Music Festival B.C.

I told you all that I would sign back in a write a review of the festival post-mayhem. It was everything I had expected and more! Kudos to the teams at Made Event who went the extra mile to make Randall’s Island in New York City explode with music this past weekend.

They had an extraordinary turnout of more than 25,000 people to celebrate the 65+ artists (download free music from the lineup and see what you were missing!) from all over the world. There were four stages; one main stage and three tents. The tents were large and fully equipped with all the right ingredients: awesome lighting, crazy graphics, booming sound system, and some interesting decor (in the Sunday School tent especially, which had trees behind the stage).

There were plenty of food vendors with everything from shaved ice and smoothies to pizza and gyros. Tons of alcohol, although the beer selection of Coors Light and Blue Moon at $8 and $9 respectively put quite a dent in my pocket. They had face and body painting for those who were so inclined, a merchandise booth, girls who you could pay to destroy your shirt (?), and a really cool installation in the middle of everything that lit up at night.

Best performances? Paul Kalkbrenner had a stellar performance and I firmly believe he acquired many new fans this weekend, as several of the people around me had no clue who he was. Rusko, the Dub Set guru from London also rocked the Red Bull Music Academy tent something fierce. I tried to find my friend in there, that was not going to happen! On Sunday the crowd went nutty for Moby, but I was over at Sander van Doorn at the time. People cleared out of the main stage area right in time for us to get up close for Boys Noize, who rocked that place mental. Armin van Buuren blew it up of course, as well as good old English legend John Digweed.

All in all I think most people thoroughly enjoyed it. The crowd was a good mix of old and young, American and European. I will definitely be going next year as well, and I am actually already excited to see the juicy lineup!

Check out this video of Laidback Luke’s set at the main stage: