Over the last seven years, Freakout Festival has become one of the highlights of Seattle’s music calendar. Like a miniature South by Southwest, Freakout takes over a portion of a city—in this case, Ballard—to create a hub of intense, fascinating musical activity across several venues. Freakout is also a record label that mainly focuses on the psychedelic and garagey ends of the rock spectrum, and FF’s lineup generally follows in those veins, with bands from the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, and Colombia on the bill.
Freakout Festival cofounder Skyler Locatelli says that they strive to “provide a stage for emerging local and international touring bands to perform to an engaged audience who may or may not be discovering the artist for the first time. Our ultimate goal is that people choose to attend Freakout not because of a marquee lineup, but rather because they know they will have a great experience, discover new bands, and share space among other like-minded individuals in venues no larger than 400 capacity.” Toward that end, you can use the new Freakout 7 app to build your own schedule, listen to artists’ tracks, and buy merch and tickets. Below, we turn you on to the must-see acts.
