HALLOWMASS 2024 EXPURGO: A Decade of Ritual, Reverence & Revelry with itchy-O
Interview By Krysti Joméi
Published October 2024, Issue 130
Denver’s legendary 57-member avant-primal-futuristik ensemble, itchy-O, celebrates 10 trips of HALLOWMASS around the sun with a 3-night reality-warping ceremony, EXPURGO! Taking place over a globally traditional timespan that honors ephemerality — October 31-November 2 — the collective exalts ancestral lore while contributing their own aural-ocular-corporeal offerings, inviting their spectators to disrobe their day-to-day acumen and participate collectively in a state of synchronicity.
We connected with itchy-O to learn about their why’s of this upcoming journey.
Itchy-O’s annual Hallowmass ceremony venerates a multitude of traditional festivals — Día de los Muertos, Allhallowtide, the Hungry Ghost Festival, Obon, Samhain to name a few, and other global rituals honoring all things temporal. Why is impermanence something worth celebrating?
Impermanence is integral to the fabric of life. Without the old passing away there would be no space for the new to emerge. By liberating ourselves of bondage to the past, we free our energy to focus on grounding in the present and moving forward into the future. And there is something powerful in coming together as a community to do this in celebration.
Realizing this October marks your 10th Hallowmass, I was spellbound in memory of the first celebration, physically feeling that electricity like it was yesterday. Though each year is intended to be an ephemeral immersion, they undoubtedly build off of each other, inextricably linked through a rhythmic energy. Why has Hallowmass’ annual frequency been important and what’s the impact on itchy-O and its co-creating audience as a result?
Life, like nature, moves in cycles, in rhythm. By maintaining this practice for a decade we, as a community, have built and are continuing to build a shared experience that holds space for change over time. By honoring the lives, relationships, beliefs and institutions that pass through, Hallowmass is a place for all of us to pause and reflect on the losses and liberations that shape our journey. Returning annually to this collective celebration empowers our community to consciously participate in that evolution. Hallowmass builds, year-to-year, in sync with the cycles of life.
One of your missions is to create an opportunity to expunge all facets of ego, to release expectations, to let go of our current understandings of the world in an effort to experience unification, and perhaps even a genesis. Can you expand on this year’s theme, Expurgo, and its intended role in the experience of attendees?
This is bigger than any concert or show. This is a proper neo-mystic ritual aimed at purging ourselves from the bondage of the past; people, institutions, habits, behaviors and what have you. The audience is encouraged to actively take part by leaving symbolic offerings on an altar to be burned a week later and celebrate in a non-judgemental, all-inclusive, and all-fantastical environment.
The concepts of order out of chaos, life out of void, primordial matter spans time, philosophies and connotations. What is itchy-O’s interpretation of chaos and what role does it play in your live performances?
Chaos is the primordial soup from which all things emerge, the eternal dance of entropy and negentropy. Our events provide a pansensual baptism into the fiery waters of chaos, from which we emerge and to which we will return.
What is the significance of surrender in your productions? Why is embracing mystery vital to the experience?
Mystery is the corridor to surrender, a sister to the sacred. In communal catharsis, we can achieve truly transcendental states. The most common itchy-O first experience is something like, What the fuck is happening, and why am I dancing?
Why accept The Invitation to this year’s Hallowmass for both the seasoned participant and the newcomer?
Halloween has become an anemic ghost of the powerful ritual it once was. As humans we are hardwired to crave transcendence of the mundane and connection with primal forces greater than ourselves. Itchy-O’s Hallowmass fills that void.
This show will be itchy-O’s last performance for a good while. What is your hope for your upcoming sabbatical and manifestations for the future?
2025 is going to be massive for itchy-O. We are releasing a new album, Som Saptalahn, which is a whole odyssey into unseen worlds. And speaking of unseen worlds, we have an Intergalactic Masquerade coming in the spring that is calculated to drop jaws and blow minds. Follow along, you’ll be stunned when we announce the location and supporting acts.
HALLOWMASS 2024: EXPURGO!
Get tickets: October 31 | November 1 | November 2
Truss House | Interstate Building at RiNo ArtPark | Denver, CO
Follow itchy-O along: Website | Instagram | Facebook | X | TikTok | Patreon
Krysti Joméi is the co-owner and co-founder of Birdy Magazine. Creating in Colorado for the past decade plus, she’s lived all around San Francisco, by Houston’s NASA, on an island across from Seattle, near the WA/Canadian border, and under the Nandi Hills in Kenya. She loves outer space, the ocean, running in nature, anything written by Trent Reznor, and adventuring with her partner, Jonny, husky and black cat.
Explore issues past of Birdy to see more of itchy-O’s past beautiful show posters and also an interview with them in our first year. Keep your eyes peeled for more from this talented ensemble.