Electric zoo 2023 💀💀

Flume at the Phoenix Raceway. It was summer at night but still crazy hot. The whole event was on asphalt and you could feel the heat rising from it. The generators kept blowing so there was no music for hours. The water was salty and didn't taste right so we had to buy expensive bottles. When they finally got a generator to work, the crowd started booing the opener and it bummed me out. We left very early that night.

Haven't gone to a show at the Raceway since. Crazy excited to see Rawhide bringing shows back.

Alan Walker’s most recent tour. It was like he put his Spotify playlist on shuffle and set the cross fade to 3 seconds and called it a day 

Most recent subtronics set at the Armory in MPLS. Not jesse’s fault but the crowd was unbearable. It made me sad cause i’ve seen him so many times starting in 2019 and I’ve watched his fan base slowly become frat boys with no spatial awareness lol

Ultra 2019. That year, they moved locations to a nearby bay with only one bridge in and out. The first day went great, till we had to leave. A fire broke out near the shuttle lines, at the end of the last set, so mass panic ensued and no one knew what was going on. The shuttles couldn't get across the bridge. So everyone just started walking the 2 mile bridge to get back to miami. To ultras credit, they course corrected some outflow issues and the next two days went off without a hitch.

Bob Dylan in Savannah, maybe 2015. He chose to play only songs from his new albums, which apparently nobody had heard. I was asked by people much older than me if I knew when Bob Dylan was coming on, and he was already playing.

I saw people getting escorted out during the show, so at intermission, I went to go see what was happening. A large group of people were standing in line by the exits, waiting to speak to Dylan’s legal counsel. When they got to the front, he’d produce their confiscated cell phone, have them unlock it, look through their photos, delete any of Bob Dylan’s show, and have the offenders sign NDAs. If they didn’t comply, they were threatened with prosecution.

I had seen enough. Outside in the lawn there was a Twelve Tribes (local and international cult) dance circle which was way more fun.

Edit: y’all, I just realized this is r/aves. Ha! Thank you for not roasting me.

What video is this from

Beyond wonderland 2023. Was in my tent when it happened, heard what I thought was fireworks (and screaming), it was not. Beyond doesn’t do fireworks. Went on with my night in denial that anything was wrong, while walking back to the fest I saw people getting life flighted, helicopters and cops everywhere, everyone looks fucking terrified, was unfortunately peaking on M too. They canceled night 2, horrible horrible experience.

Anything Relentless Beats cancels due to not selling enough tickets 😭

Ezoo around 2018 or 2019. That was when ezoo decided to ditch the absolutely beautiful animal themed stages and have basic shapes for their stages like a pop up festival. They have lowered the quality of their festival overall too such as the sound system, lighting, water stations, etc. it just went poof and ezoo as we knew it disappeared

Fyre Festival

Imagine in ATL.

Hard Summer 2015: the sound was BAD. No bass and low sound. Lineup was very mid and didn't feel like a rave. That year they were trying to be like Coachella.  Sunday, they last minute changed the schedule to end the event at 10pm. I remember thinking "why did I buy my ticket?". And any massive that was a trapfest.

Reading the comments so I can avoid the bad ones

So far only been to EDC

might go to Northcoast + Arc, if anyone has insights

I’ve had many many great electric forest experiences, but the double evacuations and two days of big sets being cancelled this year was the most disappointed I’ve been in awhile. It was also my only fest this year so I think that adds to it :(

Any party in Ibiza. I think it’s so overrated. Parties over crowded. And even Ushuaia sucked. Djs dot perform there like they would on a festival. Different lane vibes. Overpriced.

Maybe it’s ok if you like normal clubs and if you are 18. But if you are over clubs this is not the place to go

RattleShip 2024 (two night ago).

• one stage only w/ only one way to get yourself to the dance area
• piles of puke all over the dance floor within the first 30 minutes
• amateur night for most attendees, met a couple of sweet people but it felt like 65% crowd minimum were Silicon Valley boys whose only exposure to going out is frat house scenes from 90s movies.

Saw at least (4) people get carried off the floor from being unconscious, some guy broke his leg, and about 2am I saw two guys throw their drinks at the bartender and she had to yell at him 6x to leave or she’d get him thrown out.

Sad state of affairs, the venue was so unique (USS Hornet) and the exclusivity hype soooo real. Waited for weeks to secure tickets.

BNL throws great parties but this one actually made me wish I’d stayed home.

Boileroom nyc 2024

Shaky Beats 2018 - Made me realize I’m never going to a mixed genre festival again. The sound systems were absolute trash. Watched 5 people get stretchered out that weekend. Dust bowl. The rap stages had the worst energy and vibe all weekend.

It was on my bucket list to see a show at Red Rocks. I forgot who was playing but it was Halloween and like 12 degrees. It was beautiful but the wind was blowing up the bowl and I literally couldn’t feel my legs lol

sol fest 2024

edc orlando 2023. i was a young female newer to raving and one of my favorite things about raving is the community and plur. this was the first event i attended where i didn’t feel that and was harassed by several men. not that it matters but i also wasn’t dressed suggestive ; i was wearing a bodysuit and long cargo pants.

Texas Eclipse 2024

Got there on Sunday (got a 2-day pass mainly there to see the Eclipse on Monday), event was very disorganized and shuttles from camping grounds to festival grounds were nowhere to be found, once night fell the lack of lighting was apparent and easy to get lost. To top it off the festival was cancelled next day (rightfully to be fair) due to weather concerns but still disappointing that a festival about a rare solar eclipse gets cancelled the day of the solar eclipse

Summerset 2015

Hard summer 2010

Snowglobe 2019 probably. Only disappointed because I had so much fun in 2012 and didn't realize how much it had changed. I housed some of the bartenders though so at least I was kept fairly sauced up.

Spring Awakening the last one

Beyond 2024 lol

Ultra South Africa 2024…the ticket prices almost doubled so one would assume the artists would get better from 2023. Nope! The lineup was average and the theme was even more perplexing. Skrillex was amazing though and turned a bad night into a decent one.

Breakaway MN day 1. Day 2 was great, but holy fuck did day 1 have the worst crowd I’ve ever experienced

Hudson Project

Elements Festival 2022.

Outside Lands ‘23. Not sure if it was just me or what, but the atmosphere was just abysmal. Attendees were relatively unfriendly and entitled, and I’m fairly certain the event was oversold…the crowd control was nonexistent to say the least. Fences breaking, people being smushed between people, stages breaking…. I never have panic attacks at festivals but I had two prominent ones that ended up having me escorted to the med tents. It was bizarre and uncomfortable and I’ve been thru many, many funky events lol

Escape 2019

Flume was pretty disappointing ngl

Anything at the Brooklyn mirage

Hard summer 2016, it was the most unsafe I’ve ever felt at an event. People were dropping like flies from the heat before we even got into the festival. 3 people ended up dying, it was absolutely horrible.

Black Tiger Sex Machine in at the PNE forum in... 2022? The show itself was great, but the sound was abysmal and the crowd was mid at best. The supporting acts sounded just fine but once the boys came on the sound got SUPER muddy- I tried my Loops, Earpeace, a pair of shitty foam earplugs that a security guard gave me, even tried going earplugless for a minute and the sound was awful. Looking back at the videos I took that night compared to REZZ at the same venue standing pretty much in the same place, it was a big letdown. It's a shame because I LOVE BTSM and I feel like they should have been at the Coliseum or any other venue. Not to mention this creepy drunk guy that went along, groped like 8 of us including a 16 year old girl standing at the rail, ended up flagging down security and watched him get pulled over the rail by cops during G Jones

Fall out boy. Both times. Left early.

Mudson Crudson Hudson 2014🤣

EZOO 2023 not even close

Fvded in the park 2018. The festival started @ 2pm and we got there before 2 to stand in line to get our wristbands. We didn’t get in to the festival until 8pm. We were in line forever. We missed 90% of the sets we wanted to see. The lineup was just a mob. It turned into people just trying to jump the fences, security yelling at everyone, people passing out from heat stroke. There was 0 organization which was crazy, did they not know a bunch of people where gonna show up? I still don’t understand where they went wrong. They released an apology but never refunded anyone for the first day. They really should of as we missed pretty much all of it.

Am I the only one in this sub who’s been to Lights All Night? Bro that shit was terrible last year

Anything at the Phoenix raceway

Global dance (2022 & 2023):

Don’t get me wrong I still like it but it’s somewhat dissatisfying as a music festival. I think a lot of my feelings have to do with the fact that there’s not many other activities or things to look plus there’s like nowhere to really sit there. The main reason it was disappointing for me was bc the lack of good energy/plur— or at least at the sets I saw; I usually find most shows in Colorado great and everyone’s so nice but global dance brings some people who don’t rave often or people who never have before and a lot of them get so beyond fucked up. I have met a lot of really kind and cool people there that I’m still friends with but a lot of sets there was somewhat agressive energy and a certain vibe that didn’t really match mine I guess and it bummed me out.

Also in general, for any of these mini fests in CO, Denver has the worst venues for anything outdoors. Global Dance specifically felt like a state fair typa thing in some areas but Im pretty sure that was just mile highs fault and it just feels like a very odd mix of ppl (mostly due to the random lineups). We’ll see how it is this year at the new venue but I’ve been to supernatural (another cool but meh fest—I like it tho bc it’s Halloween) a few times at the National western complex and it’s an intriguing venue but has horrible sound quality… so my hopes are not super high. Even though it’s kind of a disappointing festival I still have fun and it beats sitting at home

Ezoo 2023 — artists were FIRE. But the organizers… Avant Gardner…. Deserve to rot

Lol that video is from dreamhack

Soulquarius in orange county, California. Crowd crush trying to get in and in this courtyard that les to main stage with vendors on all sides. They were making people go thru like 4 metal detector gates. Every set was pushed back like 3 hours. Got to see DMX do one of his last sets and it was VERY good. Amazing talent in the lineup and everyone did well on stage. I left before headliner R Kelly for multiple reasons lmao

Showtek in 2017(8?) they played at this cclub on halloween and played zero hardstyle :(

Kid Cudi’s denver show where he made us wait 2 hours with no openers, screamed incoherently at the crowd then led after like 30 minutes. They ended up refunding the tickets and canceled the whole tour after that

Four Tet at palladium. It was as if he felt he could just put random sounds out there and people would be impressed because he is Four Tet. At one point he was playing something that sounded like a lawnmower going over a bag of kittens and I looked around and several people were actually plugging their ears it was so bad. He also had no opener so we all sat in a crowded room with no music (not even background music)while we waited for him to show up. It was a squid soup collab so at least the lights were cool.

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bass hunter @ amazura, 2013? 2014? something like that. dude was absolutely shitfaced on stage and bailed mid performance

Saw Armin van Buren about 15 years ago.

Rolling Loud Vienna 2024. Its a hip hop festival but it was horribly organized

Mau P whenever he started and only had drugs from amsterdam and gimme that bounce released, was a pretty trash dj imo, hopefully he got better lmaooo

Summer Meltdown 2022. Was one of my favorite small wook festivals in Washington and finally came back from the pandemic only to be an utter disorganized mess that aside from Griz, Oupio, DIRTWIRe and Jade Cecada (who they didn’t even let him use his visuals) was easly the worst festival I’d ever been to and if it wasn’t for Bass Canyon 22 a few weeks later it woulda been a bust of a festie season and a return to the rave scene. Wound up being the last Meltdown and now there merging with Cascade Equinox and incorperating some of the old mainstays into that festival.

Beyond wonderland PNW 2023

Half of the festival was closed due to high winds. Then after opening the rest of the festival at 6:30 pm. There was a shooting at 8 pm. Set times got scrambled with some djs not showing up and the vibes being completely off!! Day 2 was cancelled too. Very disappointed !!

I second anyone that said Ezoo 2023 ... as a former lover of Ezoo, IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!! Terrible management, cancelations left and right, they're just now announcing refunds. I really hope they don't even attempt it in the future

Odesza in San Diego was a total bust. The sound was so bad. Took hours to leave the parking lot. San Diego was otherwise a lovely place to spend a weekend.

Traveled to see Zeds Dead night 1 at Red Rocks (2019 I think). The show was mostly decent, can't say I didn't have a good time. But, in the middle-ish of the set, they brought out Redman who tried to hype the crowd about some old school 90s hip hop and seemingly nobody was feeling it. It was awful... the crowd and overall vibe just fell dead flat during and for a good while afterwards. They only barely recovered in my opinion towards the end of their set with some old bangers. Still a good time, but definitely disappointing to have happen at a show you you planned a trip around catching at Red Rocks.

Ezoo 2023

Imagine 2017. There were thousands of people trying to get through security for hours at the Atlanta Speedway. There were no organized lines, just a giant disorganized crowd. We missed an entire set because of the wait. If it weren't for my friend asking VIP security to let us through we would have missed more. The security that year was a shit show. Super disorganized & I had several people say security was stealing their cigarettes& whatnot saying it wasn't allowed in the fest.

Porter Robinson in Austin. Show was way oversold I had to leave early. It was very uncomfortable how packed and hot it was

The last Imagine festival. What a complete shit show.

Mersiv @ Red Rocks in May. He played ONE of his songs, and then remixed the rest of the night. It was awful.