Three Days at Electric Zoo
This weekend, New York's Randalls Island became the mecca for electronic dance music worldwide. This was the third edition of Electric Zoo and in the words of David Guetta WHILE performing on stage "this was a little festival when I played 2 years ago, as I come back and look at the crowd I can only say WHAT THE F...........?!!!!!!!!!!"
I attended EZ for the first time last year and had the time of my life only having gone for one day seeing greats like Moby, Funkagenda, Fedde le Grand, Boyz Noise, Laidback Luke and the legendary Armin van Buuren. This year I attended the festival all three days and let me tell you, one of the best weekends of my life. As you can tell, to begin with, electronic music is my passion and seeing these artist live is just pure heaven. This year's festival was greatly improved from last year. I think the greatest improvement made by Made Event (the organizers), was that a floor was put down in every tent, taking away the annoying dust cloud of last year. The main stage was moved back uncovering a cemented area and new grass planted also eliminating the massive dust cloud seen last year. There were TONS of port o johns and sinks to wash your hands, the food was improved and the VIP area (which I attended) was greatly improved in size and quality. As for the talent, 34 DJs a day and they did not disappoint. My biggest surprise was when the entire festival convened upon the Hilltop Arena tent to see Skrillex, who I must say, was unbelievable. You could not find a corner inside the tent (which was the biggest tent at the festival) to fit a small person in, it was that crowded and the crowd was going WILD.
On day 1, I was only able to attend the last bit of Markus Schulz's set, missing Gareth Emery and Max Vangeli/AN21, but saw Benny Benassi, Moby and Tiesto. Tiesto and Markus' set were amazing as always, but having heard that Gareth killed it that day, made me sad that I missed it. He was the best set on Friday.
Day 2 was a full day for me and I was extremely excited. The day started out with one of the young trance Djs (my favorite genre), Mat ZO. He was absolutely amazing and one of my favorites of the festival. Sean Tyas followed and then Sander van Doorn. Sander as always, played that main stage like there was no tomorrow. John Digweed was great on the main stage but Skrillex came on halfway during his set and, like i said before, there was a mass exodus from the main stage to see him. He still has me wanting more. Above and Beyond, one of the greatest trance acts out there performed and I was in heaven by this point, amazing performance. It was a very touching moment when they brought out their kids on top of the table to spin for one song. David Guetta (Saturday's headliner), as always, drew a huge crowd and amazed the crowd with his upbeat attitude and house beats. After David, a huge amount of people left the main stage to see ATB and Ferry Corsten, 2 icons in trance music and it was the end to an awesome second day.
I said to myself, Day 3 cannot be better than yesterday with the exception of Armin van Buuren, but from the beginning with Super 8 and Tab, they got everyone's juices flowing. The Red Bull Riverside tent (which was the smallest last year) had a visual light show, a bigger tent and a sound system that ROCKED. Day 3 belonged to this tent where all but one of the most awesome acts performed. Following Super 8 and Tab, a young russian trance dj, who they say is last years breakthrough artist, came out and had that tent FULL, his name is ARTY (Artem Stolyarev). This DJ has been one of Armin van Buuren's recent favorite artists and has been promoting him heavily. Hardwell and EDX followed, both awesome and then cam a DJ whom I've always wanted to see, Michael Woods. This progressive house genius' performance puts him at the top 4 or 5 performances of the festival. After Michael Woods, it got even better, a performance by Gabriel and Dresden (who have recently gotten back together) that puts them at number 2 on my list at the festival. This trance duo was amazing. They were only topped by the none other than Armin van Buuren, the number 1 DJ in the world. Now, I have seen Armin play last year at this festival, at Ultra this year (he played twice including the once in a lifetime performance at A State of Trance 500) but, EZ's performance put goose bumps on my skin and a smile that STILL has not gone away.
What a night, what a day, what a festival! Everyday got better and better with the culmination at the end. Although Ultra is bigger with more attendance and more tradition, this years 84,000 during the 3 days, is testament that this festival is one of the best in this country if not the world. With such talent, such great organization and such class, this is one never to miss.
