Attention North Shore and all points beyond! The festival formerly known as Hope Fest now goes by the name of Moon Over Salem. What’s old is new, what’s borrowed is blue…

Moon Over Salem is being run by a new organization called MOON, which is an acronym for something, and “a non-profit dedicated to increasing access to underground music in the greater Salem, MA area.” But really, what’s greater than Salem?

A one-day indie music festival in downtown Salem with six (seven?) stages, plus an art & vintage flea market, is a great way to introduce MOON to the world.

You want to see the lineup? We got the lineup, at least 36 acts strong, with Prince Daddy & The Hyena headlining…

You want tickets? BUY TICKETS HERE. We got tickets of all kind, fest-wide and just for specific venues.

You want a map? We’ve embedded you the map with all the venues: Old Town Hall, Ames Hall, Cinema Salem, Bit Bar, Chagall PAC, Gulu-Gulu Cafe and Koto.

Lineup

Prince Daddy & The Hyena

Actor Observer / Oldsoul / The Rupert Selection / One Fall / Pregame Rituals / Radio Compass / Clay Pigeons / Kal Marks / Winkler / Hell Beach

Ashen Veil / Astral Bitch / Awnthay / Canadian Sailor / Dead Wait / Dropbear / Good June / Happy Just To See You / Jeff Savlon / Jimmy Clifford / Jude Ivy / Kara Holbert Howe / Ladybug / Molly O’Leary / Permanent Blue / Return Address / Saeddyr / Sailor Down / Shabby Two-Times / Shiver. / The Freqs

Plus DJ sets by Healers Co. / Jon Glass / Sir Rollie / sK

Full Schedule

Red Hot Flamin’ Suggestions

You want some recommendations for “Can’t Miss Acts”? Too bad, because the phrase “Can’t Miss Acts” is copyrighted by the Lizzie Borden Family Estate, and is used here only for educational purposes. Let’s provide you with some Red Hot Flamin’ Suggestions instead…

Let’s do the Red Hot Flamin’ Suggestions by stage…

Old Town Hall

The venerable Town Hall is Old. Full of history! On its doorstep, the flea market, and all day long, starting at 1PM, DJs will be spinning. I mean, “spinning” might be metaphorical here, but who knows? Maybe some vinyl makes an appearance? The ones and twooooz! Check out the tripped out, cassette vibe of Healers Co. at 3:30PM.

Ames Hall

Another venerable venue (so much veneration!!!), which had served as a beat-up ol’ basketball gym until it got renovated in 2014. Now it’s “an ideal venue for weddings, private parties, theatrical and musical performances,” and Moon Over Salem, presumably. It will play host to a hard rocking lineup, including the headliner Prince Daddy & The Hyena at 8:30PM.

Catch emo rawkers Return Address (1-1:30PM) straight out of the gate, and 2023 Rock N Roll Rumblers The Freqs (2:10-2:40PM). Dropbear (3:20-3:50) always packs a punch. And both Hell Beach (4:30-5:00PM) and Kal Marks (5:40-6:10PM) have new albums to celebrate.

Why not just mention Actor Observer too to mention every damn band playing on this stage? You could spend all day at this one venue. And the good news, more music is scheduled in other parts of town after the headliner concludes at Ames Hall.

Cinema Salem

Love this photo that Moon Over Salem selected for the Cinema Salem profile pic. Looks seedy! Which only adds to the ambience of a 7-band bill, opening with Shiver. (1:35-2:05PM), a band with a period at the end of its name.

Good June brings the emo rock. Astral Bitch updates vintage hard rock sounds. Winkler trends toward pure pop with some folky complexifications. And oldsoul wails hard.

Bit Bar

Bit Bar is one of those bar-meets-arcade concepts, which is great fun. New games, old games, vintage games…

The venue was used last year for Hope Fest as well, taking over the smaller front room for an afternoon slate (worked great!) and setting up in the corner of the larger backroom for an evening slate (worked terribly!).

To be honest, the evening slate last year was a little bit of a mess. There was no clear demarcation between stage and audience, which works fine for your average DIY shows, but not for a room that’s half-full of bachelorette parties getting their swerve on. Moon Over Salem is opting for just an afternoon slate at Bit Bar this year, which is probably for the best.

What kind of music slate? Indie rock with a touch of twee. Sailor Down (2-2:30PM) is celebrating a new album, Maybe We Should Call It A Night. Happy Just To See You lives up to its name, a real upper of a band. And Radio Compass delivers trim dream pop.

Gulu-Gulu Cafe

If you’re beat by evening, want to grab a seat, maybe a coffee/scone combo too, Gulu-Gulu Cafe is your spot. Bohemian coffeeshop extraordinaire – a wonderful place to write a terrible novel. The lineup features acts in a more folky and traditional register. The bill ends with a bang courtesy of the bluegrassy quartet Clay Pigeons, featuring Conor Ryan Hennessy, Paul Simion, Luke Hanlin, and Ryan Fess.

Chagall PAC

Chagall PAC was Chagall PACKED at last year’s Hope Fest. Great bands, small venue. And ‘venue’ is pushing it, considering the set up is more like a high end tourist tchotchke shop. In other words, a random set up that feels like a DIY gig should. Be careful not to knock over any porcelain squirrel salt & pepper shakers because they are high art and fragile and expensive.

We predict that the place will hit capacity for the Awnthay set. And raucous closer Pregame Rituals is exactly the wrong band to place this spot, full of porcelain trinkets, if the pit antics at their Deep Cuts show are any clue. Hold on to your drink!

Koto

Koto Asian Fusion has the late night Moon Over Salem lineup. The restaurant offers specialty sushi rolls, Asian dishes, sake & cocktails, plus a pretty healthy schedule of underground music. Just like their sister restaurant in Lowell!

Saeddyr (9:45-10:15PM) describes themselves as “dark folk fairy metal.” Which sounds pretty gnarly. We missed Ashen Veil at Somergloom 2023 due to one or more of their members testing Covid-19 positive before the fest. Hopefully that won’t happen again (though they say that the virus is bouncing back to some degree).

Man, are we really going to end the Moon Over Salem preview on a downer Covid-19 note? Hellz no! Go see the fest closer and mellifluous and melodic hardcore rawkers One Fall.  

Find out more at Moon Over Salem.