This year's 14th annual Carlsbad Music Festival (CMF) is looking to further enhance Carlsbad as a cultural center with a variety of inspiring and thought-provoking local, national and international artists.
Taking place Aug. 25-27 in the seaside village of Carlsbad, the three-day music festival will feature over 60 live performances curated by composer/violinist Matt McBane, plus food trucks, a beer garden and an artisan market.
The free concerts will showcase the creative minds of the local San Diego music scene with genre-jumping acts from Lightning Cola’s dream rock to the jazzy funk of Euphoria Brass Band. As for the ticketed acts, CMF maintains a comparable quality of national acts from indie-pop artist Julia Holter to Xiu Xiu to the experimental rock of Noveller and many more.
$99 allows admission for the weekend and $40 gets you a day pass.
A highlight of CMF is the motivation and philosophy behind it. The diverse musical palette of the festival highlights the work of both emerging artists and also weathered veterans in an environment that is very audience-friendly. With DIY instrument builders, jazz specialists and electronica gems, McBane’s goal is to curate the concerts in a way for the audience to digest as many genres and styles as possible, challenging assumptions about what music can and should be.
Without an atmosphere of pretentiousness, CMF cements Carlsbad as a center for culture.
Musician, people-pleaser, lover, fighter and writer Matthew Craig Burke has been spewing musical words of wisdom since never. He lives off of peanut butter sandwiches, beer and Beck Hansen. Follow his updates on Facebook or contact him directly.
