Machina Bristronica, a festival of knobs, buttons and discussions, returns to Bristol
Five educational sessions, six panel talks, seven workshops, and plenty of gear to get stuck into.
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Machina Bristronica – the synth and electronic music festival based in the South West of England – is returning in September 2023 after a three-year hiatus.
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The synth fest was first launched in Bristol in 2019 to great success. Unfortunately, the 2020 event had to be cancelled, making this year’s event four years in the making. It’s organised by the team at Stokes Croft-based synth shop Elevator Sounds, who have been hard at work to make the line-up bigger than ever.
The event is being held at Document, on 30 September, and you can expect a full day and evening of synth stalls, live hardware performances, panel talks, DIY modular workshops, music production and performance training, and more. The event is taking place across a large multi-room warehouse space and an outdoor stage.
Gear nerds, fret not: you can get your hands on over 100 tables of the latest synths, drum machines, modular gear and more from big-name brands and boutique manufacturers. There are also 11 hours of live hardware performances from the likes of Dopplereffekt, Steevio & Suzybee, Mount Kimbie’s Kai Campos, Scanner, Surgeons Girl, Saskia, JacqNoise, and Julia Bondar, plus a Konx-Om-Pax live AV set and other visuals throughout the day from Triple Geek, Puttyrubber, Chromatouch and L’Aubaine.
If you’re looking to expand your knowledge, then you can attend six panel talks including The Relationship Between Artist and Equipment with Imogen Heap and Kai Campos; Navigating the Label Landscape, the Past, Present and Future of the UK Sound; and a one-on-one conversation with YouTuber Mylar Melodies and synth designer Vlad Kreimer called Emotional Synthesis: The Art of Romantic Engineering.
On top of this, there are five educational sessions that cover visual synthesis, live performance, audio-visual and hardware production techniques, and advanced modular patching. Plus, there’s a DIY area where attendees can build hardware pieces alongside the designers. There are seven of these workshops to choose from and each one is ticketed with a specific price that includes all components for the build.
Throw in some food stalls, bars, merch, installations and more and you’ve got the makings of a pretty delightful day out for anyone who has an interest in electronics and music making.
Tickets to the event are now on final release at £29.99, and are available via Resident Advisor. It’s open from 11:30am to 10pm, and for those who want to carry on after the event, there’s also an afterparty packed with live music and DJs from 10pm onwards at Dareshack.
More info about the event can be found at machinabristronica.uk and info on the afterparty is at headfirstbristol.co.uk.
