Knockdown Center Announces Second Outline Festival of 2024, Presented in Partnership with Saint Vitus

Today, Knockdown Center announces its second of four Outline festivals for 2024, and the first collaborative effort in the flagship series' four-year history. Presented in partnership with Saint Vitus, the next installment will take place across two stages on June 22nd. Inside, the Queens venue's sprawling Main Hall will feature punk and hardcore from cryptic Detroit collective The Armed, sludgy death-grunge from Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile, and black metal by rising Olympia duo Ragana. Outside in the Ruins, the Saint Vitus Stage will be headlined by brooding doom-rock from Oakland's King Woman, alongside dreamy space-rock by Northwest Indiana's Cloakroom, and a noise-rock blitz from Brooklyn's Couch Slut. 

Tickets for Outline's June edition are available at 12pm ET this Friday, April 5th, following a series of venue pre-sales. Find more information HERE

While no two Outlines are the same, each lineup continues to deliver "catnip for adventurous listeners" (The New York Times), ingeniously curated to highlight different genres from disparate regions, while bringing out the best in both the artists' performances and the venue's physical design. This time, as the focus shifts to face-ripping strains of metal music to match the summer heat, Knockdown Center will mirror the simple mission that has made Saint Vitus one of NYC’s most beloved brands, event producers and partners: to provide a fun and uncompromising environment for the underground music scene to hang out and create.

"When Jeff approached me with the vision for this edition of the OUTLINE festival I jumped at the opportunity. I love the venue and historically we've had a really good working relationship there." says David Castillo, the booker who has hosted Deafheaven, Nirvana, The Descendants, Megadeth, Anthrax and so many more in Saint Vitus' hallowed Greenpoint bar. "It felt like something tangible that we could really lend our voice to while we've been shut. I'm looking forward to an epic day of heavy sounds." 

"Saint Vitus has earned their unambiguous position as the authority on metal in New York City," adds Jeff Klingman, Lead Talent Buyer at Knockdown Center, Creator and Curator of Outline. "Our goal this time out was to present the heaviest edition in Outline series history, so I knew I wanted them to be a part of it. People can't attend shows at Saint Vitus right now, but we can still bring Saint Vitus to the people."

Spanning four distinct, quarterly events over the course of the year, each new edition of Outline further extends the limits of what a venue can be for its artists and audience. This next event in June follows a sold-out, mind-blowing triumph of a performance from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who headlined the festival's 2024 kickoff alongside Alan Sparhawk. Joined by his children Cyrus and Hollis Sparhawk on bass and drums, as well as Shazad Ismally on keys, Sparhawk debuted new material for the first NYC solo show in decades, after transcendent opening sets from Marina Herlop and Maria BC. Follow Knockdown Center on YouTube to see highlights from each set, as well as recent venue appearances from 100 gecs, I Hate Models, Black Country, New Road and more: HERE 

Outline is one of several of Knockdown Center's in-house, fully independent festival series. Along with the techno-focused WIRE and the newly-launched RUSH, it exhibits not only the range of the venue's shifting stages, architectural spaces and creative capabilities, but the trust that visionary artists place in the venue, to seamlessly adapt and translate their ambitions.