Festival

FESTIVAL distinguished themselves through lush vocal harmonies and an eerie atmosphere, weaving together folk traditions, gospel roots, and psychedelic pop in an eclectic blend. This short-lived Brooklyn group issued their debut album, Come, Arrow, Come!, during 2008 and later surfaced the archival collection All Golden Stay in 2024.

Siblings Alexis "Lex" Powell, handling voice and guitar, and Lindsay Powell, on voice, guitar, kalimba, zither, and piano, established the band in Brooklyn. They shaped their initial full-length around trippy, medieval-haunted psych-folk, enlisting Jake Orrall on electric guitar, Jamin Orrall on drums and percussion, plus Matt Martin on drums. The Powells joined Jeremy Ferguson—who had worked with Josh Rouse and Be Your Own Pet—to produce Come, Arrow, Come!, which Language of Stone, a Drag City imprint, put out in April 2008. While the core members turned toward separate endeavors, among them Lindsay’s more prominent Fielded project, the sisters and their brother Mike cut a version of “Tonight You Belong to Me,” a number first cut by the ’50s sister act Patience and Prudence; that performance was documented live at the VPRO Festival in 2009. In 2010 the three siblings placed “Today’s Adventure!” on an Esopus Magazine compilation honoring The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

With the lineup expanded to Lex, Lindsay, and Mike Powell alongside William Tyler on guitar and additional vocals, Seth Lorinczi on bass, Helena Espvall on cello, Jen Harrison on French horn, and Maria Pugnetti supplying further vocals, the musicians spent more than five years and moved among an equal number of cities to assemble a follow-up while juggling other music commitments. They eventually retrieved the recordings from a hard drive. Retaining a comparable sonic palette and mood to the debut, All Golden Stay surfaced on Make the Fun in March 2024.