Echo Fest 2016 Takes Over the Magic Stick this Weekend

This Saturday night Echo Fest will once again bring together some of the best psych rock, experimental and stoner rock bands around. This time around the fest put on by Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor will be bigger and better than before. They're moving venues, making the newly re-opened Magic Stick their new home, and they have packed the lineup with some amazing acts. This year the bill includes Nik Turner's Hawkwind, Timmy's Organism, 3FT, Mountains and Rainbows, Outrageous Cherry, Holy Wave, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, Hedersleben, The Deadly Vipers, Rogue Satellites, UUBBUURRUU, Heaven's Gateway Drugs, Nest Egg and Wolf Eyes. If that's not a stacked enough lineup for you, you can head out on Friday night for the pre-party at the Garden Bowl which will feature Dead Leaf Echo, Warhorses and Diagonal. 

Before the big show this weekend, we wanted to catch up with the guys in Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor. Check out what they had to say in this interview below and get the inside scoop on this year's Echo Fest. 

HID- How did you guys come up with Echo Fest? Why did you decide to start putting on this annual event?
Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor- "The original idea around the first Echo Fest was to bring together a handful of like-minded bands in the city. There were not that many "like-minded" bands around at that time and we werent really collaborating with each other. Echo Fest was a great excuse to get all those bands together in one room. As Sisters started touring more we saw strong scenes with Austin sort of being the gathering point of psychedelic rock movement which all sort of started around Austin Psych Fest. We imagined Echo Fest to a be a gathering point for the beginning of a more organized scene in the Midwest. It has taken seven years but now we have bands traveling from as far as Germany, France, Montreal, Austin, and all over the Midwest to play Echo fest. Echo Fest isn't just a place to see great music it is also a place for bands to meet each other and setup future gigs."

HID- Tell us about the bands. How did you choose who was going to be on this year's lineup?SYSV- "Every year has been great but this is our strongest lineup to date. Got word that Nik Turner's Hawkwind was going to be touring so we sent him an offer and sort of built the festival lineup from there. The rest of this year's lineup is a mixture of Echo Fest Veterans and first timers. We really wanted to keep everything fresh while also reminding people what bands have stuck with us to make Echo Fest fun every year."

HID- Who are you looking forward to seeing the most at this year's fest?
SYSV- "Obviously, Nik Turner's Hawkwind, Wolfeyes, and Timmy's Organism are going to be great. I think people will be blown away by Nest Egg from Ashville NC. We toured together at the beginning of the year and they slayed every night. Plus they have never played in Detroit before so everyone is in for a treat."

HID- This year you guys are putting this show on at The Magic Stick. Why did you decide to move there from The Loving Touch?
SYSV- "Got word of the Magic Stick re-opening and the timing was perfect. The loving touch has been great but we were looking to expand and the Magic Stick presented us with the perfect opportunity. We were really struggling with how to grow the festival while keeping it at the Loving Touch considering we were already pushing their available capacity. We just wouldn't have been able to keep the festival cheap if we kept it at the Loving Touch. The Magic Stick has been awesome to work with and have bent over backward to ensure that it will be a fantastic night."

HID- You mentioned that this show will feature fuzzed out guitars and "so much delay that time travel might just be possible". Do you think time travel actually is possible? Have you ever traveled through time?
SYSV- "Time travel is possible, even in the science fiction sense of the word. This is of course ignoring the rather pedantic discussion of aging that is the common snark given for such a question. It is very possible to speed up and slow down the forward movement of time with the manipulation of gravity. This concept is refereed to as Gravitational time dilation, which was originally predicted in Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

Can we create so much sonic delay that we actually hinder or boost gravitational waves?"

HID- Last year you had a crazy 3D show that added to the whole experience. Will there be anything like that this year? Will attendees get any sort of souvenir this time around since they got 3D glasses last year?
SYSV- "Back to rock n roll. Wayne Woodward will be performing live projections and curating lighting for the evening. Armageddon Beach Party will setting up shop to sell their tripped out artwork along with live painting. It's going to be a really fun night, but our main goal was to put the focus on how damn good all these bands are."

HID- Alright, so here's your last chance to convince people. Give us 3 reasons everyone should head to Echo Fest this weekend!

15 incredible bands for 20 bucks
Nik Turner's Hawkwind
Fuck the government.

HID- Anything else you would like our readers to know?
SYSV- "Sisters have been working on a new record which we will start recording at the end of 2016. We will debuting a few new songs at Echo Fest this year. We are really excited and we honestly believe that this some of the best stuff we have ever written."


Tickets for Echo Fest are $20 in advance and can be purchased here. You can also pick tickets up in person at UHF in Royal Oak or at The Garden Bowl. Why not go to the FREE Pre-Party Friday night and pick your tickets up while you're there? Doors for Echo Fest are set to open at 5 p.m. on Saturday with bands starting at 6 p.m. For more info on this event and to stay in the loop the day of the show, make sure you give Echo Fest a like on Facebook here.

~C