Heard It Here First

“Once you start attending Infrasound, you don’t stop.” It’s a common sentiment around Harmony Park. Infrasound returns June sixth to ninth in southeast Minnesota for its thirteenth installment. The midwest bastion of bass and sound system culture has become a destination for bass music pilgrimages for fans nationwide. Each of the three stages provides a unique experience, employing Funktion-One, Element 5, and Void sound systems respectfully, each booked top-to-bottom with world-class talent. You can buy tickets for the renowned bass festival here.

The Lineup

Infamous for not dropping its lineup until mere weeks before the festival, long after most summer and even fall festivals have announced their lineups, Infrasound books some of the world’s most prolific musicians, ranging from dubstep to halftime to drum & bass to downtempo to club bass to some of the most experimental acts in the scene. Infrasound isn’t on the pulse of the bass music community; it IS the pulse of the bass music community. Fans this year are being treated to a slow rollout of performers, and as of the writing of this article, Joker, Critical Soundsystem (Kasra b2b Enei), and grLL sMTH have been announced for the 2024 spring installment.

Dubstep pioneer Joker will play two sets at Infrasound this spring, as the announcement sent prospective attendees into a frenzy. Critical Soundsystem presents two of DnB’s most prolific producers who rarely appear stateside. grLL sMTH is one of the most iconic recurring performances at Infrasound. kLL sMTH hops on the grill to feed fans while countless homies and other performers hop on the decks for an open-format mega-b2b. Last year, attendees were treated to twenty minutes of UK Garage at the start of the set, which was mixed by Keota and Jack from Ternion Sound. The Ternion boys will almost certainly perform this year, as resident performers at the festival again in 2024. Their two sets from 2023 remain some of the most popular bass music sets on YouTube and SoundCloud from last year.

The Sound And Visual Curation

Not only a destination for world-class sound and music, Infrasound also prides itself on booking some of the best visual artists in the space. The Portal is an art installation moved between the main stage and the hanger stage where artists projection-map visuals onto the display in place of a traditional visuals screen. Artists will also project visuals inside the hanger, creating a unique and immersive experience. Previous installments have featured visual artists such as Glass Crane, Actualize, and countless other icons of the VJ scene. The third stage, with the Void sound system, opts out of digital visuals entirely, putting the decks inside a wooden pyramid painted throughout the weekend by the legendary Aaron Brooks. Watching his progress throughout the weekend is awe-inspiring. This stage shifts its visual approach for the fall installment of Infrasound.

Oh yeah, there’s also an entire second Infrasound in the fall, Infrasound Equinox.

Community

While attendees rave about the expert curation by TC Presents, the real draw of Infrasound is the community. There’s no other festival in America where the crowd is so respectful of the people around them and the dancefloor itself. There is a common issue among bass music festivals, with inflatable couches and chairs being a dancefloor hazard. Infrasound attendees almost religiously will NOT plop down their stuff in front of the front-of-house booth, leaving more than enough room for a dancefloor and for people to move freely as they please. Everyone looks out for one another, and the crowds get locked in during performances, delivering iconic moments like Ternion Sound doubling Mellow Man and Strikers (Criso flip) on the fly at 47:10 in this clip.

All three stages are within a five-minute walk from each other and the campsites, with zero sound bleed. Even if you are unfamiliar with a portion of the lineup, come to Harmony Park with an open mind and an open heart, and you’ll be treated to an audiovisual experience and community unlike any other — just don’t let the farmer get you with his tractor on the way in!

Will you be attending Infrasound in June? Let us know in the comments or on social media where you’re coming from!

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