FREAK NEST is back. Ten years after the genre-defying gathering first earned near-mythical status in Bay Area music circles, co-founders Taylor Lissandrello and Matthias Wesner are reviving the iconic festival.
On August 22, Public Works in San Francisco will host FREAK NEST’s long-awaited return, transforming the venue into a three-stage celebration of music, visual art, dance, and immersive performance. More than 40 artists will perform, with a lineup that gleefully jumps between psychedelic rock, Balkan brass, bluegrass, deep house, hip-hop, and New Orleans second line. Add in the live painting, projections, installations, and performances that defy easy categorization and you have the making of what will undoubtedly be a legendary weekend.
FREAK NEST’s refusal to stay in one lane has always been the point: “We just kind of built the festival we would want to go to,” Lissandrello tells SPIN. “No one wants to hear the same thing for 10 hours straight. Or we don’t, at least.”
Headliners include SunSquabi, Mr. Carmack, Sugar Candy Mountain, Dead Meadow, and Moody Jones’ Dirtybird showcase. “FREAK NEST immediately felt like the kind of event I want to be part of” says Jones. “Independent, community-driven, and built around real artistic freedom. Public Works has always been a special room for San Francisco, and the idea of bringing together so many different sounds, scenes, visual artists, performers, and weird, beautiful energy under one roof feels very Bay Area in the best way. I’m pumped to headline because it’s not just another party; it feels like a celebration of music and art without boundaries.”
The festival’s multidisciplinary identity is deeply personal. Before concerts, Wesner built a career in theatrical productions, dance performances, aerial arts, and large-scale live events. Combining movement, visual art, and music felt natural. Lissandrello brought another influence: growing up in a family of painters, including a father who taught Wesner art in elementary school.
“Music and movement go hand in hand,” Wesner says. “Community has always been a common thread in everything I do.” Throughout the festival, visual artists, dancers, projectionists, and installation creators will share equal billing with musicians, creating an experience that feels more like an evolving communal gathering than a traditional concert.
“A bunch of these artists are my friends,” Wesner says. “I’ve watched them work odd jobs and barely survive to make their art. I see it go underappreciated and undervalued. I sincerely love supporting the little guy. Probably because I’ve always been him too.”
For Wesner, who grew up in rural upstate New York before touring the country as a roadie, San Francisco’s creative underground was unlike anything he had experienced. Music and art became intertwined disciplines. And that idea that would eventually define FREAK NEST.
The festival itself was hatched during a late-night conversation between friends inside the art studio of Lissandrello’s father. At the time, Wesner was wrapping up a production tour through California. “The thought was, ‘We should take all of your gear that’s in California and set it up in my warehouse before you drive it all back East. I’ll book the bands, you handle production,’” Lissandrello recalls. “And that is pretty much what we did.”
The inaugural FREAK NEST took over Lissandrello’s warehouse – known simply as “The Cave” – in 2016 and wound up being both an ambitious experiment and a fabulous disaster. “There was no the moment that “made” the event,” he says. “It was a whole journey, stories our crew still kick around to this day. A journey that has and is still unfolding.”
Among Lissandrello’s favorite musical memories was when Bay Area ensemble Gamalan X rolled traditional Balinese gongs directly into the audience, between a punk band and a psychedelic pop act. “There was a feeling in the room,” he remembers. “People were like, ‘What the fuck is happening here? I’m confused. This is awesome.’”
That joyful unpredictability remains FREAK NEST’s calling card. Long before genre-fluid playlists became commonplace, the festival deliberately ignored musical boundaries. “The whole point of FREAK NEST is just like, we’re all out here getting weird,” Lissandrello says. “Making weird stuff. Who gives a shit what little label society tells you to put on it so the money people can figure out how to sell it?”
Although fans have spent years hoping FREAK NEST would return, the timing wasn’t accidental. The organizers originally hoped to revive it for its fifth anniversary before the pandemic intervened.
“When the 10-year mark arrived,” Wesner explains, “Taylor was moving back stateside, I had bought the house he grew up in, and we found ourselves in the original room where the first one was plotted out. We both kind of recognized the significance and went to town.”
After a decade of folklore, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved musical myths was finally becoming reality again. But bringing back the entirely independent FREAK NEST had its share of obstacles.
“The challenge is capital,” Wesner says. “My partner Luke and I basically put up everything we made this year and more. We called in every favor, tapped into the furthest reaches of our network, and basically went all in.” The upside, Wesner adds, is complete creative freedom. “We have full control and no strings.”
Lissandrello, a musician and visual artist whose band PuZL will play an album release show at FREAK NEST, also emphasizes the importance of keeping the festival independent.
“In the world today, it is necessary,” he says. “You have the corporate heist of venues and events. We are rebellious by nature. We felt it almost as our duty, as well as our right, to put on a celebration of art for its own sake. Not to line the pockets of corporate executives who have no real interest in art as a concept, only as a commodity.” Lissandrello credits Public Works for embracing that vision. “They’ve worked with us and done their best to accommodate all of our requests and neurosis,” he explains.
Ultimately, the goal of FREAK NEST is much more profound than an annual event. “We hope this becomes the catalyst for future change,” Wesner says. “A movement that is of the artists, by the artists, and for the artists, and the people supporting them. I hope people walk away feeling like they experienced something that was once-in-a-lifetime special,” he says. “That 10 years from now they’ll still be telling stories about it. I hope they make friends from different walks of life and discover they have more in common than they realized.”
In an era when festivals typically follow algorithms, target demographics, and seek corporate partnerships, FREAK NEST is once again poised to be an extraordinary and unusual experience. After a decade of folklore, Lissandrello and Wesner are confident there is still room for genuine creative risk and a receptive audience that chooses art over commerce. “I want people to feel like they were part of something new,” Lissandrello says. “I hope to bring together worlds.”
Find more information on FREAK NEST here.
