EVENT REVIEW: Ever After Music Festival @ Bingemans 30-05-2015 to 31-05-2015

Ever After Music Festival will definitely be one to remember for all its attendees. Despite the battle of the elements and the entirety of May’s rain falling in one weekend, I would still consider the weekend a success! The venue was full of great music, people, food, and vibes; the Kitchener-Waterloo area was brought to life this weekend.

On day one, I arrived early so I could see some of my favourite local DJs. After having gone through security, we walked down a hill into the Bingemans valley, where the festival was taking place. That hill caused a few comical wipeouts as the rain pounded us, but I must admit, it was funny nonetheless as no one got hurt. As I reached the main entrance of the festival, Rezz was playing on the mainstage. Since it was still early and raining at that point, the mainstage pit was only occupied by Rezz fans and those who had already given up on staying dry. I danced my way into the crowd, digging the dirty tech that was being played. For anyone who has not yet checked out Rezz, I would highly recommend it! I think we can expect big things from her in the future. I stayed in the crowd for the remainder of Rez’s set and for most of Manzone and Strong‘s set as well. As always, Manzone and Strong played a great set of our favourite tracks and even threw in some deeper sounds to lay the ground for some of the dirtier sets to come.

After some puddle dancing, I decided to go and check out the rest of the festival grounds. To add to the event and to fit in with the theme of fantasy, I found a number of inflated blowup mushrooms, a Ferris wheel (what festival isn’t complete without a Ferris wheel right?), imagery of electric unicorns surrounding the main stage, and dancers and performers, including acrobats and silks, with colourful and exotic costumes. As well, the festival provided additional entertainment in the form of these strange human sized blow-up orbs. Participants would climb into the transparent orbs so that they were covered from the waist-up. They would then run full speed into each other and both would go flying backwards, get up and crash into someone else. The entertainment value for those in the orbs, as well as those spectating, was priceless. I could not help but enjoy watching and chuckling at the human bumper cars.

I next decided to check out the food and the merchandise, both of which had great selections. There was a variety of food franchise trucks (including pita pit, pizza pizza, and donuts!), most of which had reasonable lines. In the merchandise tent, which also doubled as a nice way to get out of the ceaseless rain, I found a number of cool “rave”-associated items, including rave bras, cosmic fanny packs, diffraction glasses and the likely number one seller of the weekend, rain ponchos. A water refill station was also available and seemed to be well organized; however with the rainfall, there was definitely not a shortage of water. But all-in-all, there were no disorganized water disasters as we have seen at other festivals. Again, job well done!

While near the food and merchandise, I spotted the local stage and decided to check it out. It was a modest set up, but still cool and functional, decorated with zig-zags of bright coloured lights. I made my way to this stage a few times throughout the weekend to see some of my favourite locals, including Kev Dose, Bill Slinton and DJ Alrighty Then, each catering to a crowd of supporters and music enthusiasts. I will admit that a few times while walking by the local stage I noticed girls in thongs twerking on stage to some trap songs (if any of you know me, you’ll know that this scenario is very out of my element!) so I decided to explore some other locations.

I next made my way back to the mainstage for the set that I was most excited about for the entire weekend: Destructo. I’ve learned that there’s always a party when Destructo is around. His use of deep house with hip-hop style lyrics is unique and exciting. I spent most of this set dancing my heart out to my favourite Destructo tracks. The weather at this point was trying to throw everything it had at us. We were all soaked to the core, but looking around at people’s faces, all I saw were looks of determination. This crowd was not going to let a little, or a lot or rain stop them. I can just picture everyone thinking something along the lines of “well we’re already soaked, and there’s nothing we can do about it, so let’s just go hard”. This continued until we heard the worst sound to hear at an outdoor event: thunder. Destructo’s set was cut short by about 15 minutes and the festival was shut down. We retreated back up the hill and away from metal structures and stayed there for about 25 minutes until things started back up again.

Hunter Siegel was scheduled to be up next on the mainstage; however, it was reported that Hunter was ill and so Rezz was thrown back on to start us up after the storm. Once again, she laid down a killer set of dirty and groovy tech, which I would compare to the sounds of Nicole Moudaber or Gesaffelstein. She had us all dancing in the puddles once again.

Up next was another artist that I was extremely excited for, Sam Feldt. He also had a bit more of a groovy sound than we had heard throughout the weekend. I really enjoyed his use of jazz-type instruments in his tracks, and the tropical and uplifting tones that his set had. I felt Sam was a great addition to the lineup. To share with you, here’s my personal favourite track from the weekend!

Next up were Grandtheft, Tchami, and Tommy Trash, in that order. Grandtheft was one of the first trap-style sets of the weekend, so lucky for him, he was the first to drop a lot of the tracks that we would hear a few more times throughout the weekend. Tchami treated us to a usual deep house style set and even threw in his collaboration with AC Slater titled Missing You, to which the crowd responded enthusiastically. Tommy Trash also threw down a high energy set that had everyone on their feet, priming them for the final acts of day one.

During most of these sets, I wandered the crowds looking for friends, and looking to make new friends. I’ll admit I have not been to a 16+ festival in quite some time so I was a little worried about the contents and the actions of the crowd. While I did see some characteristics of the younger generation present, it was by no means a problem and did not take away from the festival. Maybe it was the rain that forced people to cover up or the sufficient police presence, complete with police dogs that deterred some users away from their party favours, but the crowd was pleasant and relatively composed. And by that I mean the crowd was very friendly and I did not see a number of people puking or requiring medical attention. This made me very happy!

Closing out day one was DJ Snake, followed by Toronto’s very own, Zeds Dead. Both played very high energy sets with some extremely dirty bass. Again we heard a lot of those festival anthems, or trap bangers as some may call them, throughout DJ Snake’s set, but the crowd received them contentedly nonetheless.

After much anticipation, Zeds Dead came out to a wildly cheering crowd. They opened their set with some of their old school bassmentality sounds that some described as “melt your face dubstep”. I’ve heard from a number of people that Zed’s Dead’s set utterly blew them away. Despite being soggy and wondering if you had trench foot from having wet shoes for so long, the crowd had not slowed down. Even as the rain started once again, the crowd was determined to stay through this unique set right till the end.

After this set came the trickiest part of the entire weekend: hailing down a cab amidst the swarming mass exodus of festival attendees. After an hour of battling for a cab in the pouring rain, I finally managed to get one (the cab driver literally pulled over because he thought I was a 15 year old girl that looked like I needed help). Then I was on my way to the afterparty at Beta Nightclub, Waterloo’s finest club for electronic music events, hosting big names such as Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery, and Simon Patterson, in the last couple of months alone.

Sam Feldt and Project 46 were booked to play the after party for night one. Unfortunately I missed the first opener, DJ Paulski, but I arrived to the sounds of one of my absolute favourite new and upcoming DJ, Adam Spears. His knowledge of music and ability to set the tone for a night always impresses me. This is another new artist to keep an eye on! Project 46 played next and treated us to a bunch of new stuff off their first full length album titled “Beautiful”, set to be released July 10th, 2015 on Ultra Music! Sam Feldt treated us to some more tropical house and some upbeat tunes that had everyone dancing.

If that wasn’t enough for an after party, a few more special guests showed up. A few strange things occurred while I was dancing my way through the crowd that night. First, I noticed a plant-like smell. I turned around and found the source: Waka Flocka Flame was working his way through the crowd, taking pictures with fans and gracing us with his presence. Shortly after, I was dancing once again (the music was too good, I just couldn’t stop) and I turned around only to find Destructo’s pineapple behind me; how someone managed to get it into the club, I do not understand. I spent the rest of the night wandering through the crowd with this pineapple, getting some hilarious looks and taking some comical pictures. Tommy Trash was confirmed to be backstage as well so it was quite the packed night! Thank you Beta Nightclub for yet another amazing full-capacity night!

After a brief, but refreshing sleep it was time for day two. After looking at the weather forecast, I attempted to prepare a little better for another rainy and cold day. Rain boots, sweaters, and a poncho were definitely needed for that day. After that, I was off to the festival!

I also heard rumors that Deko-ze was stuck in Toronto and unable to make the event so they pushed the start from 11:00 am to noon, which allowed the pit to fill up a little more before Joe Ghost graced the decks. Unfortunately I was running a little late so I had missed Joe Ghost’s set, but I had heard it was very high energy and kick started the day! I arrived to the sounds of Sydney Blu on the mainstage. I don’t know about you, but I always love hearing the grimy tech house sounds of Sydney, and she delivered a great set to a growing crowd.

Next up were FlicFlac, Juicy M, and Project 46. I was pleasantly surprised by FlicFlac’s style and the vibes they gave off. They played a great combination of both laidback and more upbeat deep house that grabbed the crowd’s attention.

Unfortunately at this time, I was beginning to lose the function of my fingers (I really don’t do well in the cold!), meaning that I couldn’t complete my media duties of “instagramming” the event. I decided to head into the lovely media building, where I warmed my fingers, grabbed some coffee (thanks again!) and headed back out for Project 46’s set. They spoiled us a little more with some new and unreleased tracks and pumped up the energy levels of the crowd even more.

Matoma was another artist that had a unique sound that I was impressed by. Giving us a nice break from the pounding sounds of bass and trap, Matoma provided us with a little more tropical house and some really catchy tunes. Shout-out to Keys N Krates as well for having an original instrumental opening. At this time, I also wandered back over to the local stage, where there was quite the crowd. Waka Flocka Flame had his DJ on stage and had decided to come down and perform in the crowd; people were going nuts over this!

Next up was the legend, Benny Benassi. Unfortunately I missed the start of his set, but I came out to things in full swing. It has finally stopped raining and Benassi took us through the sunset with classics like Cinema. A few friends of mine were in awe at his set and said that it was the best set they’ve seen him play.

Lastly, we had Flosstradamus and Diplo to close out the festival for us. Flosstradamus came at us full force, pushing the sound system to its limits. The crowd cheered as they played some of their originals, such as Mosh Pit. I could have done with a little less of Flosstradamus screaming things on the mic like “if you have weed, hold it up high”, and “let’s get f*cked up” at an event that was 16+, but that’s just me.

At 10 pm, our last act of the day appeared on stage to a crowd bursting to the brim with excitement. He gave the crowd what they wanted to hear, got a little freaky and even played as his Major Laser alias for a chunk of his set. The crowd went nuts as he played more festival anthems such as Jauz’s Feel the Volume and Jack U’s Where are U Now. The lights and lasers were flashing and strobing, covering the entire valley, and for one final hour, we gave it all we had left.

After a shorter battle for a cab this time (which I was VERY pleased about), I was out of the venue, and once again headed to Beta Nightclub for day two’s afterparty, curious about which “mystery DJs” we would be treated to. After the craziness of day one’s afterparty, I really did not know what kind of night I was in store for. Once again, the club reached capacity and put out yet another wild and unforgettable night. Adam Spears opened us up again and really set the tone for the night. Joe Ghost was our first mystery DJ and I think he was attempting to blow the roof off the club. I was standing at the back of the club, beside a set of speakers, when the force of Joe Ghost’s opening track almost blew me over.

The second mystery DJ, Matoma came on next. Despite the two opposing sounds (Joe was very bass-oriented and Matoma supplied us with some more laidback tropical house), Matoma kept the party going and took us in a different direction. Then, yet another unexpected event of the weekend, Sam Feldt decided he wanted to join the party at Beta again. We must have won him over night one because he came back and played a b2b set with Matoma on night two. And with the conclusion of another wild afterparty, Ever After Music Festival weekend came to a close, and thus began the recovery process.

My apologies to any sets I was unable to cover. Special thanks to the owners and organizers of the festival for the wonderful media room they provided us with stocked with food, coffee, and a fireplace. I’d also like to give a big thank you to those involved in making this festival weekend happen!

Check out the EDM TOR photo album here.

See you at Ever After Music Festival 2016!

LINKS:

REZZ
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Manzone & Strong
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Kev Dose
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Bill Slinton
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DJ Alrighty Then
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Destructo
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Hunter Siegel
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Sam Feldt
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Grandtheft
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