EDC Virtual Rave-A-Thon: Dancing Through COVID Depression
“Now before we get started, I wanna know one thing”. I sat outside at a comfortable social distance with a few friends as we watched EDC’s livestream Rave-a-Thon, and Danny Chien, also known as Wax Motif, began with one of his signature bangers, “Made in Paris”. I was mesmerized by the bright pink and red visuals, large panels emitting intoxicating flashes of light adorned with flower panels.
The thought of a virtual EDC in light of COVID-19, at first, thoroughly depressed me, as I’m sure it did many festival junkies and EDM-lovers like. However, an all-star setlist of guests like Zhu, Deorro, Malaa, Madeon, and Zeds Dead brought the festival to life, providing a thrilling throwback to the days of MTV live set prominence.
Zhu took this throwback theme seriously, shooting his liveset in a dimly lit room with a low-budget filter as though we were watching it on an antenna TV. To make the whole shebang more eery, the room was filled to the brim with mannequins who skirted social distancing practices to enjoy Zhu’s thumping deep house. The mix was fantastic, featuring new deep cuts and a minimalist set-up that would have done 90s rave culture proud. The entire performance was a welcome step away from the over-the-top visuals and tepid EDM with cheesy drops and vocals that many artists today have made their name playing.
Zeds Dead brought the wub and head-banging back into my life that I didn’t realize I’d been missing for so long. They even mixed in the initial song played by aforementioned artist Wax Motif, and provided some stellar up-tempo drum-and-bass style electronica.
EDC is one of the most popular EDM festivals in the world, complete with extraordinary headliners, nearly unrivaled stage sets and visuals, and, you guessed it, carnival rides. Apprehensiveness doesn’t begin to describe how many of us feel now that live musical events will be conducted online rather than in person, and the bar set by multi-million dollar events like these is impossibly high. However, its appreciable that EDC tried their very best, and compiled an exciting group of huge names and lower-key artists alike in the name of unpaid entertainment during this public health crisis. I hope to see more EDM live sets in the near future, and would recommend enjoying them with family, or a small group of friends outside. Grab some drinks, go to a park, throw the Subtronics set on a speaker, and enjoy, because, rather than sulking about how “festival szn is cancelled”, you can really only make do with what you have.
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