Michelle Castano
Editor-in-Chief
Music, art installations and lights oh my! III Points Music festival took place in Wynwood [Miami] from Feb. 15-17. The Wynwood neighborhood is known for its decorated murals that have been graced with artworks from artists including Audrey Kawasaki and Shepard Fairey [OBEY movement].
According to III Points, this eclectic music festival is a platform that showcases Miami’s up and coming music acts, along with local artists from many disciplines, by placing them alongside the greatest musical and artistic minds in the world. Musical acts included Sza, Pussy Riot, Erykah Badu and Yaeji to name a few.
In its sixth year, III Points has become a staple for the Miami community. Originally, the festival took place in mid-October; moreover, this is the first year in which III Points has moved its date to mid-February.
According to Travis Acker, who does public relations for III Points and
dj’s under the pseudo name, “Ackdaddy,” said there were many reasons for
the date change. Not only did October land on hurricane season, there
was also a Zika virus scare at some point.
Festival organizers agreed that February was a better date since it
would be the beginning of festival season. III Points would be like an
appetizer for the following festivals including the SoBe Food and Wine
festival and Ultra music festival.
There were approximately
seven different stages and venues for the artists to perform which were
titled, Mind Melt, Main Frame, Sector 3, Istoropic, Boiler Room (Disco
Halal), Door IV (Extra Credit) and Skate Space
(Space Tapes). The Skate Space room was actually a skating rink were
guests were able to skate around while a DJ was performing his/her set
in the middle of the rink on an elevated cylinder stage. Certain stages
were dedicated to specific genres; for instance,
the Isotropic stage mainly housed electric dance music and techno acts
like Honey Dijon.
Infamous Russian punk
group, Pussy Riot performed on the Sector 3 stage. They are notorious
around the world due to their songs about protesting the Russian
government and President Putin. According to Pussy Riot,
freedom of speech is outlawed in Russia and citizens can even get
incarcerated for liking “memes” on social media.
Their biggest stunt was when they crashed the FIFA World Cup final game
which was prospectively held in Russia. Even though their songs are in
Russian, the English-speaking audience at III Points were able to
decipher what they were signing about through a
video screen where Pussy Riot depicted videos, image, and messages to
the audience.
Sza was slated to perform
on the “Mind Melt” stage. She hinted to the audience that she was going
to produce her second album. Her debut album garnered four Grammy
nominations from the U.S. Recording Academy. Sza
has musical influences of soul, R&B and hip hop. She covered the
famous 90’s song “Kiss Me” from the band “Sixpence None the Richer” and
towards the end of her performance set, she asked the audience what
closing song they wanted to hear. The audience chose
her melodic, striped down song, “20 Something.”
Aside from music, art was
also a focal point for the III Points music festival. Multi-dimensional
artist, known as Haiileen featured site specific installations. Among
her colorful structures, she created a fluorescent
light sculpture inside a shipping container. Her colorful artworks were
the perfect backdrop for the quintessential “music festival picture.”
According to ladderandkey.com, Haiiileen is an interdisciplinary artist who specializes in developing immersive environments that include large-scale light sculptures. Recently, she created an immersive color sensory room, with mostly iridescent silver tones at the Young at Art Museum in Davie, FL.
Further information can be found on the music festivals website,
iiipoints.com or their Instagram handle, titled “iiipoints.”
castm46@mail.broward.edu
Photo: Erykah Badu performing at the Mind Melt stage at III Points. Michelle Castano/The Observer