Festival Spotlight

For the last two years, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved with the Rock in Rio festival in different roles, giving me a unique perspective on the festival both in the U.S. and Portugal. In May 2015, I managed the front of house control system for the Palco Mundo (World Stage) in Las Vegas and assisted incoming LDs with everything from setting up their consoles, connecting them to the main data distribution system, providing timecode connections, programming support, etc., etc. I even punted for a couple of the bands that traveled without an LD.

Words cannot quite capture the visual extravaganza that is Miami Ultra Music Festival (UMF) 2016. Now in its 18th year, the hugely popular electronic dance music (EDM) event held annually on Bayfront in downtown Miami, played host to a sellout crowd of more than 165,000 over three days, from March 24-26. The event’s Main Stage, Carl Cox & Friends Stage and World Wide Stage would each be, by themselves, impressive enough to anchor a major music festival. Combined and extended by other stages, including the U.S. debut of the flame-shooting Arcadia Spider on the Resistance Stage, the Ultra Music Festival retains its perch as a world-class blockbuster event.

The late summer heat didn’t prevent festivalgoers from traveling in packs and arriving in droves to attend Electric Zoo: Transformed, an electronic music festival held on Randall’s Island, New York City, September 4 through 6. The crowd arrived dressed in animal masks, superhero garb, or “barely there” outfits we’re sure are illegal in at least three states. Clearly, the zookeeper had left the building, the cage doors were open, and young people of all stripes shed their inhibitions and, presumably, their everyday clothes for a walk on the wild side.

New Event, and Fixtures, Make Their Debut

As luck would have it, PLSN editor Nook Schoenfeld was able to take some time away from the preparation of this particularly large issue to travel to Del Mar, CA, just outside San Diego, to light a special VIP stage performance for multi-Grammy award winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Sheryl Crow.

Girls in kabuki-style makeup donning butterfly wings, dancers in floppy panda suits, faux hippie chicks in rose-colored sunglasses and a halo of flowers around their heads, giant daisies like something straight out of a Lewis Carroll opium delusion. Welcome to the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), often dubbed North America’s largest electronic music festival, where the phrase “making a scene” has never been more apt.

When the first Masters of Hardcore festival debuted in 1995, Hootie & The Blowfish, TLC and Dr. Dre ruled the charts. Electronic dance music (EDM) was in its infancy, relegated to warehouse rave parties. From its humble beginnings, EDM has gone mainstream, from the beaches of Ibiza to posh Vegas nightclubs. Production company Art of Dance has worked to fuel the growth of EDM in Europe, currently producing eight festivals across the Netherlands.