A famed quote, penned by one of the great novelists, Charles Dickens from his book A Tale of Two Cities. Being that so much has gone on in England this weekend on the EDM circuit, using Dickens underlying themes of darkness and light to describe what happened is quite fitting.
SouthWest 4
The award winner for Best British Music Festival for 9 years running it’s one of the most influential in EDM for up and coming artists to be a part of. Being held at Clapham Common in London, a holy and peaceful place which touts churches, ponds and serenity was a flutter this weekend over 48 hours it was invaded by dance.
Artists like: Carl Cox, Knife Party, Skrillex, Diplo, and Eric Prydz among many others and even some old school hip-hop if that tickles your fancy by Public Enemy, all were over six stages, this all ages event usually has around 40-50,000 people ready to rage!
Here’s a live set from Sasha:
Creamfields
About 200 miles north from where SouthWest 4 was being held, there was supposed to be Creamfields in Daresbury, Cheshire, England. The festival being held over the past 12 years, six in its current location of a small village was initially invaded by 40,000 people who started to flood in to see their favorite artists perform. However, due to actual heavy flooding and muddy stages and campsites, it made the place unrecognizable.
The festival did go on Friday night and a majority of Saturday, but by the second day’s nightfall, the rain took over, leaving many festival goes in a state of disappointment when it was officially declared cancelled early Sunday Morning.
On a brighter note, although many of the artists didn’t get the chance to perform, most send their apologies via social media the local police and Creamfields management team did all they could to make sure everyone was as safe as possible leaving the location; this was actually due to the contingency plans put in place in case of emergencies which have never been implemented until now. Refunds are available for the event and are to be distributed within the next few days. Mother Nature won this round.
Here’s Sander Van Doorn from Creamfields in 2009:
Mysteryland
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, one of the oldest dance festivals (since 1993) was being held at Floriade. Floriade, is a horticulturists dream being the home to the International Exhibition of Flowers and Gardening, which is fitting because Mysteryland is the socially conscience music festival.
Almost like Tomorrowland with the same creative, colorful, whimsical feel of art, music and dance, they want you to be involved with the world at large and give you variety of ways to do good!
All around the site are tents set up to sign up for volunteer hours, recycling bins for glass and plastic bottles, designated spots to plant tree and shared rides to and from the venue are some of the ways this festival is earth friendly!
The main draw of course is the music and with names like: A-Trak, Chuckie, Porter Robinson, Fedde Le Grand, Avicii, Hardwell and others, being social and earth conscience is definitely worth it!
Check Out Chuckie on the Dirty Dutch Stage:
It’s definitely been a roller coaster of emotions this weekend in EDM, but everyone was safe, they raged and got their good on and that’s all you can ever ask for.
Official Website for SouthWest Four: http://www.southwestfour.com/
Refund Information for Creamfields: http://creamfields.com/
Official website for Mysteryland: http://live.mysteryland.com/
