In an already crowded festival season, one more has just been announced, presumably by The Rat King himself:

"To all my rodents with a pointy noses and sparsely haired tails that sometimes spread diseases, to all my people who hang out at the mall food court all day, to all who have been called treacherous, disloyal, or despicable, to all that are dirty and smell bad, to all who have short hair except a long strand of hair protruding from the back of their scalps. And to everyone else in the City of Omaha. The time has come...RAT FEST!!!"

Rat Fest is being held this Saturday night at 8 p.m. at a warehouse at 2406 Leavenworth. The 8-band lineup includes Beep Beep (Saddle Creek), Life of a Scarecrow, Coyote Bones (Coco Art), Brimstone Howl (Alive), Flowers Forever (Team Love), Conchance (Slumber Party), Brainworlds (I'm Drinking This) and Babes -- all for $5.

"Plus DJ's all night, rat masks, rat drinks, live drumming, live guitaring, live masking, The Rat King shouting at you through a megaphone, gyrations, dreams come true and any and everything else you can think of!!!!"

Oh my.

The message was forwarded to me by Flowers Forever frontman Derek Pressnall, who explained that the Leavenworth property is the former Faint and Tilly and the Wall practice space as well as the former studio of photographer Bryce Bridges. The current residents have fixed up the space with a stage, sound system and a back-alley smoking patio. The DJ's for the evening are W.E.R.D , Mello Mic, and DJ Rey.

The marketing for Rat Fest already has exceeded MAHA and the Nebraska Pop Festival. Why? Because this actually sounds like fun. Could Rat Fest become Omaha's Lollapalooza? Very unlikely. Still, it could become another sordid annual event like the Aksarben Coronation. Imagine, say, the guys in MGMT talking to their agent about next year's tour schedule: "Let's see, we've got Pitchforkfest in Chi, followed by Lolla and All Tomorrow's Parties, and then we have Rat Fest in Omaha…." Believe it.

More info as it becomes available, presumably from The Rat King...

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