RETROSPEKT Miami has detailed the full lineup for its 2021 “immersive micro music and art festival” set to take place at Moxy South Beach resort on July 10th and 11th. Created, produced, and promoted by the female-founded Ideaison, the event aims to spotlight underrepresented artistic voices in an experience-first destination event atmosphere.
Sets at RETROSPEKT Miami will be programmed across three custom-designed stages designed and curated by Molly Surno of Push Projects, the art direction team behind Brooklyn’s Elsewhere, in collaboration with Maktive, the creative minds behind events like Electric Zoo, and Aerial Dragons, a Florida-based aerial entertainment and circus collective.
Born out of the success of the virtual RETROSPEKT event last year, RETROSPEKT will take a hybrid approach for the July fest in South Florida. The event will welcome less than 1,000 in-person attendees per day, but both the music and the experience will be available to fans at home via livestreams. Much of the event will be streamed for free on Twitch, while select shows will be available as pay-per-view offerings via NoCap.
RETROSPEKT will present over 50 live acts from across the stylistic spectrum including rock, rap, pop, R&B, funk, soul, reggae, dance music, and more. Headliners include Wu-Tang Clan MC Ghostface Killah, rising R&B singer Sabrina Claudio, a DJ set by Chromeo, and a performance from new Tycho live band project ISO50, and more.
Other up-and-coming artists included on the RETROSPEKT lineup include Detroit staple DJ Minx, disco and house king Eli Escobar, TikTok sensation Blu DeTiger, bluesy pop vocalist Mia Gladstone, British R&B crooner Col3trane, Grammy-nominated New Orleans outfit Tank and the Bangas, L.A. rocker Judith Hill, and 30+ other nationally and internationally touring acts. Local artists will also be well-represented, with The Hails, Xperimento, Afrobeta, The Ries Brothers, Kathy Palma, Yoli Mayor, and more set to perform.
“RETROSPEKT is a micro-festival that leads with creativity and inclusion,” explains Ideaison founder and creative director Lauren Kashuk. “We’re targeting superfans while simultaneously tapping into an unmet need in the market. The micro-festival aims to feel exclusive in person with a small (1K/day) capacity but is inclusive by design and principle as it will be livestreamed across the world.”
Outside of more than 50 sets across three stages, RETROSPEKT Miami will place an intensive focus on immersive and theatrical art. The names of the stages—the Past, Present, and Future—will come to life, giving the livestreams the feel of music videos with the fans in on the action.
In-person fans will be able to book additional amenities including a “retrospective zone” at the Past Stage presented by non-profit To Write Love on Her Arms; a drag queen brunch curated by House of Yes’ resident artist Madame Vivien V; mezcal tastings; aerialist and circus performances by Aerial Dragons; a cereal and cartoon bar curated by illustrator Joe Palec; and more.
“When it comes to most cross-genre large-scale festivals, festival-goers have been there, done that,” Kashuk continues. “Nothing phases them anymore … Coming out of Covid, fans are HUNGRY for live music, but I also think they’re hungry for a carefully curated artistic experience to meet and connect with others.”
“One thing you will notice is our festival and lineup is rich in diversity,” Kashuk adds. “If there isn’t a woman or someone diverse at the leadership level, inclusion is viewed as an afterthought. … Underrepresented people are excluded from the room where the music is written and produced, ignored when strategizing promotion, and then disregarded or underestimated as headliners. We’re not down with that.”
See below for the full RETROSPEKT Miami 2021 artist lineup. Limited two-day and single-day tickets and hotel packages for RETROSPEKT Miami are available via the event website.