Last weekend, hoards of Brooklynites (alongside a healthy sprinkling of Tri-Staters) carpooled, camped, Amtrak’ed and Airbnb’ed to the charmingly industrial town of Hudson, NY, the perfect backdrop for Basilica Soundscape. The festival, which took place in an 1880s glue factory-turned-performance space, and produced by Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maurr and her husband Tony Stone, marked its fifth anniversary this year and sold out its 1200 person capacity. With musicians like Perfume Genius, The Haxan Cloak, Health, Lydia Ainsworth and Actress, festival co-curators Brandon Stosuy (Pitchfork) and Brian DeRan (Leg Up! Management’s) set the stage for innovate musicians to feel at home aside cultural contemporaries.

Hailed as “the anti festival,” the consensus is that Basilica is a much-needed alternative to commercial music festivals and EDM marathons, instead providing a unique, nurturing environment for non-traditional groups to showcase their art.

Other non-traditional but much appreciated festival offerings included farm-to-table food trucks; large-scale artworks by Dan Colen and Harmony Korine; poetry readings; craft beer on tap (and at reasonable prices); pop up bookstore and zine fair; after parties at nearby dive bar Half Moon; and solar and greening standards. Inside the basilica – a pagan gathering hall in its own way – all elements combined to create an intellectual and accessible backbone from which listening to music feels more like connecting with a movement.