The Olympia Experimental Music Festival, also known for a time as The Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics, has been produced annually in Olympia, Washington

Olympia, Washington

Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...

 since 1995. Organizers have included festival founder L. Jim McAdams, Arrington de Dionyso (founder of the Olympia Strange Music Society), Aerick Duckhugger, and Domenica Clark. During de Dionyso's tenure as chief organizer (festivals 9–12) the festival was primarily known by the alternate name The Olympia Festival of Experimental Musics.

Performers have included Acre, Alps of New South Wales, A Nat Hema, Wendy Atkinson, Atropy Minor, Argumentix, Better People, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Bran Flakes, Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Celesteville, Crank Sturgeon, Dead Air Fresheners

Dead Air Fresheners

The Dead Air Fresheners are a Portland, Oregon, Olympia, Washington, and Seattle, Washington-based experimental and post-punk musical group with a somewhat fluctuating membership. They have been described by Portland's KPSU as "A long-time mainstay of the Experimental Rock Scene."-Band history:The...

, Amy Denio

Amy Denio

Amy Denio is a Seattle -based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, she is also deeply inspired by world music. She is probably best known as a...

, Dendrites, Arrington de Dionyso, Paul Dutton, Evolution Control Committee, Steve Fisk

Steve Fisk

Steve Fisk is a Washington-based audio engineer, record producer and musician.Fisk joined the instrumental rock band Pell Mell in 1982. With vocalist Shawn Smith, he formed Pigeonhed, which released its first album in 1993....

, Foque Mopus, Gang Wizard, Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, Bill Horist, KnotPineBox, Al Larsen, Le Ton Mite, METAL, Midmight, Nequaquam Vacuum, Noggin, Noisettes, Office Products, Oliver Squash, Plants, Gino Robair

Gino Robair

Gino Robair is an American composer, improvisor, drummer, and percussionist. In his own work , he plays prepared/modified percussion, analog synthesizer, ebow and prepared piano, theremin, and bowed objects...

, Sluggo, Chuck Swaim, Jennifer Robin, White Rainbow

Adam Forkner

Adam Forkner is a musician from Portland, Oregon who, since 2003, has performed as White Rainbow.-as White Rainbow:*"Humidifier Plaza" digital, self-released via whiterainbowpizza.bandcamp.com 2011...

, Bert Wilson,, Wood Paneling, Paintings for Animals, LA Lungs, Four Dimensional Nightmare and Eurostache.

In addition to unusual, experimental, and/or noise music, many festival performers use film, multimedia, and spoken word. Yahoo News in 2007 called it a "summer festival to watch". In Signum, writer Tiffany Lee Brown

Tiffany Lee Brown

Tiffany Lee Brown is an American writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist. Author of A Compendium of Miniatures , she is the Executive Director of the 501c3 non-profit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters...

commented in 2001: "This was no overpriced, fancypants event full of goatee-stroking theorizers or a showcase of overserious minimalist compositions, but a romp through the tangled underbrush of homegrown experimentalism."

External links

• Olympia Strange Music MySpace page