Lake Lanier at Break Free Fest | photo by Megan Matuzak for WXPN
Scenes from Break Free Fest 2025
The annual festival centering BIPOC artists in punk and hardcore returned to Philly’s Foto Club.
Break Free Fest is an annual festival celebrating and centering BIPOC voices in punk and hardcore. For its seventh year, the event took over Foto Club in the Philadelphia’s Kensington Section, bringing two days of high-octane music and fiercely independent culture to fans on July 14th and 15th.
Brainwashed
Hardcore five-piece Brainwashed repped Philly on the lineup. The band released their self-titled debut project last year, delivering five songs in eight minutes.
Foco
Hailing from New York City, Foco fuses metal with Chicano rock. A string of demos released over the course of 2024 is available on Bandcamp.
Lake Lanier
The New York hardcore band Lake Lanier does not have any recorded music available on streaming, but have made an impact on the scene nonetheless, particularly with their presence on Instagram and TikTok.
Psyop
Washington, D.C. punk outfit Psyop returned this year with Defector, their first project in two and a half years. They say their music circles around themes of “collapsing cities, class warfare, and the deterioration of the self.”
FULANO!
Brooklyn’s FULANO! has been active since 2023 with a mantra of “FUCK THE POLICE, FUCK THE PIPELINE, FOR THE PEOPLE, FREE THE PEOPLE, FUCK THE PHONIES.” A week after Break Free Fest, they released their latest single, “Heart Drum.”
UNIITY
Fronted by Philadelphia native Raven Clark, Cleveland’s UNIITY self-describes as a “genre warping avant-pop/electro-punk” project whose “mission and legacy is the unification of the emerging scene of independent, predominantly LGBTQIA+ & POC women in avant garde pop and punk.” The band’s 2022 debut HIIVES and a more recent single can be found on Bandcamp.
