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A Day For Night Festival Mixes Björk, Aphex Twin, and Visual Art (Playlist Preview)

A Day For Night Festival Mixes Björk, Aphex Twin, and Visual Art (Playlist Preview)

This weekend marks the return of a unique hybrid festival experience. ICYDK: Day for Night is the next-gen of music festivals. Hailed as “the festival of the future” by the EDM guides over at The Department of Dance, the three-day long event in Houston, TX glides into its second year with a bunch of hype. We’ll be covering the complete festival, but for now we’re sharing a Spotify playlist featuring a few of our favorite highlighted sound artists included this year.

We’re all about solid festivals–give us a couple of legit bands and a mind-blowing experience, and our entire year will be made! But recently some music festivals have become a bit predictable, a bit outdated. Different tastes in concert experiences have pushed for more options on the festival front. And that’s basically how Day for Night was born.

It became clear early on that Day for Night wasn’t just about serving up the biggest names. The goal here is to bridge twenty-first century art and music that explore light, space, and sound in order to curate a completely unique and immersive festival experience. In its inaugural event in 2015, Day for Night racked in 21,000 attendees in two days at its home base of Houston with 43 bands and 20 visual artists across three stages.


Creative Director Alex Czetwertynski and Founder Omar Afra (who also founded Houston’s acclaimed Free Press Summer Fest) have built a serious vision that encourages everyone to travel through the different facets of light and sound seamlessly. “We believe disassociating art and music is boring. With dozens of art installations throughout our festival campus, you can explore awe inspiring installations when you’re not dancing to the music.”

It’s still definitely a dance party, heavy on the EDM side. Music headliners from Day for Night 2015 ranged in style and notoriety with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, New Order, Philip Glass, and Flying Lotus. But there’s so much more than just the music aspect to explore at Day for Night. For the price of a weekend-long ticket, fans of big name headliners are exposed to a surprising collection of lesser-known artists and their curated installations that tie into the tech-driven aspect of the festival. And that unity of art and tech within a festival venue definitely attracted a lot of hungry musicians and artists.

This year Day for Night will feature over 60 experimental musicians and 14 visual artists. Obviously, the playing field to support everything is much larger than last year—a massive 1.5 million square-feet retired Post Office building to be exact. On the sound side, this year’s main attraction is the stage return of Aphex Twin. After drifting out of the live performance stage for eight years, producer Richard D. James will make his long-awaited return on Saturday night with a two-hour set.

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Another undisputed headliner this year is the intensely immersive Björk Digital exhibition that will bring special film and VR installations like her 360 landscape VR app and that super awesome trip down Björk’s throat. In her own words, the Icelandic legend says that the narrative from her latest album, Vulnicura (2015), “is ideal for the private circus virtual reality is: a theatre able to capture the emotional landscape of it.”

Our playlist is just a sampling of the sound side of Day for Night 2016, as it vibrates at variegated frequencies. Special DJ sets from Björk open the festival during the preview party on Friday and returns for general admission on Sunday. Experimental goth vibes reign on Saturday with Chelsea Wolfe, The Jesus and Mary Chain, John Carpenter, and more. Synthwave, ambient, and rap take over with Squarepusher, Little Dragon, SURVIVE, RZA, and more on Sunday. The reunion of Texan natives, The Butthole Surfers, also help close out Sunday.

If you can make it, the final tier of tickets for Houston’s Day for Night are still on sale. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed this weekend for live coverage. And in case you’re taking a pass this year, the lineup for Day for Night 2017 will be announced ASAP next year on their website. Will you be attending Day for Night this year? What are your thoughts on the future of music festivals? Let us know below!

Featured Image and Videos: Day for Night

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