photo by Marjorie Becker

If you thought that chiptunes were the soundtrack of the nostalgic nerd set, well, you’d be right.  But the music genre, which is comprised of compositions crafted on old gaming consoles like the Commodore 64, Game Boy, or NES, continues to grow and thrive, and its Woodstock, Blip Festival, returns to the Big Apple.

The three-day music and arts festival will rock Brooklyn’s Bell House December 17th, 18th, and 19th and is presented by Manhattan arts organization The Tank, in partnership with NYC artist collective 8bitpeoples. Tickets are $15 per day, or $40 bucks for all three days.

Besides neo-retro music, festival-goers can take in daytime workshops, film screenings, and open mic events — all in an open, friendly, all-ages atmosphere, accessible to the hardcore chiptuner and the newcomer. The scheduled line up of artists looks awesome.

12 17 • THURSDAY

• 8:00 pm · Silent Requiem · Jean Y. Kim

• 8:40 pm · failotron · Paris

• 9:20 pm · Leeni · VBLANK

• 10:00 pm · minusbaby · Enso

• 10:40 pm · Chromix · The C-Men

• 11:20 pm · Je Deviens DJ en 3 Jours · NO CARRIER

• 12:00 md · Albino Ghost Monkey · outpt

• 12:40 am · Eat Rabbit · Rosa Menkman

12 18 • FRIDAY

• 1:00 pm · screening: _Reformat The Planet_

• 2:00 pm · workshop: SID chip synthesis workshop with VBLANK

• 8:00 pm · Disasterpeace · Enso

• 8:40 pm · Starscream · Jean Y. Kim

• 9:20 pm · Fighter X · outpt

• 10:00 pm · little-scale · Rosa Menkman

• 10:40 pm · I, Cactus · VBLANK

• 11:20 pm · Nullsleep · Rosa Menkman & Paris

• 12:00 md · Rainbowdragoneyes · The C-Men

• 12:40 am · Patric C · NO CARRIER

12 19 • SATURDAY

• 2:00 pm · screening: _Reformat The Planet 1.5_ + selected videos

• 2:00 pm · presentation: Classic Sound Chips to Virtual Instruments

• 3:00 pm · workshop: Open Source Solutions for Live Visuals

• 8:00 pm · The J. Arthur Keenes Band · Rosa Menkman & Enso

• 8:40 pm · tRasH cAn maN · Jean Y. Kim & Paris

• 9:20 pm · Bubblyfish · NO CARRIER & outpt

• 10:00 pm · The Hunters (music & visuals)

• 10:40 pm · glomag · The C-Men & VBLANK

• 11:20 pm · Bit Shifter · outpt & Enso

• 12:00 md · David Sugar · NO CARRIER & VBLANK

• 12:40 am · Psilodump · Paris & The C-Men

For full details, descriptions, & admission information, visit: blipfestival.org/2009/schedule

In addition, there will be a  Fan Video Contest where filmmakers, videographers, ytmnders, animators and interested amateurs are invited to take their own crack at capturing the Blip Festival in a viral bliplet! You can read more details and rules at:

http://blipfestival.org/2009/blog/11/20/blip-your-own-adventure-fan-video-contest/

Rock out, nerds and nerdettes.