Austin's Levitation Highlights Local and International Artists During Four Day Festival
Written by Shelby Schulz | September 29 2026
Photos by Shelby Schulz
During the second weekend of September, music fans gathered in Austin to attend this year’s Levitation festival. Levitation is an annual festival that got its start back in 2008, at the time it was called the Austin Psych Fest. The event was rebranded to Levitation in 2015 in honor of The 13th Floor Elevators, a psych rock band native to Austin who performed at the festival that year. This year, the festival ran for four days and featured a variety of bands, some of which traveled from outside of the US.
In previous years, Levitation was held at the same venue over the course of days, but this year shows spanned across several venues in Austin. Venues that hosted singular concerts throughout the weekend included Mohawk, Stubbs, 13th Floor, 29th Street, and Elysium. Meanwhile, the The Far Out Lounge in South Austin hosted festival lineups that ran from late afternoon to late at night.
Night one at The Far Out Lounge saw a sold out crowd and the lineup was absolutely stacked! Music started at 5 pm and performers included Grocery Bag, Powerplant, Gibby Hanes of Butthole Surfers, Melt Banana, Die Spitz, Sweeping Promises, and Bikini Kill. The two international bands on the lineup that night were Powerplant (London synth punk band) and Melt-Banana (Japanese noise rock band).
The Far Out Lounge has an indoor venue as well, but Levitation was held in the vast outdoor area behind the bar in order to accommodate the large crowds of people there. The venue was so packed that by the end of the night there was hardly an empty spot to be found anywhere. Not only was there live music, but there were vendors set up, selling merch for the festival and its performing bands, food, and drinks. Two separate stages were set up on opposite sides of the venue to allow for quick changeovers between acts and to keep the music going constantly over the course of the evening.
Photos by Shelby Schulz
Throughout the night fans chatted excitedly about what acts they were looking forward to seeing, and discussion could be heard about what other shows downtown people were planning on attending. The bands who performed brought a ton of energy and kept the crowd hyped. Austin-based, all female punk rock band Die Spitz had audience members screaming in excitement when frontwoman Eleanor Livingston climbed down off the stage and jumped the barricade for some crowdsurfing.
Bikini Kill was the final act of night one at the Far Out Lounge, and other acts that held headlining spots during the festival included Austrian artist Mietze Conte, English rock band Temples, Irish post-punk band Gurriers, Japanese artist Takuya Nakamura, European post-punk band Molchat Doma, and Canadian duo Angine de Poitrine. Not only is Levitation a celebration of music, it’s a celebration of artists from across the world.
