Logo from the Sonic Circuits website
Forget VirginMobile FreeFest: The area’s best music festival is also its weirdest.
Now in its 13th year, the Sonic Circuits Experimental has pigeon-holed itself as a festival that vehemently resists pigeon-holing year after year: It typically switches venues throughout the D.C. area each year—2011’s fest mostly took place in Silver Spring, while the hub of last year’s fest was the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE. But apart from its venue wanderlust, Sonic Circuits continually books a solid weekend of the area’s best experimental music acts along with international acts, boundary-pushing dance performances, and live cinema pieces throughout.
With this year’s festival just around the corner—taking place October 1-6—it’s no surprise that, again, the festival isn’t intent on making it look anything like it did in year’s past. Expanding from three days to nearly a week of performances (the longest iteration of the festival since 2007, which was three weeks), the festival is also expanding in size, booking more than 50 acts at venues across the area, including the Atlas Performing Arts Center again, the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, and at Union Arts, a new DIY arts space in NoMa.
“The structure of the festival itself is experimental in nature and changes every year,” Sonic Circuits director and curator Jeff Surak says in an email to DCist. “We see what the conditions are, what resources are available, and then come up with a program and set it in motion.” Though the festival has heavily focused on music in years past, Surak says they’ve “always had film and dance elements in the festival.” This year they’re “just calling them out more so people are aware of them.” That includes a screening of James June Schneider’s experimental rock doc The Band That Met the Sound Beneath.
And, as in years past, Sonic Circuits is asking for donations to help with the costs of this year’s robust lineup. Since Sonic Circuits doesn’t receive any sort of funding and it’s a volunteer-run festival, they rely on fundraisers and IndieGoGo campaigns to help pay for everything.
“If you like having your mind blown you’ll have a blast,” Surak says. “If you prefer typical bland entertainment then stay home.” Or, you know, just go to FreeFest.
