Exclusive: On Air Fest Announces 2025 Lineup, Including James Austin Johnson, the Kid Mero

By Precious Fondren

On Air Fest, the festival that brings creators from music, film, photography, and other forms of media together to explore the relationship between audio and storytelling, on Thursday announced the first wave of its lineup and locations for its 2025 festival. 

Saturday Night Live’s James Austin Johnson, the Kid Mero, Alex Goldman, Modern Love host Anna Martin, and New York Times staff writer and podcast host Jenna Wortham are just a few names who will descend on the Wythe Hotel and a slew of other new venues in Brooklyn for intimate talks, performances, exhibitions, and live podcast tapings, according to a press release. 

“We host a business summit for the podcast industry, but at the core, it’s really about creators and creative professionals who maybe don’t work in audio looking for inspiration and want to take cues from audio or who are audio-curious,” Scott Newman, the festival’s founder and director, tells BKMAG. “We get to bring a lot of people together to explore, what is social media? Where is it going to be in the future? And what is a live performance? We have so many creative media available to us, and we do all of that.”

This year’s festival is set to happen from Feb. 19 to 21, and will expand into spaces including the XXV, National Sawdust, and the 74Wythe rooftop.

“If you have been following the podcast industry, the big revolution is the video element to audio podcasting,” Newman says. “So we’ll be doing live tapings and capturing video, as well, for all the shows. As you move through the hotel, we’re activating [the rooms] in a number of ways.”

Newman says several of the new locations will also be used for events such as film screenings, live music and poetry performances, and even an “ASMR sonic experience,” where people will be served a drink and be able to hear inside the beverage.

“There’ll be contact mics inside the glass,” Newman explains, “so you can actually hear what it’s like to be a piece of ice inside of a mixologist creation.”

In recent months, a slew of big-name podcasters have been able to nab big paydays, but Newman says On Air Fest is less focused on where the industry is headed and more concerned with delving deep into the roles of sound and audio themselves. He’s most excited about a live immersive multimedia performance that’ll explore the conspiracies related to sound and what it does to our bodies scientifically.

“I think what we find the most encouraging is that so many independent voices and so many creative thinkers are still bringing innovation and storytelling and reporting to the medium, and that’s where we’d like the focus to be,” Newman says. “Obviously, coming off an election year, there’s a lot of conversation around the role of media in the election. No doubt podcasting is a big part of that. But as a festival, our mission really is to explore creativity, showcase storytellers, open up people’s minds, and challenge their thinking about the potential of sound—how can audio be a tool to shape a project?”

Learn more about On Air Fest.