There’s always a bit of a disappointment when we see the lineups for major summer music festivals lacking a strong New England artist presence. Sometimes, we even write about it. But with some of the summer’s biggest festivals fast approaching on the horizon, Berklee College of Music is attempting to spread the local love all across the country.
In May, Berklee sent bass duo Glow Team to perform at Electric Daisy Carnival in New York City, and this month has sorted electro-pop singer Noé with an appearance at Osheaga Music Festival in Montreal and scored folk trio Honeysuckle a slot at Lollapalooza in Chicago. The summer is rounded out with R&B-pop singer Symone’ performing at Philadelphia’s Made In America Festival come September.
The slots are hooked up through Berklee’s Popular Music Institute (BPMI), and the bands selected all appear on the college’s latest Dorm Sessions compilation, issued by its student-run label, Heavy Rotation.
“It all came together at the same time,” says BPMI founding managing director Jeff Dorenfeld in a press release. “We had placed the festival holds by October, and were picking the acts for the record around the same time. With the exception of EDC, the festivals aren’t genre specific, so we were able to be flexible with the slots.”
Here at Vanyaland, we’ve featured Noé and Honeysuckle quite a bit in the past, and now the pair celebrates their festival appearances with a joint show July 13 at the Red Room at Cafe 939. Check out their songs below, as well as tracks from Glow Team and Symone’.