Fear and loathing at OZY Fest

The Hillary Clinton-headlining music festival was just as mind-blowingly dumb as you feared

Hillary Clinton at Ozy Fest.
(Image credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images)

OZY Fest — which has nothing at all to do with Australia or, alas, the bat-eating songwriter responsible for "Crazy Train" — rolled into New York City's Central Park this weekend, bringing with it thousands of attendees who had all voluntarily decided that the best way to spend their time and money was by going to something described favorably as "TED meets Coachella."

In the shadow of a Statue of Liberty throwing up the sign of the horns, OZYgoers in orange OZY bandanas braved the blazing sun and threat of thunderstorms to see a somehow-not-photoshopped lineup, where Hillary Clinton was top-billed alongside, uhh, Passion Pit. The festival is put on by OZY Media, a polished online magazine founded by former MSNBC anchor Carlos Watson, which lists contributors like Bill Gates and Condoleezza Rice and boasts that it's "built for the Change Generation." The AV Club branded OZY's two-day event "the music festival of your nightmares."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.