By: Anand Harsh

The pain of seeing a lineup you wish you had booked. It burns with the heat of a thousand suns. This was my initial reaction to seeing the inaugural lineup of Submersion Festival hit the socials earlier this year. The first-year festival taking place October 6-8 is the braintrust of The Rust, Aspire Higher, and some other satellite east coast powerhouses who have been throwing shows and promoting events up and down the northeast for a few years now.

Tasteful doesn't even begin to describe it. There's a hefty mix of international acts, debuts, alt sets, and special rarities. For old fogies like myself and newer heads chasing the unique, there's plenty to be excited about. You've got yourself the first ever KOAN Sound sunrise set, for starters, on top of their Saturday headlining set. The only Luke Vibert festival play of the year is paired with the first Wagon Christ appearance in the States in almost a couple decades. That's a marquee booking for me. Getting multiple sets from these acts (as well as Justin Martin doing a drum & bass set) demonstrates the same kind of philosophy we have with booking that gives fans a multi-faceted appreciation of some of their favorite acts as well as cover a wider berth of genres.

For the up-and-comers, Mr. Bill is doing an IDM set, VCTRE is doing only his second chill set ever, tiedye ky and Digital Ethos are goin' all Philly on 'em with their debut B2B, and Entangled Mind is performing their first sunrise set, as well. We've been watching their career with great interest, and this is a huge opportunity to for them to find their exact fan base. On top of that you've got some of our favorite all time acts in TEED, Ternion Sound, DMVU (performing a beats set), chLL sMTH, Hyroglifics, the debut of BoggDogg (Bogtrotter B2B DRRTYWULVZ), The Sponges, Sicaria Sound, Morning Coffee (pheel. x parkbreezy), Mirror Maze, Prosper., Wessanders, Zen Selekta, McNulty, and so many more heavy-hitters.

Talent buyer Jesse Boyer of The Rust noted “We really wanted to push the boundaries of sound with this lineup. We knew we wanted to use this opportunity to blend genres on the bill by showcasing some of our favorite artists In each of their respective sounds and book outside of the traditional festival lineup to bring sounds from near, far, and the underground.” Mission accomplished, my friend.

The production is also clearly a major priority for Submersion. They're deploying both Funktion-One and Danley systems. The Void is going to be curating a VJ lineup of over a dozen artists and overseeing all projection across the stages. Greg Ellis a.k.a. Lazershark is involved with the Beach Stage which runs until sunrise. There's an art gallery with more than a dozen painters, and there's even going to be a movie night on the big screen after KiloWatts' late night set during the Early-Entry Thursday night. Also, holy shit: KiloWatts.

Long-time festivalgoers will recognize Paradise Lakes Campground in Hammonton, New Jersey as a perfect setting for this kind of event. Philly, NYC, Baltimore, Scranton, and DC are all within a 200 mile radius of this ideally located event. There's car camping, RV passes with water and power hookups, and a number of features that cater to a more mature festival crowd.

This is the kind of event that we love to highlight. Fans of ours who have been wanting to hit the west coast but are geographically challenged enough to be pressed against the other side of the country, let us say that this is your opportunity to get the kind of vibes we'd want to curate on the east coast. Covering some of the best of the best in drum & bass, neuro, IDM, glitch, 140, techno, downtempo, ambient, and whatever the fuck it is that Abelation and FLY are going to do during their set, let's just say we're jealous of Submerision for their curation talents.

More information and tickets at submersionfestival.com.

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