Five Years of Music Magic: Captured Tracks Festival

Sending summer off with a bang, Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks celebrated its five-year anniversary with a festival in East Williamsburg last weekend. It was two days packed with performances from the label’s top acts, and it felt more like a backyard party than your average music fest.

Saturday’s lineup began with a set by Heavenly Beat, which was briefly interrupted when the sound went out—offering frontman John Peña the perfect opportunity to “pose for Instagram photos” before getting back to the beats, which were (what else?) heavenly. Portland trio Blouse was one of the acts I was most excited to see, and their set blew me away, providing the perfect soundtrack to the summer sunset. Mac DeMarco followed and put on a raucous performance that ended with the singer crowd-surfing atop festivalgoers.

Day two was just as packed, peaking with a performace by Shit Father, a supergroup of Captured Tracks artists that included Dustin Payseur from Beach Fossils, Zachary Cole Smith from DIIV, Jack Tatum from Wild Nothing, and Mac DeMarco on the drums. They performed several covers from the CT arsenal, throwing down one of the funniest and most memorable sets of the weekend. Zachary even donned a dress and wig and came back onstage as Charlie from Blouse. Shit Father was a tough act to follow but Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing closed out the weekend with amazing shows.

After hanging with the Captured Tracks crew for two days it was easy to see that they really are like one big family—a family of super talented musicians. Let's just hope we don’t have to wait another five years for the next CT festival. Check out our snaps below, and stay tuned for profiles of our favorite bands from the weekend!