Meet Cultivora, your one-stop resource for everything that has to do with music festivals. The festival world is bigger than ever, and the newly launched Cultivora website specifically addresses the travel needs of this growing community of festivalgoers

Everything Cultivora offers – travel tips, recommendations, news coverage, and more – is tailored to the needs of music travelers. They’ve started with twelve upcoming music festivals, including SnowBall, WMC, Coachella, and Bonnaroo, with many more to come. Check out the website HERE.

Crowds at Flow Festival 2011

Flow Festival will return to Helsinki’s Suvilahti on 8-12 August 2012, spreading over 5 days for the first time. Indie favorite Bon Iver, lead by Justin Vernon, will kick off the festival’s 9th edition at the Opening Concert on Wednesday, August 8th; Icelandic pop princess Björk will make a “Biophilia” tour appearance to close the festival on Sunday.  Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday December 7th at 9am.  For more information on Flow Festival, including ticket options and prices, check out the festival’s website here.

Lollapalooza Chile 2011

The Chicago-based Lollapalooza festival will again bring its South American edition to O’Higgins Park in Santiago, Chile on March 31-April 1 2012 and, for the first time, to the Jockey Club in Sao Paulo, Brazil on April 7-8 2012.  The lineups were announced yesterday and include world renowned acts like the Foo Fighters, Arctic Monkeys, MGMT, Skrillex, TV on the Radio, and Foster the People, as well as local artists.  For the full lineups for both festivals, see the links below.

Santiago, Chile Lineup – March 31 – April 1 2012

Sao Paulo, Brazil Lineup – April 7 – April 8 2012

The second day of the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival took the energy from the previous day’s festivities and doubled it, with all of Williamsburg awash in the sound of beats and dancing feet. Rubble from the night before was still littering the streets as the darkness set in, the energy picked up, and New York City’s cool kids emerged from their hangovers to start the party all over again.

At the Public Assembly Loft, Tim Sweeney stepped in around midnight, spinning his signature blend of house and disco, grooving right along with his rapt audience. Jackmaster the took over to great cheers, proceeding to drop a set of serious bangers; nothing short of a greatest hits of house and techno from 2011. As Julio Bashmore’s “Battle for Middle You” came floating out from the speakers, the entire crowd sang along, as best they could to en electronic track. Scuba’s “Feel It” was also a huge hit, getting those last few people who weren’t moving to hit the dancefloor. Braille followed, proving without a doubt that he’s a DJ in his own right (although everyone loves a good Sepalcure performance).

Downstairs, Fout Tet played to a truly packed house, with people so crammed in they were spilling out from every door. Kingdom and Girl Unit went bass heavy, focusing on the lower and more dub centric spectrum of sound. Meanwhile, Thugfucker spun deep house next door, with no shortage of pretty girls pressing up toward the DJ booth. The house was still packed when the lights went on at 4am, and the bleary eyed population was evicted into the streets in search of an afterparty. BEMF, why’d you have to go? We look forward to seeing you again next year.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL PHOTO GALLERIES FROM DAY 1 AND DAY 2

11-11-11 was a magical day for NYC’s music scene. Plaid and the Gamelan Dhara Swara played at LPR, it was the first night of the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, Paco Osuna was spinning at Good Units, and MiM0$a was rocking out at Webster Hall alongside Alex English. Energy levels were high and HiFi was on a mission to catch as much music possible for the eve.

Le Passion Rouge was first on the list. We made our way through the doors with plenty of time to down a few Vodka-RedBulls during happy hour. As happy hour concluded, the Gamelan Dharma Swara took the stage. This 15+ person group performs the music and dance of Bali in the NYC area. Gamelan was dressed in beautiful authentic Indonesian attire and played a myriad of instruments that I can not name. An orchestra of percussion, woodwinds, and xylophone-like instruments was spread across the stage. Their structured tunes sounded atonal and chaotic, yet your ear could grasp the tonal center that remained audible through a maze of accidentals and modes. The group finished with two dancers acting out the story behind the music onstage. They were confronted by an evil daemon, but victoriously forced the daemon away.

Plaid took the stage next. I was unaware of what to expect from the avaunt guard Warp duo. They managed to deliver a very true representation of their studio tracks. The entire set itself felt like one long continuous song with very few rests. Much of the set had this distinct under water sound, which mirrored their opening video montage of a girl swimming and encountering a deadly octopus. Whimsical melodic lines were laid on top of structured rhythms and patterns. Soft synth lines ran back and forth from spacious simple sounds to dark and heavy drones. When looking out into the audience, their confusion was visible. Throughout the first 15 minutes of the set most everyone stood still. As time progressed, everyone started dancing to the tune of their own horn. It looked crazy, but it made sense. Plaid took the crowd on a symphonic journey through their heavy beats. A part of me wished they had jammed out in downtempo. The set was great, and overwhelmingly powerful, but the constant change from fast to slow became somewhat exhausting. However, the creation of tones produced put our ears in music heaven for the entirety of their set.

We left LPR and heading directly to Williamsburg for BEMF. Friday night was Cold. Quite frigid to say the least. We huddled on the subway for warmth all the way to the Bedford stop. After securing our wrist bands, we ran into The Cove for warmth and successfully succeeded with the disco funk beats pouring out from the decks by Nick Hook. We danced to his tunes and stared at the beautiful green lazers bouncing around the room. The Cove was not the only poppin’ place at that time. BEMF had taken over all of north Williamsburg, with showcases at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, Public Assembly, Cameo, and Zablozki’s. It was visibly obvious that The Cove was slowly but surely filling up, and by the time Hudson Mohawke took over the decks, you could barely move. The recognizable Shower Melody opened his set and the crowd went nuts. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a glimpse of Hudson, but knowing that I was dancing to a set curated Ross Birchard himself, made it all worthwhile.

In the midst of Hudon’s set, I fled over to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to catch the Fischerspooner DJ set by Casey Spooner and Lauren Flax. Casey looked dashing in his black suit with bright purple hair. He and Lauren plunged into a fresh remix Casey had made featuring Patti Smith. From there on out, deep house beats pulsated through the airwaves in the MHoW and it felt like we danced until the sun the came up. Or 3 AM. As the audience filed out, with exhausted yet elated looks on their faces. HiFi stuck around to chat one on one with Casey Spooner himself. Casey is a very kind and humble man. Sitting, talking, and drinking beers with an artist of his caliber was mind blowing, and probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. (The interview will be up in the next few days.) By 4:30 AM we stumbled back into our apartment and fell into a deep deep sleep.

11-11-11 was a magical day indeed. The music witnessed that evening was the perfect combination of the finest from BK and the UK. BEMF was as great success as well as the early show at LPR. We can’t wait for next year. Cheers.

As some of you may know, the HiFi team has been working hard to bring you Cultivora, a website that helps you research, plan and book music-centric voyages. Launching next year, Cultivora is a cross between a news publication, travel guide and booking resource centered around music festivals and other forms of music travel.

Help us prepare for this exciting new venture by participating in our online survey. As a thank you, you’ll be entered to win 60,000 Delta SkyMiles. Can you think of a better way to kick off the spring festival season? Neither can we.

CLICK HERE to take the survey. Good luck!

This Saturday, MeanRed is bringing L-Vis 1990 for a special Pre-Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival dance session. This English visionary has been called a “true phenomenon;” with releases on Mad Decent and Sound Pellegrino, L-Vis 1990 started receiving his well deserved recognition for changing the face of underground club music. His incredibly unique style comes from his musical stew of post-modern tribal house and years of garage heritage. The musical stylings of Nick Hook and Dan Wender will also be in effect.

As always, this Dark Disco will be filled to the brim with inspirational surprises throughout the night. The Chinatown location will not be disclosed until the week of the event… think Dim Sum.

To make this even more fantastically mouth-watering, they’re offering a BEMF ticket special: attendees will be given the option of a $10 reduction on their BEMF tickets, for a limited time. This will be SOLD OUT as they have limited capacity on the dance floor between the egg rolls and dumplings. Tickets can be purchased HERE.

But that’s not all! We have a pair of tickets to give out that are good for BOTH Dark Disco AND BEMF, to one luck winner! The winner will be chosen at 12 noon on Saturday, so be sure you enter before then. Fill out the form below to enter.