The badgeless guide to the 2015 Northside Festival

Summer festival season is starting to kick into gear, with rising volumes coinciding with rising temperatures. Don’t you feel lucky that instead of having to go travel far away, a cool music festival is coming right to your (figurative) backyard, as the Northside Festival is here again. Of course, you might have decided that you couldn’t afford a badge or you just didn’t want to spring for one, so we’re here to let you know what you can enjoy without it. After all, why should people who paid for the festival be the ones who have all the fun?

We’re not gonna lie, the picking are a little slimmer than most years when it comes to your free entertainment options, primarily due to Spike Hill (R.I.P.), which was always a solid host to some good free shows, closing up shop. No sense in crying over the past though (maybe a little bit), instead let’s check out what you can enjoy in your present.

Thursday, June 11

Get outside: Skate/music mag Green Label has a show at the McCarren Park ballfield (North 12th and Bedford) for you starting at 6:30pm featuring Luna and a TBA act.

Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer Street) throws open their doors for their first show of the festival, hosting Youth Yamada, Margot McDonald, The Rosewood Girl and Sorcha Richardson starting at 8pm.

Friday, June 12

Green Label keeps their showcase at McCarren going, international-style, this time with Grandson, a TBA act, OY, Jacco Gardner, Irie Maffia, Heems and The Very Best, starting at 5pm.

Pete’s Candy Store keeps the free party rolling with another showcase for you starting at 7pm, this time featuring Angela Sheik, Wild Leaves, Golden Alphabet, The NYChillharmonic and Parrot Leaves.

If you still wanna party after Pete’s, hit up Cameo (93 North 6th Street) at 11:30pm for the International Showcase DJ Afterparty, where you can groove to tunes from the Morello Twins, JumoDaddy and more.

Saturday, June 13

At Matchless (557 Manhattan Avenue), you can spend an afternoon (if you’re not too hungover) at The Battering Room Presents A Deer A Horse, The Jaguar Club, Mixed Doubles and Mount Sharp.

Pete’s Candy Store also has an afternoon spread for you starting at 4pm, with Monogram, Toy Cities, Elizabeth Devlin, Robin’s Egg Blue, Best Behavior, Robot Mommy and OY.

The Green Label Live showcase at McCarren comes to an end with Against Me! headlining at 5:30pm. However, doors open at 2:30pm with openers TBA. For any of the McCarren Park shows you can’t get into, don’t forget our spots to sit and hear them, courtesy of our outdoor concert cheat sheet.

You’re invited to kick your feet up at The Living Room (134 Metropolitan Avenue) for The Deli’s Best of Emerging Artists Fest at 2pm, with Next Great American Novelist, Jason Howell, Feral Foster, Viktor Longo, Johnnie Lee Jordan, Bonsai and Lynette Williams.

At 7pm, the House of Vans (25 Franklin Street) Almost Summer Series comes to a close (and why not, it won’t be merely almost summer by the next week), with DJ Eny, Pusha T and a special guest.

It’s Saturday night, so you may as well get wild and hit up the Viet Cong Afterparty at Passenger Bar (229 Roebling Street) at 10pm with DJ Milk Jagger. Badge holders get $1 off their drafts, but if you remember your Beer Book, you can one-up them and get all the dollars off your beer.

Sunday, June 14

Whew, you must be exhausted from all that running around. If you are, then it’s lucky for you that there’s only one free show to hit today and it’s at, of course, Pete’s Candy Store. Starting at 8:30pm, you can see The Josey Dears, Hillary Capps and Kevin McWha Steele and the Nightly Howl.

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