Moogfest 2018’s First Talent Announcement includes Chelsea Manning leading Female and Transgender Lineup

Durham, NC, [December 6, 2017] –  Today, Moogfest unveils a festival lineup led by female, non-binary, and transgender artists, including a keynote conversation with privacy rights and political transparency activist Chelsea Manning on The Future of Creativity. The announcement is celebrated by ‘Always On’, a 50-hour livestream presented in partnership with Tom Tom Magazine from Today at 12:00 pm ET to 2:00pm ET on December 8, 2017.

Chelsea Manning’s keynote conversation will explore how technology enables radical disruption in the personal and political spheres, framing the technological future as a new creative landscape. Since its introduction in 2014, the Moogfest keynote has unearthed new perspectives on the future of creativity – tackling questions about how creativity will evolve and what tools will shape creative expression in the future. Like the festival’s namesake, Dr. Bob Moog, these world-renowned thinkers and futurists bring to life the tools and ideas that deepen our existence. Manning follows in the footsteps of other groundbreaking thinkers; past Moogfest keynote speakers include: transhumanist Dr. Martine Rothblatt, VR pioneer Jaron Lanier, Dr. Kate Shaw from the CERN Large Hadron Collider, Harvard’s Dr. Joe Davis, and philosopher Nick Bostrum.

Rounding out today’s announcement, Moogfest reveals some of the artists who will be participating in the festival’s nighttime program including LCD Soundsystem synth experimentalist Gavin Rayna Russom, gender ambiguous theremin virtuoso Armen Ra,Kuwaiti conceptual artist Fatima Al Qadiri, Afrofuturist DJ Maliibu Miitch, hyperkinetic pop maven SOPHIE, and the US debut of revered Japanese multi-instrumentalist Midori Takada. Building on the experimental format of previous years, these artists will participate in Future Sound performances by night complemented by the same artists leading Future Thought workshops, and conversations by day.

Today’s announcement is celebrated by “Always On,” a 50-hour livestream with continuous performances from female, transgender, and non-binary artists.Presented in partnership with Tom Tom Magazine, the livestream highlights the abundance of female, transgender, and non-binary artists actively creating and performing electronic music and beats around the world – from a home-studio in South Africa, to the Moog Factory in North Carolina. The global livestream begins today at 12:00 pm ET and anyone can tune-in for free at http://AlwaysOn.Live. The “Always On” celebration will continue at the festival in May, with some of the artists participating in the livestream also participating at the festival including Goddess of “electronic psychedelic soul” Sassy Black, Discwoman’s middle eastern dance experimentalist DJ Haram, percussive activist Madame Gandhi, avant pop sound sculptor Katie Gately, multi-instrumentalist provocateur Stud1nt, and former Au Revoir Simone hypnotic synth master Annie Hart. Many of these performances will be part of the free and open-to-the-public programming throughout the festival weekend.

Always On and Moogfest 2018 are presented by United Therapeutics, American Underground, and Moog Music with support from Splice.