New Colossus Festival 2025: 7 Acts We Can’t Wait to See

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New York’s New Colossus Festival is back this year and bigger than ever—spanning six days, taking over almost a dozen venues across the Lower East Side and featuring nearly 200 emerging artists from around the world from March 4-9. It’s a musical extravaganza, and one you won’t want to miss. At the same time, though, 200 artists is a lot, so it’s fair to feel a little overwhelmed. To get you started, here’s a quick list of seven acts we here at Paste can’t help but feel particularly excited about—and from there, well, the world of New Colossus Festival is your oyster.

Bibi Club

There’s something special about a band whose music transcends language—I speak virtually no French, but even so, there’s something addictive about the avant-pop sound of Montreal’s Bibi Club. Their most recent record, 2024’s Feu de Garde, marries jangly, synthed-up pop with foggy, guitar-driven post-punk and the result is part Stereolab, part the Notwist, and part something else entirely. It’s cinematic, atmospheric and wholly inventive.

Big Girl

Brooklyn’s own Big Girl has made waves in the New York music scene in recent years and it’s easy to see why. The six-piece indie-rock outfit boasts soaring vocals, rawly vulnerable lyrics and endless energy—and also, although I have yet to experience it myself, a reputation for truly insane live shows. According to their website and the various testimonials within, at a Big Girl show you can expect “synchronized circus-like choreography,” “Rocky Horror Picture Show energy” and a mix of sparkly camp, punk fervor, and candid intimacy that you won’t be able to take your eyes away from. There’s a reason we rushed to book them for our 2025 SXSW party!

cootie catcher

This Toronto indietronica band is already on the up-and-up, having opened for some of the city’s most iconic current groups (Ducks Ltd. and Alvvays come to mind) last year, but it’s their imminent album release that has me truly excited. The record, Shy at first, is slated to arrive via the Crooked Raw Label in less than two weeks (March 14, to be precise), and we here at Paste can’t wait. After all, if it’s anything like the singles the group has already put out—“Dumb Lit,” “Do Forever,” and especially the delightful blend of synth and twee of “Friend Of A Friend”—then I have little doubt their sophomore album will follow suit.

Garden Centre

Eccentric, a little neurotic and brimming with childlike wonder, Max Levy’s art-pop band Garden Centre is as utterly enjoyable as it is hard to satisfyingly describe. The Brighton-based band, whose members can also be found in other iconic indie groups like Porridge Radio, Joanna Gruesmoe and the Tubs, have carved out a strange niche for themselves and have been thriving within it. Don’t take my word for it; take Frank Ocean’s—he even showcased Garden Centre multiple times on his gone-but-not-forgotten radio show, Blonded, a few years back. Their music alone is great fun, so I can’t wait to see the kind of whimsy they bring to the stage.

Joe & the Shitboys

There’s stage presence, and then there’s whatever the hell Joe & the Shitboys have. They have a genuinely ridiculous amount of energy, a fuck-you level of charisma, and an apparent degree in insult comedy—in between songs, they apparently roast their own audiences, which is actually kind of brilliant. I’m not even much of a hardcore gal myself, but I can’t resist the pull of seeing their “shitpunk” aesthetic, relentless crowdwork, and blistering, furious musical takedowns live. Even just their one-liner band description sounds like a Mad Libs entry: “four queer vegan punks from the Faroe Islands.” Like, come on! The blurb practically writes itself.

The Laughing Chimes

With two phenomenal records now under their belt—2021’s debut In This Town and their just-released sophomore album, Whispers in the Speech Machine—it’s safe to say that the Laughing Chimes are officially on a roll. Listening to that first album, you would never have guessed that the sophisticated, timeless-feeling jangle pop you’re hearing was made by a pair of teenage twin boys. The group is centered around Evan and Quinn Seurkamp (on vocals/guitar and drums respectively), with the later additions of their cousin Avery Bookman on bass and the sadly non-related Matthew Putnam on guitar. The maturity of their sound remains just as surprising with their 2025 release, despite the fact that they’re all, at least, in college now; while elements of jangle pop certainly remain, Whispers in the Speech Machine sees the Ohio band lean into more moody, almost gothy post-punk, drenching the jangle of it all in fuzz and reverb—and it sure as hell works.

Yndling

Silje Espevik is bringing her dream pop project Yndling all the way from her native Norway to the New Colossus Festival, and any self-respecting synth lover out there ought to make sure they catch her set before she heads back. Like a whisper-heavy Mazzy Star or an otherworldly Beach House, Yndling’s take on shoegaze is mesmerizing and celestial, almost hypnotic. There’s a comfort in it, a warmth, that lulls you into an almost trancelike state, enveloped in the twinkling atmosphere Espevik’s created.