The Sherp looks at how The Buku Music + Art Project reconvenes the city of New Orleans with art, and makes it one grand venue for the best of indie music.Β
We’ve argued time and again, that music festivals with ability to reconvert an entire city into a festival venue, such as Amsterdam Dance Event and Nuits Sonores, are the need of the hour. They infuse culture acuity into inert blocks of cement, and do more for the arts than just a basic, outdoorsy music festival. But none do it as effectively as the Buku Music + Art project, an indie-music hosting art-bearing festival that convert the city of New Orleans into a thriving cultural gallery.
This year, the festival, to be held from March 11 to 12, returns with a fantastic lineup comprising the more inventive sounds from the music circuit, and a post-industrial revamp of some of New Orleans’ grungiest places, using art!
For underground lovers of everything art
There is an innately paradoxical idea about The Buku Project. It is, essentially an event that employs an aesthetic based off of whimsically talented art murals and revamps, even as it brings together musicians whose work bemoans the spirit of the underground. That way, the festival remains, at its heart indie, and in its spirit, wholesome. In the midst of the city of New Orleans is the grungy Warehouse District, an industrial spaceland that is cement and iron and little else. The Buku Music + Art Project infuses the district with post-industrial art and makes it a viable music festival district.
On the banks of the Mississippi River with the Crescent City Connection bridge illuminated in the distance, the warehouse is revamped to make for many a fresh stage venues, like one stage whichΒ sits on a Mardi Gras float manufacturing warehouse, while there rests a hangout spot on aΒ 3-level riverboat docked along the festival grounds. All this, while murals and murals of backdrop provide the visual aesthetic to an experience that is equal parts rich as is exclusive.
An incredible assortment of artists
The Buku Music + Art Project is swamped with acts from across the spectrum of music – each a musician uniquely gifted, offering a sound as innovative as one can be. From indie sweethearts like Chvrches, Nero, Miike Snow, What So Not and Jai Wolf, to credible names from hip hop such as Kid Cudi, Future, Fetty Wap, Earl Sweatshirt, Rae Sremmurd, A$ap Ferg to talented beat makers such as Above & Beyond, Pretty Lights, Tchami, Cashmere Cat, and Crystal Castles.
With a lineup that is as underground as is brilliant, there is something worth the go for every music lover there is. If there is one thing that combines the music is the vibe it absolutely guarantees.
That brilliant art
Street art earns the respect it completely deserves for its accessibility, for its fearless lack of elitism, as it is available to every consumer. Wearing that idea proudly on its sleeve is theΒ The Buku Music + Art Project that brings the world of some of the most talented artists as they reconvene the venue with some spell-binding and glorious art work. The art work isn’t just limited to the murals alone, as art installations take shape, and the festival resembles a visually ethereal physical gallery, one that is formatively brilliant.
(All images via : thebukuproject.com)