- Electric Zoo is a festival-themed festival. The gathering, over 100,000-strong and situated on Randall's Island, is not just about the music or the pyrotechnics or the amenities (though these things certainly matter). The reason these kids save up money, hand-craft their outfits, then travel across the state, country or hemisphere is so they can participate in the largest and most visible pop-culture movement in recent history. This festival, headlined by millionaire DJs like David Guetta and Armin Van Buuren, is bigger than just partying or listening to music: it invites you to become part of the zeitgeist.
There were plenty of highlights at this year's Electric Zoo, despite the cancelation of day three for the second year in a row (this year due to rain and lightning). Most pertinently, the event offered a surprisingly robust selection of sounds and styles outside of main-stage EDM, meaning fans of dance music's subtler strains kept busy all weekend.
The Spiegeltent, a collapsable wood-and-canvas structure decorated with mirrors and stained glass, was a beautiful backdrop to Sunday School's underground house and techno curriculum. The tent had been disassembled and flown in from Belgium's Tommorowland festival then rebuilt for Electric Zoo. At around 700 capacity, it housed intimate sets from Apollonia, Sasha, Chris Liebing and Pete Tong among others.
As the Friday afternoon rolled into early evening, the Spiegeltent's stained-glass panes diffused soft, warm light across a lucid crowd, and a cool breeze rolled through as the Apollonia boys stepped to the controls. They rode an easy incline with groovy, day-time tech-house rollers like Creative Sens' "Rainbow Harmony" while the venue filled and dancers began to loosen up. Later that evening, Chris Liebing shifted the mood entirely, casting a shadow over the dance floor with techno that punished like a leather strap. His set, threaded with full-bellied synth stabs that floated to the rafters, plus subtle, skipping house syncopations and voluptuous kick drums, was a highlight of the weekend.
Josh Wink would take the same shift in the Spiegeltent the following night, weaving hypnotic, expansive techno and house loops and occasionally breaking the stage's four-to-the-floor orthodoxy with more broken-beat rhythms. He patiently waited 40 minutes before rinsing his first bonafide party-starter, a tune that sampled Fingers Inc.'s "My House" to great effect. Considering Wink only had an hour-and-a-half set, it was a respectful opening maneuver for Sasha, who took the controls and dove straight into euphoric, trance-inflected techno. As the room reached capacity and beaming fans of multiple generations began to vibrate, his set careened into theatrical, two-minute breakdowns peppered with cosmic piano chords and live dubbing effects from a mounted controller.
The vinyl-only stage, soundtracked by cheerful, unobtrusive deep-house and tech-house records, was an idyllic spot for a dance party. Surrounded by a small orchard of trees wrapped in color-coordinated lights, the outdoor platform of wooden planks drew the festival's hardcore house dancers, who were shuffling, spinning and breaking with abandon. The added warmth and low-end magic that happens when vinyl records are played through a high-end mixer made all the difference; with speakers surrounding the dance floor, you could feel the vibrations in your throat and through the tip of your nose. Frank & Tony, of New York's Scissor & Thread label, juiced the finely-tuned soundsystem with heaving tech-house burners. Daniel Bell, who played Saturday afternoon, kept the crowd smiling with jacking and stripped-back 909 tracks.
Griz, with his live saxophone routine and deft manipulation of Maschine hardware, was an unexpected delight up on the Hilltop Stage, bringing bass-heavy funk to an otherwise funk-less festival. On top of that, his live show, which included a guest guitarist, brought a bit of performance novelty to a lineup that overwhelmingly relied on the traditional CDJ-and-mixer setup.
The chain-smoking Gesaffelstein was a solid pick for the Beatport stage's Friday night headliner, moving from icy French electro à la Zone Records (he opened with Djedjotronic's "Abyssal Zone") into rave classics of yesteryear, like Outlander's piano-house banger "Vamp." His dark notes balanced out the unbridled euphoria and optimism that radiated from the festival's main stages.
Electric Zoo did exactly what it was supposed to do. It booked many of the world's biggest DJs, set off a bunch of fireworks and most importantly, vastly improved its health and safety measures from last year. The organizers' commitment to this particular issue was immediately clear upon walking into the festival grounds, which housed a plethora of free hydration stations, medical tents, trained volunteers and more cops than I've seen since we occupied Zucotti Park. The surveillance was oppressive, sure, but it certainly beats the tragedies of Electric Zoo 2013. There was a dynamic itinerary of DJs, even for fans of more understated house and techno. But most importantly, it did what few other New York festivals could: it allowed 100,000 attendees to take part in one of the most sensational spectacles of their lives.
Photo credits: Pearcey Proper for ElectricZoofestival.com, Doug Van Sant for ElectricZooFestival.com