“Turn on, tune in, drop out” at a new psychedelic festival coming to New York City in October.
The first-ever Psychedelic Film and Music Festival, featuring dozens of screenings of science fiction, horror, fantasy, surrealist, VR films and psych rock performances, is headed to venues across the city Oct. 1-7, offering mind-expanding experiences, organizers say.
The event aims to get its audience to “explore the altered states of consciousness and truth behind the vibrant and enduring psychedelic culture,” they said in an announcement. Doing so will encourage healing for those who have experienced trauma, Daniel Abella, the founder and director of the event, says.
“This is a festival for healing,” he said in a statement. “The goal is to educate the public about alternative treatments for conditions including PTSD, the current opioid crisis and skyrocketing suicide rates among veterans and civilians.”
The films and music will “allow individuals to achieve personal development and evoke emotional states of a higher well-being,” he promised.
Among the planned movies and TV shows are “Translove Airwaves,” whose pilot focus on filmmaker Matt Levin’s meeting with composer Simon Boswell; “Arc,” which follows an astronaut who is stuck in an endless loop of distorted memories; and the documentary “The Shaman and the Scientist,” about medicinal plants and what could be at stake if those resources are lost. T>
Especially trippy films include “The Art of Acid” about the world’s biggest collector of LSD art; “Kinetechore,” about a mysterious figure who goes through self-reflection and renewal to music in a semiabstract animated short; and “Surface Tension,” which is about a huge forest at the bottom of the ocean.
Composer Simon Boswell with The AND, a psych rock group, will take the stage at the Mercury Lounge, and a number of Brooklyn bands will perform for free at Ponyboy, including Michael Tapper, a former member of We Are Scientists, DJ Roosevelt Island and Nosh.
Tickets are $100 for the entire week. More information can be found at psychedelicfilmandmusicfestival.com.
