— Shaun Astor / Tahoe Onstage photos
Billed as an intersection between a genre-spanning musical lineup, immersive art installations, a dystopian dodgeball game — and seeking to replace the typical greasy food truck festival fare with a culinary lineup — Intersect Music Arts and Tech Festival builds from the re:Invent Conference. That gathering had aimed to put boundary-pushing minds from the music and entertainment industry together to brainstorm the full potential of the music industry.
This year, re:Invent has shapeshifted into Intersect, and is open to the public for the first time.
To see what Intersect organizers are hoping to pull off is exciting. To some, interactive elements and art installations that make up a large part of Las Vegas’ annual Life Is Beautiful Festival might be familiar. Intersect’s features also aim to set it apart from standard music festivals.
–Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
Meanwhile, Intersect has held nothing back in assembling a mix of musical performers at the top of their genres. With Kacey Musgraves, Beck, Foo Fighters and Anderson.Paak & The Free Nationals headlining the two-day festival, and performers such as Chvrches, H.E.R., Flying Lotus, Brandi Carlile, and Weyes Blood, among others, filling up the mulit-stage layout, the fest has toes dipped securely into hip-hop, EDM, pop, rock and country scenes.
The goal is to bring people together over the range of quality music and performers rather than giving separate genres for attendees to gravitate exclusively to.
Intersect also has announced a lineup of visual artists, a dystopian dodgeball arena that attendees can play in, and a drone light show set to coincide with music. And while Intersect aims to be a confluence of technology in entertainment, it has not been without a bit of controversy.
The festival’s lead sponsor is Amazon Web Services, a fact that, when announced, led to notice from performers The Black Madonna and JPEGMAFIA that they would not be playing due to Amazon’s work maintaining online databases for Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Currently, more than 1,000 artists have signed pledges not to participate in any Amazon or Amazon Web Services-backed festival, and other artists have pulled their music completely from Amazon Music.
Intersect will take place at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on the Strip on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6-7. Full lineup and ticketing information can be found at Intersect.aws
— Shaun Astor
Intersect Music Arts and Tech Festival
When: Friday and Saturday, Dec.6-7
Where: Las Vegas Festival Grounds, Las Vegas, Nevada
