C2C Is Now One of New York’s Most Necessary Festivals
The long-running Italian fest finds its footing Stateside with a night of gloriously freaky beats, noise, and sex.
After becoming a European destination for adventurous music fans over the course of this century, C2C made its New York City debut last year. The one-day event held a lot of promise but was not without its flaws. As I wrote in my review at the time, the lineup, which historically focuses on electronic music’s bleeding edge, was uneven. And the setup at Knockdown Center in Ridgewood, Queens was less than ideal, including a too-small stage area that was constantly overcrowded. “If C2C returns to Knockdown at some point,” I nudged, “perhaps they could set up the second stage outside, in the venue’s Ruins area, so that people could enjoy more of the night’s music and maybe even have some space to dance to it.”
Apparently I was not alone in this critique, because that’s pretty much what C2C did when it came back to Knockdown Center last weekend. Now spread across three stages, including the spacious outdoor one, C2C NYC’s second iteration was a masterclass in troubleshooting. The lineup was much improved. The mood was more energetic. There was some space to breathe. Last year, C2C NYC was an intriguing experiment; this year, it became an unmissable event.
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