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Favorite ThisThe Untz Festival 2018 reveals its Phase 2 lineup! 2 months to go!

Published: April 3, 2018

By: Anand Harsh

The Untz Festival 2018

We are both humbled and blessed with the outpouring of support and excitement for the initial lineup of The Untz Festival. As an intimate gathering celebrating the most progressive bass music from around the world, we are delighted that we are able to collect so many talented artists who represent the very best in a slew of categories across the bass spectrum. It's our honor and privilege to share this music with our fans, and we hope to continue to build our bass family thanks to the unwavering support of our crews.

Today we reveal the Phase 2 lineup for The Untz Festival 2018, which brings some old friends and a flock of exciting new artists June 1-3 to the Mariposa County Fairgrounds in Mariposa, California, for our third year.

Fans who have been following The Untz since we started nearly a decade ago will know that one of our all-time favorite artists is easily Danny Beall, a.k.a. NiT GriT. He was one of the first breakout dubstep stars from northern California, and worked very closely with us in our early years when nobody gave a shit, frankly. After taking a step back after years of touring and producing, NiT GRiT is back and ready to show us all why we fell in love with his sound in the first place. It truly is a full circle honor for us to bring him back into The Untz fold all these years later. Many tears will be shed.

He's joined by some impressive acts who jumped on our radar like Deep, Dark & Dangerous' Pushloop. And the California staples who put the state on the map for bass music are repped too, like Smasheltooth, and her irreverent DJ sets. Other west coast additions include We Got This' Spekt1 B2B TreyZilla, BLAOW!, Ananaki, Pilz Beats, and Fresno's own ION, who played his first festival with us last year and has gone on to become one of the biggest names in the region. Also returning to jazz up our main stage are our old friends The Siren Society and all the talented performers who come with them, and Fractaled Visions to dazzle the eyes with stunning visuals.

These newcomers to the lineup join our top tier talent that instantly made bass music fans around the country (and the world) stand up and take notice earlier this year. CASPA and Mala are two of the pillars of dubstep who really popularized the sound and became some of the first artists to really capitalize on its ascension to become an earth-shattering movement in the US. Having these two legends on our lineup is a dream come true. Throw in the two-headed monster KOAN Sound, who have made huge advances in both glitch-hop and drum & bass, and we're starting to see a pattern emerge. They head up our D&B contingent, which gets backup from thrilling artists like Johnathan Thomas, who we have worked with for years, and are excited to finally get to bring out to California.

The Untz Festival 2018When we first announced the massive Pioneers of Dubstep B2B2B2B set between Joker, Hatcha, Youngsta, and J:Kenzo, we expected our fans to get excited, but we had no idea people would be flipping out and booking flights immediately from all over the world to see this unique four-way set go down. We're all in for a treat and a trip through history when these four gentlemen from England take the stage.

One of our most requested artists, Thriftworks, will make his festival debut this year. The Bay Area's own Jake Atlas has been a fan favorite since he dropped his monumental 30-minute mix for us five years ago, and we finally get to put him on display in his own backyard. His stunning blend of crispy beats and irreverent assault on bass music norms makes him a perfect addition to this eccentric mix of acts.

Yheti sunriseWe are thrilled that we not only get to bring back the ultra-talented Yheti, Toadface, and Mt. Analogue, but these three brilliant minds will come together for a wholly unique TRIFINITY performance, on top of three solo sets. So many great memories were made last year with this trio of Ohio natives, and something tells us this year will be just as special. This is something fans will remember for a long, long time.

Breaking talent is one of the things we have enjoyed most about The Untz over its history, and we like getting in early on talented acts. In year one, we had a little known northern California act, CharlestheFirst, up on the lineup, but since then he's absolutely exploded in stature, and we're so thrilled to bring him back. In the past 24 months, his rise to stardom has been no less than meteoric, and we're over the moon that we can bring him back home before he's headlining festivals on his own in no time at all.

He's flanked by a pair of international talents in the furious fingers of Mad Zach, and the mind-bending talents of South African prodigy Chee. Both these acts have been touring the States with their cutting-edge sounds, but there's nothing like seeing them on the festival stage.

On Friday, June 1, we'll be once again hosting an Early Arrival Party for fans wanting to get on the grounds ahead of schedule to get the weekend started proper. Esseks, DMVU, EASTGHOST, and a number of our favorite acts will kick things off on Friday for some late night shenanigans ahead of two full days of programming.

There's no question that much of our success last year can be directly attributed to the incredible crews with whom we've toiled with buckets of blood, sweat, and tears going into the curation of this festival. We're proud to be bringing back Wormhole Entertainment, ThazDope Records, and ShadowTrix Music as our partners in this endeavor. Wormhole and STM will be holding down late night festivities in their respective boom rooms, and the aforementioned ThazDope posse will be hosting their own outdoor stage all day long Saturday and Sunday.

Their curated lineups are littered with talent, from breakouts Frequent and Brightside to SubDocta, Hypha, and returning favorite SuDs, as well as beardthug (back for another year) with Prophet, Mystic Grizzly, Lucy, and crew throwdowns from Lost Dogz, The Undergrowth, and Faceless Future Collective. Another returning favorite is Eazybaked, who have absolutely blown up this year, and continue to melt speakers across the country, and they're good friend Rook gets to join the squad. ThazDope's own Spankalicious will be performing a special 4:20 set on the main stage over the weekend. I think we all know where that's going.

There are gems all over the lineup, like kLL sMTH, Moniker, Psy Fi, Secret Recipe, KOROstyle, and Salty. We're thrilled to add Pilz Beats, JARS, and a special Dubwol x Minority set.

Surprises abound, and the biggest surprise of all is that we're adding in a silent disco this year, featuring acts like episcoolOverklok, Patches O'Malley, Detox, and breakout stars DYS and Scales doing a B2B set. We are thrilled to add Wubson to this silent disco lineup.

The Untz Festival 2018Of course, fans can expect top notch production on all four of our stages. We're going bigger, better, and bolder with all the fancy bells and whistles, and fans will be very excited when they hear about the changes we've made on the sound system front. More info on that soon. Rest assured that there will be plenty of eye candy, and your ears will thank you.

But that's not all that's new this year. In addition to the cozy, comfortable surroundings that fans enjoyed so much last year at the fairgrounds the last two years, and limited number of car camping passes that sold out last year, and the super clutch RV passes (both with hook-ups and without), we are now adding two new incredible features. We have pre-setup tents for fans who want to fly out but pack light. Setting up a tent is annoying, so let us handle that all for you. Unfortunatey, our tent cabin bungalows, which were a new addition this year, have already sold out.

Visit www.theuntzfestival.com to snag your tickets, parking passes, RV spots, and most importantly those valuable car camping vouchers, and spread the news to your friends that The Untz Festival is back.

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Tags: DowntempoDrum and BassDubstepGlitchHip HopTrap