Unfortunately for people who love indie bands and are fans of comedy, the Sasquatch! Festival has been terminated after about 17 years running. The news came late last June when the founder of the event, Adam Zacks, announced via email that it was time to say “farewell” to the Sasquatch! Festival. On the bright side, Zacks just announced the creation of a new festival called Thing that will take place at Fort Worden in Port Townsend, Washington according to consequence of sound. Thing will take place August 24th and 25th. Artists and other acts set to attend include Jeff Tweedy, Kurt Vile, De La Soul, The Violators, Natasha Lyonne, and certain members from the cast of Napoleon Dynamite including Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, and John Gries.

The Thing festival is expected to be quite the diverse event with live music, comedy acts, panels, podcasts, yoga, hikes, night markets, and more. Additionally, the acts will take place on three different stages which comprise of an old zeppelin hangar, the art-deco Wheeler Theater, and parade grounds which are positioned next to the Puget Sound.

Taking the Thing stage will be the singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist Kurt Vile. The Pennsylvania born artist got his start in music when he created a band with Adam Granduciel called War on Drugs. They released their first album Wagonwheel Blues in 2008. The folk inspired indie album laid the foundation for the rest of his career. You can hear his sound best in songs like “Loading Zones,” and “Bassackwards” off his most recent album Bottle It In. Vile will also be touring this summer over the span of four months and in multiple countries.

Joining Kurt Vile will be the indie rock legend Jeff Tweedy. His country inspired indie music should be perfectly complementary to Vile’s work and it will definitely be inspiring to see so much indie talent in one space. Most recently Tweedy has released his newest album WARMER, a sister album to Warm.

Thing seems like it’s going to be a fun event full of variety. It will be exciting to see indie musicians side by side with actors and comedians like Jon Heder and Natasha Lyonne. For more information, visit the Thing website here.  

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna