Organizers have announced the full line up for Moogfest 2016, a four-day event, held in Durham, NC that will explore the past, present and future of music and technology.
Moogfest 2016, scheduled for Thursday, May 19 – Sunday, May 22, celebrates the legacy of Bob Moog, a visionary engineer who pioneered the analog synthesizer and other technology for music.
The festival will feature more than 300 musical performances, daytime workshops, conversations, masterclasses, film screenings, live scores, durational sound installations, and multiple interactive art experiences.
The program will feature over 250 innovators in music, art, and technology — from Gary Numan (3 nights), GZA (2 nights), Grimes and Laurie Anderson, to virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier and transhumanist visionary Dr. Martine Rothblatt.
Other featured artists include Alessandro Cortini, Daniel Lanois, Tim Hecker, Oneohtrix Point Never, The Orb, Morton Subotnik and Suzanne Ciani.
Tickets for Moogfest 2016 are available for US $249 for the 4-day event (Festival Pass) and $499 (VIP Pass). Single Day Passes will go on sale Friday, April 15th starting at 12pm EST. Passes for Thursday, Friday or Saturday are $129 and for Sunday, $69.
I live in Asheville, I LOVE MOOG! (I own several units). However, I have been to every Moogfest so far and they have been getting worse and worse. To be fair though, the first festival had almost no people playing moog gear and artist’s saying “Bob Mooooooog” which funnily enough got boos and “say his name right!”
I paid the full price last time to do all the workshops and half of them I walked out on because they were either not well planned (some even weren’t planned at all and were called “experiments” by the teacher……he ended up asking us what we wanted to talk about…..seriously) or were over packed so you couldn’t even get a seat.
Lastly, the music……the best show by far was Georgio Moroder and he was a free show!
Emerson was good, except they had sound issues for the first half of the show.
Several shows boggled my mind that these people are paid performers. Craig Leon was one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. He literally played the same loop in the background WITHOUT ANY VARIATION for each song while a trio of confused cellists sat watching him wave his hands around. It really really was strange. Even stranger, after each song, people clapped….:) For the record, I’m open to avant garde music. But Craig’s was just silly child’s play. I was very sad as his arrangements online are quite interesting and provocative.
Anyway, I sincerely recommend any one wanting to spend the money on a full ticket to just use it on one of there badass moogerfoogers or even half way to a Mother.
God I wish Bob was still here.
Thanks for the info and the advice to save money, (or invest in some Moog gear). Sounds like every year it becomes more of a disorganized simulated-modernist “art” festival full of hipsters, rather than the “an event that honors the remarkable vision of Robert Moog and his amazing musical inventions that changed the course of music” full of true synthesists.
However, I am really looking forward to the upcoming youtube videos of the “performances” at the event. They are always either a really good laugh or cringe-worthy, and sometimes both.
its really depressing that alessandro cortini is billed lower than blood orange. they really know who pays the bills.
There are a number of performers who seem to be ‘low-billed”; Mark Mothersbaugh, Bootsy Collins, HEALTH, Morton Subotnik, Robert Rich. Beats the hell outta me.
I thought that the last Moogfest offered incredible bang for the buck, and it looks like this one will too.
It’s not uncommon to pay $50-100 for tickets to a headliner show these days, so $250 to see Numan, Cortini, Ciani, Lanois, The Orb, Anderson and all the others – plus all the gear booths and other stuff – seems like a steal.
I feel like it could also be my only chance to ever see some of these artists perform live. Most of these electronic musicians never perform in the Midwest, where I live. So, seeing both Kraftwerk and Keith Emerson at the last Moogfest was literally the chance of a lifetime for me and there are a lot of artists on the bill this time that rarely get anywhere near the midwest.
There were definitely growing pains with the last Moogfest. Sound was way too loud at some shows, things were too spread out around town and you frequently had to choose between two really good events that were scheduled at the same time. The commenter above said that the Moroder show was the best and I didn’t even see it, because there were other cool shows at the same time.
My only complaint about the plans for this year’s event is that I loved Asheville and would like to have returned there. They had great local beer, great restaurants, I got to tour the Moog factory and the city just had a very cool vibe.
Drat… I’m a bit bummed about the not-so-great reviews of past Moogfests. Since these are only organized every other year, I’ve been thinking about going to this one, as it would be my first. But, I have to admit, I have not found a real “must-see” event in the entire schedule, just a few “would-like-to-see” ones. Perhaps the Sleep concert would be worth the price of admission alone? Robert Rich has been doing those I believe since the 80s.
I had just the opposite reaction.
A masterclass with Daniel Lanois should be a must-see for anybody that knows about music production or synthesis.
Silver Apples – legends of electronic music history.
Gary Numan – a ****ing legend.
Suzanne Ciani, Alessandro Corsini & Subtonick, all on the same bill? – when will that ever happen again?
Bootsy ****ing Collins with Mark Mothersbaugh together on the same bill?
The Orb, GZA, Grimes, Jaron Lanier…. there are really a lot of heavyweight artists on the schedule. If you’re not familiar with very many of them, maybe its an opportunity to expand your playlist a little.
I’ve been to a lot of synth-related event and, in my opinion, Knobcon, Superbooth & Mioogfest are the three best synth events in the world.
Knobcon is the best synth meet-up type of event, but it’s also a surprisingly serious sausage fest. Superbooth this year was the best gear event I’ve ever been to, bar none. They had everything there. Mioogfest is the best in terms of musical acts, good presentations and for meeting cool people.