When one thinks of the “new internet”, it might be easy to think of algorithmic pipelines and automatically curated feeds, but over five days, those behind the URL festival “Zest Fest” showed that, to its coterie of artists and listeners, it means something very different.

Thanks to the efforts of HexD artist, AmyReal, and her niche YouTube channel, as well as Cody (fka Richard Nixon Tickle Torture) and Departure from The Sleep Dealers, networking countless artists that comprise the “new internet”, ranging from unknown Bandcamp oddities to foundational names in the online sphere, connected by either community or style, including those known to be purveyors of footwork, vaporwave, fifth-wave emo, cloud rap and many more.

“The new internet, as most people understand it, is this sort of loose movement or circle of dozens of artists who have known each other, worked, or engaged in similar circles with each other over the last half decade or so. We all kind of started in different places but all ended up here, which I think means a lot,” explained Departure in great detail over Discord.

“It was started by Lindsey or Guinevere Laurent, who describes this sort of internet-oriented sound of extremely dense, synthetic, epic/sound collage-influenced music that sometimes borrows from pop conventions of composition. She has her own list for it and I think some of the people in the movement fit into that definition but some of them also do not.”

The festival also further uplifted the fabric of culture outside of this immediate corner, with sponsoring charities ranging from DJs Against Disease, Immigrant Defense Project, Heal Palestine, and Garitas Venezuela given full attention for specific days.

DAY ONE

Symposiums of sonic surrealism ooze out of every composition played by Volovec on the first day, revealed to be another member of The Sleep Dealers alongside the organisers, performing under their previously untraceable DJ Beaver of Fear moniker for the morning shift, opening with a sample describing failed beaver rehabilitation, presented through a mallsoft lens and laden with FX to bring attention to something potentially unnerving in translation.

The set bellows out on a looping plunderphonic glow of strings and piano that tells a multifaceted tale of an inter-rodent holocaust with extraterrestrial sound elements. Everything is funnelled out by a metallic tunnel of echoing pop sampling.

In the “new internet” sounds can come from unexpected places, some far from their point of origin. Welsh artist meuh is a case in point, with their monolith of blasted chopped and screwed that could cause an old “Screwston” car to rattle for the final time. The set is tapered by reworkings of old trap mixed with production leaning on the edge of industrial that ascends the inspirations to something transformational.

As the first day turned over to the night shift, listeners were given the pleasure of hearing some of the most beautifully crafted fifth-wave emo of the event a little later. Foxxmonger opened up their set with acoustic confessionals that feel like well-crafted unplugged 1990s feel-good alternative. Their voice shook with a perfect tambour over guitars warping in dream pop fashion – the set progressing into serene acoustic melodies over sound effects that never feel out of place with such vulnerable storytelling, the artist’s efforts building to a heartbreaking peak of synth arrangements.

Listeners also awaited the arrival of perhaps the biggest act of the entire event. Bay Area native, Kreayshawn, came to rise through her work in music and videography during the rise of the cloud rap and hyphy scenes at the precipice of the 2010s. Her own strain of this sound was the very inspiration of many artists who were sharing the spotlight with her.

It came as a surprise when the set in question turned out to be a DJ mix she made in 2015 that heavily mixed various children show themes with jersey club. These old humorous efforts blended surprisingly well with the newer crop, being one of the early outliers of the jersey club revival that currently dominates many emerging styles in the new internet.

DAY TWO

The longest set of the event emerged on the second morning, spanning over an hour, heavensouls delighted with fresh material. The Texas Nigerian-born artist is gaining traction for some of the glitchiest and chaotically complex production, opening with textural embraces of 454 and Janet Jackson vocals leading to a neo-soul cascade of sharp guitars and ethereal reverberations of pop girlie vocal loops.

Aspects of this mix are reminiscent of his earlier 2026 release, Westside Trapped, with the inclusion of glittering piano over rumbling bongos or the more instrumental cut from the single Shipping Times and Quiet Streets which will soon find a permanent home in his upcoming EP “Cantu” of the Sower.

Yet in the always-improving spirit of the “new internet” circle, heavensouls somehow picks holes in an objectively impressive set, stating in Discord, “that shit was garbage im puttin out better trust.”

With a relative newcomer came another veteran artist. DJ Elmoe is cited as one of the original players of Chicago footwork, and hearing his effortless off-centre flow of soul and jazz are enough to conclude that the genre would not be at such an experimental point without talents such as him.

During the night shift, shaskee’s set opened up to a dissonant ethereal glow of vapor drone, eclipsed with serenading clippings of diced R&B, reminiscent of the LA beat scene pushed into a more drone-y place, providing a salve to the more chaotic sets. Starting in signalwave, he’s now pushing forward.

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“The main thing I can personally say that is helping me from producing vaporwave to the style I do now is the use of the same, if not, similar effects and plugins in my DAW,” explained shaskee. “With most of the vaporwave I produce, the samples are mainly on tempo with the grid, so when being introduced to the main style I do now, that being tapemusic, I’m learning how to chop samples off the grid alongside swinging my drums when drum programming.”

Although the Californian final boss of nerd rap is known for said descriptor, Celestaphone surprised even his most familiar listeners. A loud collage emerges with gorgeous flutes, synths, and pianos moulding together with analogue sampling. His amusing funk rap sounds like a castaway Adult Swim pilot.

A noticeable aspect within this set is the return to full-on instrumental, something that Celestaphone rarely puts out there since the days of Portrait of a Harlot; each section drifting like multiple bodies of funk, soundtracks, and old school synthwave sharing a lazy susan, accompanied there by various hardcore hip hop bars, instead of relying on his own high-concept lyricism.

Playing into the “new internet” trend of mashing near-enough anything, Departure’s set unveiled a new venture entirely. The Screwston-Jamrock Crossroads smoothly moulds the laidback tape experimentation of Houston chopped and screwed and the “loud” peace-loving dialectics of dancehall. The name itself is no half-measure either, referencing the Texan-Christian post-rock masterminds, Lift to Experience.

“I talked at length about the history regarding the Columbian Exchange and how it influenced the existence of SLAB and sound system culture mainly to emphasise that these things truly could not exist without that history, as unfortunate and barbaric and dehumanising as that history is.” explained Departure. “I know that chopped and screwed dancehall on its own exists as Screw has done it before, but to my knowledge nobody has ever combined the two genres on the level that I have, where they’re being mashed together and then screwed on top of that.”

DAY THREE

The morning of day 3 would fill up with smooth waves of transcendental voices and industrial scrapings as Louyana set provided their signature flavoring of dark psytrance, a genre that has yet to find a permanent anchor on the internet, though the artist did a fine job introducing those unaware. At one point, the set then exploded into a supernova of warped waves of sexual gratification from a disembodied voice.

Then in contrast, arrived the most traditionally instrumental set in Zest Fest 3. Voraciously pontificating on the concept of God being a “fetishist” (and by proxy…why shouldn’t he be?) proceeding to drag the listeners into a nightmarish salvia trip with her fluttering piano to the likes of Julius Eastman, Zodiac on the Wing somehow coalesces jazz fusion with twee emo in a method only she could conceive.

From a chamber point of view, it’s a set that packs a poetic combo, seamlessly thrashing between one of the uneasiest interpretations of a sitcom ever put into audio and some of the most beautiful instrumental jazz compositions of the year.

Similar to heavensouls, Zodiacs on the Wing would release this set enclosed inside of their third full-length, The Shriek at Assisi.

This queer-dependent wrath carries over into the night shift with Cherri; an intense attack of industrial performance performed live on video featuring a corner adorned with a backdrop of a bare mattress leaning on the wall with a random chair and table likely thrifted from an unknown source.

Cherri appears on video stooping over a small table of feedback loops and synthesizers to produce overtly confrontational industrial music with a crystal-clear queer undertone.

Then dripping in and overflowing with pure enthusiasm and nostalgia nearing surreality, comes the mainstay of outsider house, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ high energy as always. The mix was immersive; images of an expansive escapade of waterfront coffee shops next to old video stores came to mind as easily as the artist blends the unique plunderphonic sound.

DAY FOUR

As if house and trance didn’t put the URL crowd into enough of a headphone-based headspin, in comes ✿ 111loggedin // xxenaa ♡ for the morning shift of day 4, with their highly lucrative and flowery mix of trance, breakcore, techno, and hardgroove.

The set opens up with breakcore that builds upon until the entire composition morphs into a glorious strut of trance and techno. Despite GROOVE 002 dropping just three years ago, with the vitality at which they approach the set, it’s as if decades have passed in between then and now.

Lo-fi live recordings of feral synth punk and minimal wave set off the night shift with the Argentinian Str4keys. A truly chaotic moderation from the down under of Latin America, the set dips into a shearing noise set that resounds like a set of chains being dragged into a vortex. This opens up to a more minimal wave passage of gentle instrumentation and calming vocals, leading to a dancier groove.

Both artists provide a perfect example of sonic diversity at Zest Fest; from the glittery and slick heavens of ✿ 111loggedin // xxenaa ♡ to the subterranean tunnels and abrasive erosions of Str4keys.

DAY FIVE

What may be one of the strangest interpretations of sound collage and hauntology, the morning shift of day 5 would include a set from the 16 year old Pennsylvanian, consolation arts, with random intrusions of screaming and an awkward livestream phone call of off-putting desperation.

The final “veteran artist” to be hosted on the third Zest Fest would appear on the final night shift, that being the Florida queen of web-centric trance herself, Kitty Ray. Although her set wasn’t an archive from the mid 2010s like her Kreayshawn contemporary, her fresh mix pulled from a frutiger-coloured throwback of feminine nostalgia primarily in the 1990s and 2000s, getting specific with content that she herself grew up on.

Yet similarly, her set would build into a squishy, expressive playpen of DIY house, techno, and trance technique perfected over years of experience. In many ways, certain passages feel like background audio to some ancient Windows Movie Maker slideshows dumped onto YouTube, paying homage to this infant period and how it shaped her artistic outlook. Just as those days gave rise to the rough and unfinished community nature of the internet, so too does this festival unintentionally provide artists a chance to try things out and be unafraid of incompleteness.

Of course, what better day than to have the Latin artists come out swinging for the final day? The Venezuela Earthquake Relief was the charity. And the dutiful troops of Dexonia, Unidos X La Cumbia, and BrittneyGore would descend like Cramptonian disciples by expanding the timeless blueprint with their dazzling Frankensteins of western pop and rap songs with Cumbia and Latin Electronic; too variable to truly pinpoint.

Some leaned more minimalistic while others took the maximalist route with glee, providing a major cultural branch to the new internet movement with just as striking inclusivity as given to artists in Europe and North America; the new frontier for the international Latin youth to express themselves in a post-Crampton fashion freely through the internet.

All of this was a breadcrumb trail to one of the final acts of Zest Fest 3, hinted at by Brittneygore, who sampled their legendary 2025 NTS mix Miren Miren Guayo.

The long-awaited weed420 set opened up with a fractured chopped and screwed passage that locked into an ethereal breeze of that classic weed420 richness of Venezuelan recontextualization. Textures slow down, warp, and expand, growing into a more futuristic, dance-ready percussion.

Then the set dipped into shoegazy rock that transitions into more unique Cumbia combinations. As with anything the group has released in the last few years, their music speaks directly to the people of Venezuela in the hidden messages stamped onto the sampling.

It goes beyond just Zest Fest back to the start of this community, as Departure gestures to: “For me the sort of informal declaration that made it a real thing was when we (The Sleep Dealers) teamed up with weed420 for the mix we would make for DJs Against Disease’s first URLfest.”

“We made a server for that which was initially just for Dealers x weed420 x 7Form because Cody and I had started working and talking more closely with Octa and Janis, then we started opening it up and inviting more of our colleagues to be a part.”

The third Zest fest would end on a radical fusion of cloud rap and alternative R&B performed by Australian-born mmryxloss, directly leading into a gaming livestream of AmyReal discussing the earliest of next steps of Zest Fest 4 in the summer of 2027.

Zest Fest isn’t just these “five days of peace”. In the backdrop of the event, long-lasting bonds were forged, leading to future projects that may have never been realized otherwise. It’s the tried and true example of events like this strengthening the scene – and scenes within scenes – they platform.

And even the veterans are taking notice. “Watching these young artists work together on a virtual grassroots event  was so refreshing and affirming. There is a frenetic passion within this scene that feels so similar to what we had in the early 2010s, when I first started releasing music,” said Kitty Ray to Cody in a Discord DM. “For a while, I’d felt like maybe the new generation of teens would ignore their own unhinged musical urges in favour of whatever would bring clout and fame. These kids are proving that is not the case, and I’m so excited to see how they continue to build and shape culture even further.”