Bazookafest 2026 Day 1 at The Meadows and The Wood Shop
On Saturday, August 22nd and Sunday, August 23rd, the second edition of Bazookafest took place at two adjacent venues on Meadow Street in Brooklyn, NY: The Meadows and The Wood Shop. The two-day festival was a celebration of independent music and artists with a stacked lineup and staggered set times so attendees could walk back and forth and catch all the acts on both days. In addition to the excellent music bills, Bazookafest featured a market within The Meadows where there were tables for the musicians selling their merchandise, plus partners and other independent vendors (like Desert Island).
I attended the first day on Saturday and spent a majority of my time at the larger of the two venues, The Meadows. I began at The Wood Shop arriving in the late afternoon to catch the set from Sunshine Convention, the band of Bazookafest’s founder, Jake Whitener. After their set ended, I went next door to The Meadows where I saw the consecutive performances by Giant Day (the duo of Derek Almstead and Emily Growden), Sad13 (a.k.a. Sadie Dupuis), Colleen Green (who was joined by Jay McGuire and Michelle Tucker on drums) Cloud Nothings, and Times New Viking (of Columbus, OH). Although TNV joked about returning to NYC in 15 years back in March, it was a relief to see that it wouldn’t take that long for them to perform here again. After the wonderful back-to-back sets at The Meadows, I finally returned to The Wood Shop to see part of Lex Walton’s set, who was held the final performance slot on Saturday. Walton shared with the audience that a new album, ULTIMATE LOVE FOREVER, will released by their new label, Sub Pop Records, this week (it’s out right now).
Bazookafest 2026 came to a close the very next day with sets by Josephine Network, Kiwi Jr., Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), a solo set by Destroyer, and other acts. Hopefully the third edition of this indie music festival returns to Meadow Street in 2027.