Curator Statement

Post Symposium Event. Venue: Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga

Artistic expression goes beyond the cutting edge with the Bleeding Edge Festival. The festival features 25 artists performing on four stages throughout the Montalvo grounds in Saratoga, only 20 minutes from downtown San Jose. A free shuttle service to the festival will run on the hour from the Convention Center turnaround starting at 11 a.m.
If the term “cutting edge” identifies the most adventurous and progressive forms of artistic expression, the Bleeding Edge Festival promises to be an exploration of the messy aftermath, the fluidity of genres that follows in the wake of the transgressive cultural moment: post-electronic, post-independent, post-fringe. The festival is divided into two distinct categories, “experimental electronica” and “indie rock.”
Participating artists include: Yo La Tengo, Isis, Brightblack Morning Light, Black Dice, Matmos and Zeena Parkins, Luke Temple, Skoltz_Kolgen, Frank Bretschneider, Sunroof!, Tim Hecker, Portable, Frivolous, Richard Chartier, Greg McGrath, The Chemistry Set, Robert Stillman’s Horses, The Avett Brothers, Luther Russell and Flying. Also appearing on festival stages are the four winners of a juried competition, who will receive a two-week stay in Whitefish, Montana, to record at the state-of-the-art SnowGhost Sound Studios.

• Brett Allen & Robert Crouch, curators