Levitation and Austin Psych Fest are two annual multi-day music festivals developed and produced by The Reverberation Appreciation Society.[1] Starting out under the name Austin Psych Fest as a single-location, three-day festival, the festival was renamed Levitation in its eighth year to celebrate Austin’s psychedelic rock pioneers The 13th Floor Elevators. For many of its earlier iterations, the festival was held at Carson Creek Ranch in Austin, Texas. Under the Levitation moniker, the festival eventually transitioned to a four-day festival spread out across many traditional venues in the city of Austin. Starting in 2024, the organizers now run both festivals every year under their respective monikers, with Austin Psych Fest held in the spring at a single location and Levitation held in the fall as a multi-venue festival.
Inspired by the creative explosion of the 1960s, as well as by festivals such as ATP and Primavera Sound, they set out to create their vision of a music festival. Over the years, this independent festival has grown to an internationally acclaimed, full weekend event that attracts attendees from all over the world.
The Reverberation Appreciation Society is a creative collective composed of Rob Fitzpatrick, Oswald James, and Christian Bland and Alex Maas of The Black Angels. In addition to the festival in Austin, the group has branched out into other cities beginning in 2013 with Levitation France and in 2015 with Levitation Vancouver and Levitation Chicago. The group also runs The Reverberation Appreciation Society record label and has curated events at Austin's SXSW, The Netherlands' Le Guess Who?, NYC's CMJ and NRMAL in Mexico City.