event grounds for the last few years [and] so we have attended CC many
times. It will be really nice to be able to play the same neighborhood we
have been playing since the beginning, but to a much wider audience of
people who not only came from all around L.A., but to bands from around
the world as well,” Dagger said in an email response.
As it’s Rainbow Jackson’s first time playing at the festival after a few
years of attending, the band members said that they expect to jump into
their set in true rock-and-roll fashion.
“It has always been a great time going and seeing bands from around
the world that we wouldn’t otherwise get to see in L.A. As far as our set
goes, we’re going to turn up loud and have a bunch of fun playing our
favorite songs for people who have never heard them before,” Carlisle said.
According to Miller, Culture Collide offers not only the intimacy and
affordability of seeing your favorite local acts, but also the exciting chance
to experience fresh sounds and perspectives.
“Culture Collide is a unique festival; for example in [San Francisco]
you can pay $20 to see 40 artists, which is very rare, and it’s a really
intimate scene. You can see bands from Israel and Korea and actually go
backstage after the show and meet them,” Miller said.
Both the San Francisco and Los Angeles festivals will be at
multiple venues and are for ages 21 and up. For more information, visit
CultureCollide.com.
Photo by Dave Lichterman
