New Direction Fest is a hardcore/punk community gathering (aka music festival) happening in Olympia, WA August 3rd through 5th. The fest is put together by a group of volunteers that plan both bands and workshops to occur over the entire weekend. The difference between this music fest and others is that each band playing has a political stance that they will talk about during their set and throughout the weekend.

From their website:

"The goal of this fest is to breathe new life into the hardcore tradition of resistance and to push our networks towards a NEW DIRECTION where we can bridge the gap between hardcore values and the application of these values through radical practice." In fact in the band section, each band has a statement of what they will be talking about.

This year will be the second time the fest is happening and man, did the organizers work their butt off!

OI POLLOI (Scotland)
LATTERMAN (Huntington, NY)
RVIVR (Olympia)
RAPE REVENGE (Calgary, Canada)
BRIGADA ROJA (Monterrey, MX)
SKARP (Seattle)
AGATHA (Seattle)
LA BELLA (Los Angeles)
ERODE (Tacoma)
HYSTERICS (Olympia)
OUTLOOK (Olympia)
WRETCHED OF THE EARTH (Portland)
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY (Seattle)
POISON PLANET (Chicago)
MARROW (Tacoma)
BIG EYES (Seattle)
CYNARAE (Seattle)
VENGANZA (Anaheim)
CRUDE THOUGHT (Olympia)
DISPARATE (Olympia)
DEHUMANIZED (Olympia)
KOMATOSE (Arcata)
ADJUSTMENT TO SOCIETY (Olympia)
THE DETONATORS (Eugene, OR)
DICK BINGED (Olympia)
GRIMACE(Seattle)
ISKRA (Victoria, BC)
REIVERS (Oakland)
RESIST AND EXIST (LA)
SOCIALIZED CRUCIFIXTION (SoCal)
SOJOURNER (Tacoma)
STRESSCASE (LA)
UGLY PARTS (New Jersey)

Latterman you guys! LATTERMAN! Megan Seling did a kartwheel when she found out.

BUT THERE IS MORE! Workshops and ticket info after the jump:

*Dismantling Capitalism, Dismantling Patriarchy
*Anarchist and Popular Education Panel
*Radical Healing
*A Brief History of Anti-Fascism in Punk
*Police Reform or Police Abolition?
*Current Social Problems within Punk (and how to solve them)
*Worker Co-operatives
*Urban Guerilla Gardening
*Consent and Boundary Setting
*G.I. Resistance and Coffee Strong
*Labor Struggle in the 21st Century
+more tba

Now here's the information that you want: The show on Friday will be held at The Midnight Sun with doors at 3 pm. Then on Saturday and Sunday the fest will continue at the Eagles Ballroom with doors at 9 am. Here's the tricky part, the only pre-sales available are for the entire 3-day fest at $45. If you want to only go to one of the shows, you have to risk buying a ticket at the door. Once the show is sold out, it's sold out. Day-to-day lineup will be announced on June 30th (same day as the last Undertow show).