Austin has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to music festivals. In the past two months alone, the capitol city has hosted Austin City Limits and Fun Fun Fun Fest, and lest we forget, they also boast SXSW. But the festival that shouldn't be overlooked (and which arguably has the biggest cool factor of the whole group) is Austin Psych Fest. Earlier today, the folks at APF reminded us of that very fact when they announced a pretty sweet-looking lineup for next year's festival, as well as a name change and a fresh tie-in with Transmission Events.
See also: Does Dallas Want Its Own Austin City Limits? Austin's Transmission Events, the Company Behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, is Coming to Dallas
Heading into its eighth year, APF has shown steady growth, while continuing to feature bands that fit its psych-rock vision. Leading the way on the bill are the Flaming Lips, but they're not even the most exciting thing about the lineup. Other big names include Tame Impala, Jesus and Mary Chain (playing Psychocandy in its entirety), Spiritualized, Primal Scream, Black Angels, Thee Oh Sees and Mac DeMarco.
Here's a video with more on the bands that will be playing:
It's a great lineup, but perhaps even more significant is the Transmission announcement. A little over a month ago, the Austin-based promotion company announced a formal move to North Texas through a tie-in with Dallas promoter Tactics Productions. The new collaboration with APF means that come 2015, the festival will relaunch itself as Levitation. It makes for an interesting new dynamic in the city's festival landscape, given that Transmission is also behind Fun Fun Fun. (ACL is run by C3 Presents, which also handles Lollapalooza in Chicago and was recently purchased by LiveNation.)
Levitation will take place May 8 to 10 at Carson Creek Ranch. Three-day passes sell for $165, with camping passes (available only with the three-day passes) costing an additional $75. (There's also a $100 "deluxe" camping pass, just to make sure we have options.) Single-day passes go on sale in February.
Here's the full lineup for Levitation that was announced this morning:
THE FLAMING LIPS TAME IMPALA THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN (performing Psychocandy) SPIRITUALIZED PRIMAL SCREAM THE BLACK ANGELS THEE OH SEES MAC DEMARCO MELODY'S ECHO CHAMBER LIGHTNING BOLT THE SWORD EARTH A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS FUZZ THE SOFT MOON METZ WHITE FENCE NIGHT BEATS FAT WHITE FAMILY THE BLACK RYDER INDIAN JEWELRY NOTHING THE MYRRORS MYSTIC BRAVES ROSE WINDOWS SPINDRIFT HOLY WAVE VAADAT CHARIGIM THE BLANK TAPES ZZZs ETERNAL TAPESTRY WHITE MANNA CHUI WAN KRAKATAU L.A. WITCH HEATHERS
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