Let’s take a moment to talk about one of my favorite places. For the past decade and then some, Infrasound Music Festival has consistently boasted some of the most auspicious lineups around. Each year their flyers are dotted with underground heavyweights, rare international acts, and a healthy heap of up-and-coming producers. For three nights, Minnesota’s gorgeous Harmony Park Music Garden is transformed into a veritable oasis of sound systems that will satisfy even the deepest of heads out there.
This year’s festival is taking place June 6th through the 9th and, as usual, the lineup delivers. A peek at their schedule reveals drum and bass stars such as Kasra, Enei, and Mefjus (who gets to put on a collab set with Daxta MC); dubstep staples like Bukez Finest, J:Kenzo, and Joker; and even the queen of dancehall herself, Sister Nancy. Each artist’s set is treated to a superb level of production. The three stages all feature a different brand of sound system, including Funktion-One, the intensely bass-driven Element 5 rig, and Void Acoustic, which I affectionately refer to as the “hot rod of speaker systems” with its trumpet-like horns and sleek red paint. Lasers illuminate the trees of the barn-like Harmonic Stage as projection mapping covers the entire indoor surface of the airplane hangar-sized Portal Stage. Amidst all the music, live mural painters also pepper the grounds, erecting beautiful displays that grow and change over the course of the weekend, including the top of the Pyramid Stage.
There is something to be said about the intimacy aspect of smaller festivals. A far-cry from the likes of Electric Forest or EDC, Infrasound fosters a niche little community of music lovers who seem to return year after year (it is called Harmony Park, after all). The venue is spacious enough to provide ample camping space and room to dance at the stages, yet small enough to make your way between stages in a fraction of the time it would take at a larger venue. The crowd’s energy is unmatched in my experience; it’s not uncommon to see a full crowd under the 4:00 PM sunshine feverishly dancing their hearts out as if it were the day’s headline set. The deepest cuts from artists’ discographies get recognized immediately and played out in full. There are few festivals out there that match this kind of atmosphere.
If this festival sounds up your alley (as it should), you can purchase your ticket here. You can check the full line-up below and for further festival details be sure to check out Infrasound’s website. For those who can’t make it or aren’t sure if this is the festival for them, be sure to come back for our post-festival coverage in June. I promise you won’t regret going, and who knows, maybe I’ll see you there…
