San Francisco’s most gloriously unruly warehouse ritual is roaring back for its tenth birthday, and the lineup just got a serious upgrade. Freak Nest has announced that genre-shredding producer, DJ, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Mr. Carmack will join the bill for the 10th Anniversary Festival, alongside a full Dirtybird Records takeover featuring Moody Jones and a rotating cast of Dirtybird guest DJs. The two-day celebration hits Public Works on August 22 and 23, 2026.

If you’ve spent any time in Bay Area warehouse folklore, you already know the drill. Freak Nest first sparked to life in 2016 inside co-founder Taylor Lissandrello’s Dogpatch/Bayview warehouse The Cave, running noon to midnight on a shoestring budget with marching-style bands weaving through the crowd between sets. A decade later, the independently funded festival is back at a bigger scale but with the same DIY heartbeat.

The newly expanded lineup layers heavy-hitters across three stages and forty-plus acts: Mr. Carmack, the Dirtybird takeover with Moody Jones, SunSquabi, Dead Meadow, Sugar Candy Mountain, Shaheri, The Helltones, A-1, Falcons, Afterthought And The Top Chefs, Samson, Baghead, The Blank Tapes, Inspector Gadje, MJ’s Brass Boppers, Gaucho, Justin Waves, Belle and Chain, Michael Musika, Indianna Hale, and plenty more. A Good Duck Records stage takeover rounds things out, along with can’t-miss reunion performances from Coo Coo Birds, Down Dirty Shake, and The Orange Peels.

“Freak Nest immediately felt like the kind of event I want to be part of. Independent, community-driven, and built around real artistic freedom,” says Moody Jones. “Public Works has always been a special room for San Francisco, and the idea of bringing together so many different sounds, scenes, visual artists, performers, and weird, beautiful energy under one roof feels very Bay Area in the best way. I’m pumped to headline because it’s not just another party; it feels like a celebration of music and art without boundaries.”

That ethos has been the whole point from day one. “I got tired of watching the corporate takeover in the music and arts community and wanted to do something about it,” says co-founder Matthias Wesner. “So we called all of our favorite bands from the Bay Area and beyond to put together something different.” Lissandrello adds, “We have been putting our heads together to bring back this festival rooted in musical and artistic inclusiveness and diversity, and we are grateful for the way it has come together.”

Expect the full spectrum across the weekend: live painting, art installations, projections, food, dance, and performances ranging from Balkan brass to deep house, hip hop to bluegrass, psych rock to New Orleans second line, with a whole lot of weird in between.

Get familiar with Mr. Carmack’s genre-blurring catalog before he takes the Public Works stage: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3JmSaZAwjxJRqhFleXAsKA

Freak Nest 10th Anniversary Festival takes place August 22 and 23 at Public Works, San Francisco. Tickets are on sale now — grab yours before the Bay Area beats you to it.