Riverside Festival Review

By Dominic Wren

Riverside festival has always been a special one ever since its creating in 2013, but this year… Oh man. They took it above and beyond. For a festival to be held on very limited space, DNA Presents find ways to make it one of the most exciting events of the festival season. I’m not just talking about the impeccable view onto the Canadian parliament or the beautiful architecture of the neighboring Canadian museum of history buildings, or the biggest lineup we’ve seen to date. I’m talking the maximum use of such a limited space without feeling like you’re squished into the festival. Not once would you feel suffocated by people, which sometimes happen at the major festivals. This aspect is often forgotten for why we had such a great time at an event. The organizer’s care for the attendees experience and comfortability is something to take note of.

Now to the music. Riverside Festival saw it’s biggest lineup since its birth. Some of the biggest acts in the world came to Gatineau last weekend, such as Matroda, Lost Kings, Borgore, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Steve Aoki, and so many more.

Starting Day 1 of 3 with a solid night of house music was the perfect warm up. With some local acts, such as Ross X Class, Mac, and others showing their talent, Matroda took the stage for dangerously hard set of hard house music. Matroda on his Red Tape Tour came and made a visit and slammed his set. Mixing some of the biggest tracks of the summer and switching to some crazy drops while keeping a house vibe. It’s also cool to note that he didn’t touch the mic once because he was so into his insane mixing.

Day 2 saw a new kind of energy. Starting the day on a more big room house lineup, the festival saw names like Maurice West, 13, Jay Hardway, and the Lost Kings performing some incredible sets and dropping crazy throwbacks, fresh music, and some unreleased tracks. To end the night, Borgore with the sunset time slot played a mixture of intense bass music with some of his classic Borgore originals. Have you heard Unicorn Zombie Apocalypse? If you have, imagine that at one of his shows. Yeah, it went crazy. To headline the night was none other than Montreal’s very own Black Tiger Sex Machine. Three guys with black tiger helmets that light up on a stage overlooking 6000 people and Canada’s Parliament was something unique. Not only did they kill their set with HEAVY bass anthems and a BTSM personal touch, the crowd’s energy was as entertaining as the show itself.

Riot Ten

The last day of the festival didn’t take a minute to chill. Two of Montreal’s most loved local DJs, Khaos and Domeno, warmed the day up in style. Next to take the stage was Riot Ten who mixed in and out of some of the hardest bass tracks of the night. He almost literally destroyed the crowd but they kept up with him. Tritonal followed to with an emotional and powerful set for Gatineau to enjoy. Zomboy joined to the Riverside party at 7:25 pm for his second time since 2017. He honestly took the definition of the word “intense” to the next level. Dropping tracks that would make your head bang even if you’re not a headbanger, this UK born bass DJ/producer made Riverside look like one of his own. He gave the crowd no breaks with back-to-back drops of pure fire and notably starting a “Wall of the Death” while playing Eptic and Trampa’s remix of Get With The Program. It went absolutely nuts.

Closing the festival was the one and only Steve Aoki. Easily the biggest name Riverside Festival has ever had, Aoki shut the festival down in style. He is no doubt the incredible showman he’s so well known to be. Ranging his set from hard trap to psy-trance to his biggest tracks with a perfect touch of emotional songs, he had something to everyone. Though what made his set special is his way of including the crowd as the show. Bringing cakes to throw (it still fascinates me to see someone throw a cake so well), pouring champagne onto the crowd, and giving giant letters spelling “Gatineau” for photos, Steve Aoki’s art of making a great show is nothing to be underrated.

This year’s Riverside Festival went to another level. Every year the teams at EDM Canada is impressed by this event’s outcome and we look forward to many more years to come.

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.

Watch Hardwell and Steve Aoki's full sets from Tomorrowland (Video)

This is the first batch of full sets to emerge from the epic Tomorrowland as Hardwell and Steve Aoki have uploaded their full sets onto Youtube. If you're into big room raging, then these sets are for you: 

HARDWELL

STEVE AOKI

Relevant link: Steve Aoki put a drop on Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’

Bonus: Andrew Rayel also uploaded his set but it's audio only. 

Watch more UMF live sets by Steve Aoki, Alesso, Fedde Le Grand, and Jack U (Video)

Another day, another slew of live sets uploaded on Youtube for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy these Ultra Music Festival live sets by Steve Aoki, Alesso, Fedde Le Grand, and Jack U: 

Steve Aoki

Alesso

Fedde Le Grand

Jack U

Bonus: It's not available in video, but Zeds Dead uploaded their full set on Soundcloud:

Update: Eric Prydz just posted his set

The summer of Steve Aoki (Tour video)

Steve Aoki has been having huge summer's in the past several years thanks to his frequent touring and appearances on every big festival stage around the world. In this video diary series, you'll get to take a look at this crazy lifestyle as Steve Aoki brings you along for the ride: 

Steve Aoki will be touring with Headhunterz and Caked Up this winter and will be making stops in Toronto and Montreal. For more ticket information, click the links below: 

(VIA DA)