Say hello to the first-ever Neon Marshmallow Fest, a brand new four-day festival in Chicago at the Viaduct Theater, August 19th-22nd.  Two stages, more than 90 bands, and $2.50 PBRs: a veritable bloodbath of electronica, digital grind-core, and uncategorizable noise.  If you've heard of more than half of these bands, than you're probably playing in the festival.  If you've heard of them all, you're probably organizing the festival.  QRO jumps into the melee with eyes wide shut!

For the second year of L Magazine's Northside Festival, QRO not only bumped up from press to presenter, but also doubled our manpower, with duties shared between Ted Chase & Mike Gutierrez.  But even though our badges came thanks to the QRO Mag/Ampeater showcase on the final day (QRO event page), we still did our journalistic duty to cover the festival:

It returns!  Last year, L Magazine - that free mini-mag named after the subway line that stretches from Greenwich Village through Williamsburg & beyond - put on the inaugural Northside Festival.  A kind of 'sub-CMJ' (QRO recap) - or 'sub-sub-SXSW' (QRO recap), Northside '09 (QRO recap) featured mostly Brooklyn bands in a variety of venues along the north side of Brooklyn, i.e. Williamsburg & Greenpoint.  While the festival didn't prove quite as memorable as the free Kangaroo sneakers given out, and main Northside venue Studio B (QRO venue review) is no more, the festival is back for a second year.