Festivalgoers sing and dance along to the live music at the 2025 Transformance music festival held at Look Park in Northampton. The festival returns on Aug. 18 with the theme, “Transformance: Moonage Daydream – A Look to Space.”
Reminder Publishing file photo
NORTHAMPTON — A beloved end-of-summer music festival and community fundraiser is coming back to Northampton with an out-of-this-world theme.
“Transformance: Moonage Daydream – A Look to Space” lands at the Pines Theater at Look Park on Aug. 18 from 4:30-9:30 p.m. with a concert that benefits Northampton Public Schools.
Formally known to longtime fans as Transperformance, the single-day event invites the Pioneer Valley’s most talented musicians to step into the shoes of legendary artists and “transform” into them through cover performances from all-time bands and performers.
This year’s theme, “Moonage Daydream – A Look to Space,” honors humans’ place in the cosmos, featuring local acts channeling intergalactic superstars, cosmic pioneers and astral icons, according to organizers. Northampton Arts Council Arts Events Producer Steve Sanderson told Reminder Publishing that this year’s theme aligns perfectly with the historic Artemis II NASA flyby mission that took place earlier this year and opens the door to covering performances by artists who have incorporated space into their work.
“This idea came right up to the forefront immediately during and after the last space mission to the moon. Artemis II. That was so exciting earlier this year that I thought we needed to acknowledge it somehow, and ‘Moonage Daydream’ was just the best title for a theme. We could incorporate some David Bowie, Mr. Starman himself, but we could also incorporate every other band that had anything to do with outer space or something planetary, or the moon,” said Sanderson. “Just to watch and get to be a fly on the wall and see what those astronauts saw when spinning around the dark side of the moon is just so awe-inspiring that I thought we had to keep it alive and keep going with it, and it made it the perfect year for this theme.”
The Transformance 36 lineup features 18 bands, including performances from the Ian St. George Band as David Bowie, The Friendship Band as Dark Start Orchestra, BUNNIES as Mazzy Star, King Radio as the Guardians of the Galaxy (Awesome Mixtapes), Rival Galaxies as LCD Soundsystem, Gundy + Magic Carpet Band as Pink Floyd with a “Dark Side of the Moon” medley, RADIO the Band performing the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Greys as Freddie Mercury.
Sanderson said the space theme should create another great festival atmosphere. He added that people are encouraged to eat, hang out and connect during the show.
“The gaps between people are always much smaller than we think they are. We live in an age where social media and media in general are constantly trying to drive us apart because they get more reaction from us when they piss us off, so they constantly are trying to get us upset about something and the result is we feel like there’s a greater space between us, and there’s not,” he said. “Getting people together through music, to enjoy music together, to make music together, might be the solution to fend off this spinning out of orbit that’s going on with us these days.”
First established in 1991 as “Lookstock,” Transformance serves as a crucial fundraising engine for local arts and education. One hundred percent of organizational proceeds directly fund arts enrichment in Northampton Public Schools and local parent-teacher organizations. The money provides instruments, workshops and creative opportunities for students across the district. Sanderson, who works directly with the city’s musically creative youth in various capacities, said this has always been a passion of his.
“My favorite thing is to work with young bands. My favorite thing is to nurture young artists to start their own bands. I work with the music department at Northampton High all the time, and I’m constantly trying to inspire young people to go out, write a song, get a gig, play, pretend to be somebody else. Just get up and play,” Sanderson said.
He added that the event is successful because of three main ingredients: the community, the Pines Theater and the musicians who donate their time to the show. He added that he hopes to see another great turnout of people all over the valley.
“They [artists] do it for a couple of reasons, one because this is benefiting the local schools and everyone can agree that kids’ arts education is just about the most important thing that we could nurture. The other one is they love the challenge, and most artists you will find have favorite bands that they always kind of wanted to just adopt the persona of and pretend to be them for a night,” Sanderson said. “That’s a lot of the allure for these bands, because these bands are putting in months of rehearsal. When they show up to play, sometimes you can close your eyes, and you don’t know the difference between them and the actual band they’re transforming into.”
Tickets for the event are available for advance purchase online at zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/transformance–36. All sales are final, as ticket purchases directly support arts programming. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets. Per Look Park rules, pets, coolers and outside beverages are prohibited. Look Park charges a $10 special events vehicle entry fee for non-season pass holders.
For more information on the event or the Northampton Arts Council, visit northamptonartscouncil.org.
