High-fiving Riverside (Festival review)

By Dominic Wren

This might just be the best Riverside Festival Gatineau or Canada has ever witnessed. With an insane lineup, pumping artists such as Kayzo, Deorro, Snails, Slushii and Loud Luxury, this year’s festival went up a level. All 16 artists nailed their sets over the weekend but the EDM Canada team has picked out five of the top acts that most impressed the crowd and us the most.

Breathe Carolina

All photos by Dominic Wren

This year’s set from the American duo was like none other I’ve seen from them before. They started with some of their classic big room house vibe such as “Always Find You” by Raiden X YURI (Sunstars Remix). About mid through their set, they noticed that the crowd was somewhat into it so they did what any world-class DJ would do - they adjusted. Breathe Carolina changed their set to a more hip hop/dubstep, playing tracks such as “Plain Jane” by A$AP Ferg and “Let’s Get Crunk” by Gammer.

Slushii

If want to see a crowd roar endlessly, go see a Slushii concert. From perfect transitions to emotional moments, to hard trap, hip hop, and dubstep. For a crowd that’s hard to please, they went HARD. Slushii also put a lot of effort into his visuals for the crowd. Not only did he wear colourful clothing but also the LED screens took on a trippy adventure though various colours and shapes.

Snails

This set can only be described in one word: RAGE. If you like to go hard then Snails is the artist you want to see live. There is a very legitimate reason why he’s created his own genre called “Vomitstep”. He opened the last set of the night with his track “Shake The Ground” featuring Kill The Noise, Sullivan King and Jonah Kay. Unlike the other artists, Snails had no throwbacks in his set. He gave the crowd no rest and kept his game strictly to “Vomitstep”.

NoWayOut

Everyone should keep an eye out for this up and coming DJ/Producer. Even though his set was early in the evening, it felt like he was closing the whole festival. The energy coming off of his movements behind the decks and his music attracted the attention of the growing crowd. From smart transitions to the choices of songs, this young DJ nailed his set in one of the best festival venues in Canada. He is definitely the smallest DJ in this list but definitely showed some world-class talent.

Deorro

Probably the best set of the whole festival, Deorro definitely left a mark at the Riverside Music Festival. The basshead crowd received his electro house set very well, which was a bit of a surprise. Before the second half of his set where it became very technical, he dropped tracks like his hit single with Steve Aoki, Diplo, and Steve Bays “Freak”. Deorro vibed with the crowd while playing his track “Bailar”, then kicking the energy up again with “Knockout” featuring Deorro, Makj and Quintino. The second half his set was the most interesting. Do you all remember when the 2012 pop group LMFAO dropped “Party Rock Anthem”? Yep. Deorro snuck in that lost artifact into his set. He followed up that great moment with a drop-less couple of minutes while transitioning between hip-hop to old rock classics. Deorro produced a unique set that was enjoyed by many fans.

Riverside Festival put together a stacked phase 2 lineup

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By David Mann

This year's Riverside Festival is bigger and better than ever, boosted by their huge phase 2 lineup release. For 2018 they have added an extra day to the festival, which means a much larger lineup that includes Slushii, Matoma, a special Downlink B2B Figure for the bassheads, Loud Luxury (Check out their latest video interview here), and much more. 

Set at the beautiful Museum of History grounds in Gatineau, the stage is perfectly placed infront of the waterfront overlooking the Parliament Hill. The stage is so epic that I believe it's the best outdoor urban EDM festival location in Canada hands down. 

Every year this event brings thousands of fans from Ottawa/Gatineau/Montreal, and when it's time to party it up from September 8th - 9th, I suspect that this festival will be taken to another level. For tickets, click here. 

(Source: Riverside Festival's FB)

Ever After Music Festival highlights: A few of our favourite sets & moments

Photos by Andrew Iriah

By Sinejan Ozaydemir 

Festival season is underway and this past weekend, electronic music fans, headbangers and bassheads from all over Canada gathered to party at Ever After Festival in Kitchener Ontario. The festival featured rides and attractions, a waterpark and camping. The three day event attracted tens of thousands of fans for 47 performances.

Here are some of our favourite sets/moments from the festival:

Slander

Slander’s set was one of the best sets of the festival in terms of song selection. The crowd had piled onto the main area by their set time on Friday evening and were having a great time. The hour was filled with chill vibes as Slander guided the crowd through highs and lows. They provided great variety in their one hour set and especially did a great job mixing some throwbacks into the bass heavy tracks that festival goers were there for! They played a few crowd favourites like: "Superhuman" by Slander, "Yeah!" - Usher ft. Lil Jon & Ludacris, "Never be like you" by Flume ft. Kai , "I fall apart"- Post Malone, "Physically" - Mrefjus & Gud, and "Vibrations" - NGHTMRE.

Snails

Right after Slander, Snails took the stage with a set that was bass heavy and such a good time! Although it was still somewhat early in the evening, the crowd was energized and thoroughly enjoyed this set as they were headbanging for the majority of the hour and a half set. His visuals were also lively and engaging. He was also one of the DJs paying tribute to Aviici this weekend with a remix of Levels.

Bear Grillz

One of my favourite sets of the whole festival was mid-day Saturday. The hour that Bear Grillz had the stage seemed like a lot shorter. He had really good control of the crowd and seriously entertained. Another great set with regards to song selection and mixes. There was so much dancing that Bear Grillz actually tired out the crowd, almost a quarter of the crowd by the main stage actually needed a break after this set- clearly shows that they had a great time. He also premiered a new unreleased track during his set which was well received.

Kill The Noise

Kill the noise got everyone jumping: besides the crowd loving well known more tracks throughout the set, he was also one of the DJ’s that premiered new music! He even invited Snails up to the stage to premiere their new collab called "Shake the Ground" for the crowd which was well received. Another great set from day two of the festival.
 

Drezo

A large group of people could be seen leaving the main areas of the festival and heading up the hill to the Upside Down House stage for Drezo’s set. Although the climb up the hill was challenging for some concert goers, this did not stop them as they piled in to the fenced area by the Upside Down House Stage. Totally a different vibe from the main stage, it was a great set as people danced in and out of each other’s dance circles.
 

Excision

It is always great to see headliners completely taking over while they expertly entertain their audience. Excision’s set was just that. He had a great package of tunes, visuals and excitement that  shows clearly why he was closing off Ever After Festival. The anticipation was building up as the sun went down and the crowd welcomed Excision to the stage. It was a great party through and through with fireworks and great visuals electronic music fans love.

Although the festival was not in a big city in Ontario, it was pretty packed. Observing the number of attendees was impressive while walking through the festival grounds. A good number of people enjoyed the rides and attractions but a greater number piled around the attractions that were situated at the back of the main stage to listen to the music with their fellow festival goers.

At times the crowd spanned all the way into the treed areas, and even though the festival worked hard to keep sound levels down in order to reduce the amount of noise complaints, the music could be heard and enjoyed clearly from the hills or the back of the crowd. The result on Sunday was a large and tired-out group of people who had three days of music with some of their favourite DJs.  

If you're still planning for your next festival, make sure to check out the 2018 festival guide below: 

8 questions answered about the Escapade Music Festival happening this weekend in Ottawa

Escapade is a 2-day festival happening this weekend at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa that is 93% sold out which will showcase some of the best DJs on the planet over 3 stages. Taking place just a few days before Canada day, Escapade is a special event in Ottawa that lets fans have a great time on the eve of Canada's 150 birthday. EDM Canada had a chance to speak with Ali Shafaee, the director of partnerships for Escapade, about the history of the festival, the lineup, location change, and how they made Escapade extra special for Canada's 150th birthday. 

Can you give fans the history of Escapade?

We're going into our 7th year, we kinda grew from an idea which is a one day downtown parking lot party for Canada Day. After 2 years of doing that we grew into a 2-day festival with 3 stages and 30,000 attendance. So it's grown a lot. We're based in Ottawa but a significant part of our attendance comes from the GTA area, Quebec, upstate New York, and even out east.

What makes Escapade special?

What we hear from fans is that Escapade is a “really large small festival”, if that makes sense. We have a lot of attendees and some of the biggest acts in the world, but when they come here they all remark at how “intimate” the vibe is. Everybody gets along with everyone, everyone is really friendly. We don't have massive distances in between our stages, which makes it more like a homey feel, where people feel comfortable.

We get the same thing with the artists, as they feel how into the crowd are into their sets and they have a great time. We're this big festival, but in a small city like Ottawa that has had great success.

Escapade has changed locations to Lansdowne Park - how will this new  location change how the fans interact with the festival?

Lansdowne Park is a 5-minute drive from the downtown core making it a central location for all festival goers and will be easier to get to using multiple forms of transportation. Our new home will also include free transportation via OC Transpo from anywhere in the city, two outdoor stages looking over the historic Rideau Canal and an Indoor arena stage with enhanced production.

Escapade is known for its diverse lineups – can you tell me the thought process on how you created the 2017 edition?

We tried to analyze what the fans want by doing a lot of polls throughout the year, and doing a recap at the end of the year with a survey. We want to know what the fan base wants in terms of music and festival. We've always been diverse in what we want to achieve and try to cover off as many genres as possible.

Richie Hawtin is an artist that is playing Escapade for the very first time and it's Canada's 150th birthday and he really wanted to make an impact by being in Canada and doing as many shows as possible and Escapade was a target of his. We're extremely excited to have Richie come and play the festival for the first time.

Tiesto also wanted to be a part of the 150th birthday for Canada and he's an icon who's played sold out shows all across the country. We jumped at the opportunity for him to come on board. We curated a Snails stage and he's Canadian from Montreal. So we tried our best to bring in as many genres and appease our fan base.

How many do you expect for the 2017 edition of Escapade?

We are on par from where we were from last year. 30 – 40% of our festival attendees come from outside of town. This is good for businesses and hotels in Ottawa to have that many people come from out of town to Escapade.

Who are you most excited to see at Escapade this year?

Richie Hawtin is definitely one that will be on my list. I don't think I've ever seen live so he's up there. I'm pretty excited to see Alan Walker, he's an up and coming act with a great show behind him. I think Alan Walker will be the surprise act of Escapade if I had to pick one.

What's your view on the current health of the festival outlook for 2017 and beyond?

There are festivals that are struggling or have been canceled in the last few years. A lot of factors go into that, like the over saturation of too many festivals. It could be the economy, the low Canadian dollar versus the American dollar, so there's a lot of different factors.

With Escapade, just as long as we evolve into what our fans are looking for, and looking at the trends on what our fans want, then we'll be okay. As soon as you start doing something that your audience isn't looking for, then you might have difficulties. Escapade tries to evolve every year and we'll continue to do that to 2018 and beyond.

Make your best pitch: why should fans go to Escapade this year?

To celebrate Canada's 150th, with in our opinion, the best lineup to date. A lot of people say that Escapade is one of the most fun weekends of their life.

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Thank you to Ali Shafaee for the interview. For the latest information on Escapade including tickets, lineups, and upcoming set times - click here.

Win 2 tickets to Escapade Music Festival in Ottawa!

Escapade

Escapade Music Festival is the National Capital Region's premiere EDM festival that will attract 30,000 fans to Lansdowne Park (new location) in late June for 2 days non stop music. Huge names like Above & Beyond, Tiesto, Steve Aoki, and Dada Life will be rocking the mainstage, while trance, bass, and underground artists will be on full display on the other 2 stages.

To mark Canada's 150th anniversary, Escapade has invited some of Canada's best artists to headline the festival including a rare festival appearance by Richie Hawtin, Montreal's bass king Snails who's getting his own stage on day 2, and Toronto's bass duo Zeds Dead will be delivering a headlining performance on the mainstage on day 1. 

EDM Canada is giving 2 GA tickets to Escapade Music Festival happening on Saturday, June 24th until Sunday, June 25th at Lansdowne Park y in Ottawa. To enter, simply log into the widget above (counts as an entry), and choose the various other ways to enter if you wish to do so. The contest starts now and will end on Friday, June 9th. You must be 16+ to enter - good luck!