Every year, as music festival season reaches full-tilt in the summer, I find myself with the same feelings of envy. I stare at my phone, watch concert videos, and parse through lineups for festivals that are, mostly, on the other side of the world. Maybe this is my own music-fest obsession, or perhaps this feeling is common among my fellow American left-of-center music-fans. But when the sun is shining and the weather calls for grilling in the US of A, I find myself with an unfortunate case of Euro-envy. I’m not just talking about the bespoke, global-brand European music festivals—Primavera Sound, Glastonbury, et cetera. It’s the narrower, riskier fests that I pine for: heavy rock’s Hellfest in France, Unsound in Belgium, Le Guess Who in the Netherlands, Way Out West in Sweden.

Obviously, there are quality festivals everywhere in the world, and the good ones are certainly not exclusive to Europe. But I look at the variety of their cutting-edge festivals, and I feel a bit jealous here in New York. Maybe I’m embittered by the corporatization of American live events. Live Nation has turned every major festival on this side of the Atlantic into carbon copies, with similar lineups and the identical, sterile environment of a brand-activation. Perhaps I continue to mourn the loss of Chicago’s Pitchfork Fest, which satisfied my itch for critical-darling lineups.

That’s why any attempt for music festivals in America to be daring, experimental, and independent feels precious to me. There are plenty of examples: techno fest Wire in Queens, cross-country shoegaze fest Slide Away, or smaller, politically-motivated events like DC’s Liberation Weekend. Still, New York City is in dire need of fresh festivals. Our crown jewel is the high-school mobfest Governor’s Ball, and the Brooklyn Mirage continues on its comically pathetic mission to revamp, rebrand, and renovate.

I wouldn’t call the C2C Festival a perfect solution to the city’s drought, but it’s certainly a start. Italian festival Club to Club has been held in Turin for twenty-five years, and it prides itself as “an international platform for experimental and cross-disciplinary sound.” Last year, they expanded to New York for the first time, with a lineup including Daniel Lopatin’s Oneohtrix Point Never, Nala Sinephro, and Two Shell. This past weekend, C2C returned to Ridgewood’s Knockdown Center for a one-day event featuring the likes of Arca, Aya, Elias Rønnenfelt, YHWH Nailgun, and more.

My experience at C2C NYC bounced between extremes: Aya’s blaring electronics followed by Avalon Emerson’s gem-smooth synth-pop; Arca’s deconstructed reggaeton after Nourished By Time’s straight-faced, earnest R&B. I suppose all the disparate artists that all fall underneath the broad banner of “experimental and cross-disciplinary” music, but “experimental” means something different to everyone. In a way, C2C demonstrates the plethora of sounds and scenes that “experimental” can mean.

Avalon Emerson at C2C Festival at Knockdown Center in Queens NY May 8th photo by Conor Rooney

First, there was NEW YORK, the (you guessed it) New York-based duo donned in fashionable matching hats. With their deadpan vocals and electro beats, NEW YORK would fit the bill for one of The Dare’s recent Freakquencies parties, which sprouted up last week at Baby’s All Right. Unlike The Dare’s Freakquencies parties, NEW YORK defuses any semblance of self-seriousness with their spectacularly silly matching hats. More matching hats!

From there, I settled outside at The Ruins, the outdoor area of Knockdown Center, which hosted sets from Titanic, Elias Rønnenfelt, and YHWH Nailgun. I suppose the festival layout follows a natural and unspoken logic: electronic music is for the inside, guitar music is for the outside. Elias Rønnenfelt, the frontman of Iceage, played a barrage of guitar-pop that felt frantic and tense. I kept searching the stage for a second guitarist to explain the barrage of splintered chords and layers of melody. No second guitarist was found—just Rønnenfelt and a drummer and bassist.

If there was a single disappointing set in the night, it came from YHWH Nailgun. As a drummer, I became a fan of the band for their application of gloriously cacophonic high-pitched tom-toms. YHWH Nailgun used their C2C set as an opportunity to debut a new record, the eleven-minute long Magazine. Perhaps I’m greedy for wanting more, but it seems my disappointment was shared. The crowd was confused and aimless after the band left the stage (“That’s all we’ve got,” vocalist Zack Borzone admitted as they headed off stage), giving the sense that the 11-minute gimmick didn’t quite land.

I spent the rest of my night indoors, glued to the center of the venue for a parade of indie favorites and critical darlings: Aya, Avalon Emerson, Los Thuthanaka, Nourished By Time, and Arca . English producer and electronic artist Aya is, to me, the most obviously “experimental” of the lineup. On 2025’s Hexed, she twisted pieces of unnerving noise into dubby, ear-rattling beats. It’s harsh, unyielding music, not for the faint of heart. Live, Aya’s music felt more danceable than unnerving. She threaded the needle between jungle and techno, her body-rumbling bass sprinting alongside forceful screams. When she presented the audience with a choice—Should she play “Hexed!”? Or “a drum-and-bass thing?”—the crowd was happy to keep nodding their heads to D&B. Though I was exhausted by the start of her set at 2AM, Arca’s magnetic, smirking charisma could’ve kept me engaged till brunch the next morning.

C2C’s second year in New York had no central, cohesive element (except, perhaps, a good score on Pitchfork). Nor did it need one. All night, I watched as indie music nerds—belting out every lyric to Nourished By Time’s sign-of-the-end-times anthem “9 2 5”— pleasantly made space for techno-heads awaiting Arca. Avalon Emerson’s dream-pop proved the perfect comedown from Aya’s high-octane UKG. Though they might share little musical commonalities, it comes as no surprise to me that fans of experimental rock outfit YHWH Nailgun might overlap with electro-pop NEW YORK. C2C was for anyone who steps outside the boundaries of mainstream, algorithm-fed, plug-and-chug music recommendations. Based on the festival’s sold-out status, there’s a lot of those folks, and they’re eager for events like this.

Words by Andy Steiner
Photography by Conor Rooney

New York at C2C Festival at Knockdown Center in Queens NY photo by Conor Rooney

More info on C2C Festival HERE