As the humid haze of August gives way to the first whispers of autumn, New York City prepares for its annual Labor Day weekend rituals. For most, it is a final, sun-drenched escape. But for a dedicated global tribe, it marks a pilgrimage inward, a descent into the cool, resonant depths of the city’s sonic underground. They will converge on the Bowery Ballroom, a landmark of musical history, their silhouettes a stark and elegant contrast to the city’s vibrant chaos. This is the congregation for A Murder of Crows Festival, and this year, the gathering is special.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the 2025 festival has evolved far beyond a simple concert series. It now stands as a cultural institution—a sanctuary for a sound and an aesthetic that thrive in the shadows, a reunion for a diaspora connected by echoing guitars and melancholic melodies, and a vital artery for the international goth and post-punk scene. This year’s two-night event will not be merely a lineup of bands; it will be a testament to a decade of community, resilience, and the enduring power of what the festival’s own organizers have called “dark elegance and moody melodies.”

A Murder of Crows Festival: A Scene’s Sanctuary

The story of A Murder of Crows Festival begins not in New York, but thousands of miles away in Leipzig, Germany, amidst the sprawling, mesmeric grounds of Wave Gotik Treffen, the world’s largest gothic festival. It was there that Sean Templar, a veteran New York DJ and promoter, found his inspiration.

During an afterparty, a “very organic” conversation sparked between Templar and fellow international DJs Dave Bats of Los Angeles’s famed Release the Bats night and Martin Oldgoth from the United Kingdom. They shared a passion and a frustration: New York, a city with a deep counter-cultural history, was missing out on the incredible artists and the profound sense of community they experienced in Europe. The initial vision was disarmingly simple and pure, born not of commercial ambition but of a desire to connect. As Templar later recounted, “It really was a great excuse to get all our friends over for a party.”

That simple idea took root in the fertile ground of a scene Templar was already cultivating. Through The Red Party, his long-running and influential club night, he had carved out a dedicated space for goth and post-punk at a time when the music was often “relegated to the back rooms” of other venues. The Red Party’s success proved a demand existed, and its stubborn persistence helped foster a new era for the city’s dark alternative scene.

A Murder of Crows was the logical, ambitious next step. It began humbly in 2015 as a one-day event at the Mercury Lounge, featuring just a handful of bands and DJs. By 2016, it had already expanded to a two-day affair, and its evolution continued with the addition of an official opening pre-party and, in a nod to its growing global audience, a closing 12-hour DJ stream on Twitch.

This steady growth from a four-band bill to a multi-day, internationally recognized event demonstrates more than just popularity; it signifies the festival’s role as a stabilizing force. Through its establishment as a reliable, high-profile annual gathering, A Murder of Crows Festival provides an anchor for the local scene and a beacon for the international community. Its decade of existence serves as proof of the subculture’s sustained health, countering any notion that it is a movement sustained by nostalgia alone.

The Class of 2025: A Curated Cacophony

For its tenth anniversary, A Murder of Crows Festival returns to the venerable Bowery Ballroom, a venue whose history is steeped in the very rock traditions from which post-punk emerged. The 2025 lineup has been, as Templar describes, “carefully hand-picked” to honor this milestone, blending foundational legends with the genre’s most compelling modern practitioners.

The Pillars of Post-Punk & The Godfathers of Gloom

Headlining the first night are Pink Turns Blue, a band whose story is inextricably linked to the genre’s European genesis. Formed in 1985 in a divided, Cold War-era Berlin, their sound was forged in an atmosphere of “fear and uncertainty,” becoming a milestone in the development of darkwave. Their debut album, ‘If Two Worlds Kiss,’ is considered a seminal work, and their continued relevance is underscored by a world tour in support of their latest album, ‘BLACK SWAN.’ Their presence at A Murder of Crows Festival highlights the festival’s crucial transatlantic connection, bringing a pillar of the German scene to a New York stage.

Juxtaposing this European influence is a foundational American act, 45 Grave. Hailing from the Los Angeles punk scene of 1979, the band, fronted by the inimitable Dinah Cancer, is recognized by institutions like the Grammy Museum, which lists them among the “early proponents of American Gothic Rock.” Their sound, that the Dallas Observer once memorably described as a “ghoulish fusion of Alice Cooper and Black Flag,” married punk’s raw energy with a B-horror movie aesthetic, helping to define the deathrock subgenre. Their inclusion is a nod to the uniquely American roots of a sound that is often seen as primarily British and European.

The New Guard and Enduring Innovators

Leading the charge of the modern scene is Athens, Georgia’s Vision Video. The band’s profound resonance comes in large part from the stark authenticity of frontman Dusty Gannon. A former Army paramedic who served in Afghanistan and later worked as a civilian firefighter, Gannon channels his experiences with trauma, mortality, and the search for stability into the band’s thematic core.

This “authentic gravitas” elevates their music—aptly described as “dance music for the end times”—from homage to urgent, contemporary catharsis. While their sound honors influences like The Cure and The Chameleons, their message is a powerful demonstration of the genre’s capacity for processing the anxieties of the modern world.

Joining them is a diverse array of artists who showcase the genre’s stylistic breadth. Seattle’s Nox Novacula brings a raw energy to the stage, with a sound that channels modern anxieties and is praised for its incendiary live show. From San Francisco comes Altar De Fey, a band that represents a piece of living history. An original 1980s deathrock act that released no music during their initial run, they reunited in 2011 to finally build the discography they never had, offering a direct link to the genre’s most obscure origins.

The lineup is further enriched by the atmospheric architects of the scene. Detroit’s Ritual Howls contributes their signature cinematic blend of industrial-rock and dark Americana. California-based solo project Soft Vein, which will also be performing as a special guest at Glōm Fest in San Francisco, offers a sound that shifts between visceral danger and dark romanticism. Miami’s Astari Nite brings an “emotionally raw” take on goth rock, while Hallowed Hearts and the newly formed Octavian Winters represent the genre’s continued evolution in darkwave and ethereal post-punk.

The strategic placement of A Murder of Crows Festival on the calendar reveals its influence extends far beyond the confines of the Bowery Ballroom. Both Pink Turns Blue and Vision Video have extensive North American tours scheduled around the festival, with the A Murder of Crows Festival serving as a crucial, high-profile anchor date.

For an international act like Pink Turns Blue, a guaranteed packed house at a prestigious New York festival can make an entire transatlantic tour logistically and financially viable. For a domestic band like Vision Video, it serves as a marquee event that elevates the profile of all surrounding dates. The festival, therefore, does not just reflect the scene; it actively facilitates and shapes the movement of its artists across the continent, functioning as a vital nexus for the entire subculture’s touring economy.

More Than Music: The Festival Experience

What truly defines A Murder of Crows Festival is the palpable sense of community that will permeate the weekend. The experience begins before the first band takes the main stage, with a pre-party at Queens venue TV Eye, featuring performances from The Long Losts and The Brickbats. This event serves as an informal kickoff, a place for old friends who may only see each other once a year to reconnect. This communal atmosphere is sustained throughout the main festival by a roster of international DJs who spin between sets, transforming moments of transition into a continuous celebration of the club culture from which the scene was born.

The festival also fosters a space for the scene’s creators through the “Dark Market,” a vendor space previously described by the publication Obscura Undead as offering “a darker approach to shopping clothing, merchandise, and memorability.” In past years, this market has demonstrated the festival’s social conscience—for instance, a 2019 edition saw 100% of vendor fees donated to The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, an organization dedicated to combating prejudice and hate crimes. This commitment elevates the gathering from a commercial enterprise to a community event with a clear moral compass.

Ultimately, the festival is for the attendees, a tribe that travels from across the country and the world. Past events have been described as “deliriously joyful,” with constantly packed dance floors. It is a space where, as one DJ noted, a collection of “like-minded souls” are bound together by the music, forming a unique kind of family. The sentiment is echoed in online forums, where attendees consistently praise the event, with one regular simply stating, “MoC is always a good time.”

Conclusion

The tenth anniversary of A Murder of Crows Festival celebrates more than just a milestone. It celebrates the persistence of a vision born from a late-night conversation in Leipzig. It celebrates a community’s power to build and sustain its own cultural home in a city that is constantly changing. And most of all, it celebrates what Sean Templar has called the “love from our tribe.” For two nights at the end of summer, the Bowery Ballroom will not just be a venue; it will be a symbol, pulsating with a decade of darkness and devotion.

The tenth-anniversary edition of the New York Post-Punk & Gothic Music Festival will kick off with a pre-party on Thursday, August 28, 2025, at TV Eye in Ridgewood, Queens, featuring performances by The Long Losts and The Brickbats. The main festival unfolds over the following two nights, Friday, August 29, and Saturday, August 30, at the Bowery Ballroom, located at 6 Delancey Street in Manhattan. Doors for the main event open at 7:00 PM each night, and entry is restricted to those 21 and over with a valid State or Federal ID.

The lineup for the first night includes headliners Pink Turns Blue, alongside Ritual Howls, Soft Vein, Astari Nite, and Hallowed Hearts. Saturday, August 30th will feature 45 Grave, Vision Video, Altar De Fey, Nox Novacula, and Octavian Winters.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased through Ticketmaster. A two-day pass is available in advance for $93.60, including fees before taxes. Single-day tickets are priced at $45 in advance and $50 on the day of the show.