Concerts

Explore the local chiptune scene at Boston Bitdown music festival

The music festival, taking place March 6-8, will feature more than 50 artists across five different venues in Somerville and Arlington.

Boston Bitdown music festival poster. The concert will be from March 6 to 8. Neil Williams

By Elli Einset

1 minute to read

Boston Bitdown, a new local music festival, aims to bring attention to the local chiptune scene with more than 50 performers across several locations in the Greater Boston area, March 6-8.

For those unfamiliar with the music, chiptune is an electronic style of music that’s created using sound chips from vintage gaming and computer hardware.

The “new artist-driven music festival celebrating Chiptune/Digital Fusion,” organized by Battlemode’s David “Biff” Jubinsky and Geekbeatradio’s Rob Carballo, will be held at five different locations in Somerville and Arlington.

“Every city needs their own three-day chiptune festival! Boston has a wonderful, special chiptune scene – unlike any other, honestly,” said Jubinsky in a press release. “We might be biased, but Boston chiptune, collectively, is the best chiptune in the world. Prove us wrong. We want to showcase our chiptune talent, which is why most of our featured artists are from Boston or have Boston ties.”

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The festival will take place a little more than two months before Jubinsky’s Battlemode is set to perform at Boston Calling on Friday, May 23.

The festival kicks off Thursday at Warehouse XI and The Jungle in Somerville. The festival then moves to the Capitol Theatre in Arlington on Friday and finally, The Rockwell and Crystal Ballroom in Somerville on Sunday.

Three-day passes are available for $120 each. Those who purchase the weekend deal are the only ones with access to Thursday’s concert. However, there are day-passes available for Friday and Saturday. Passes for each of those days are available for $50. The chiptune rave tickets are $20. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.

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Festival acts include Trash80, Glomag, Disasterpeace, Active Knowledge, Freezepop, Button Masher, and more. Check out the full list of performers.

In addition to performances, there will be live scores, film screenings, artist Q&A sessions, and more.

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