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Copying and pasting this from my tribe review.
This was my first time going to DEMF and I was generally pleased. I thought the line up was stellar - lots of familiar artists and new ones I wanted to hear.
Saturday
Arrived to Hart Plaza around 4pm. After getting familiar with the layout and walking about 100 miles to find an ATM, we settled in at the beatport stage which had a tent and it was raining. Pier Bucci was finishing up and Guido Schneider was next - definitely one of the guys I wanted to see and for good reason - really groovy minimal and tech house.
After guido is where Saturday gets a bit fuzzy as I was throwing back these ridiculous alcoholic energy drinks at an alarming rate and forgot to eat dinner completely. We checked out Kerri Chandler on the main stage but the rain brought us back to the beatport tent eventually, where Marco Carola was closing. I recall dancing and stumbling a lot.
Following Marco's set and more drinks at the hotel, I went to MoCad for the Kevin Saunderson/Kenny Larkin after party. It was dead and very far from downtown. No vibe there at all. Stayed there til about 2:45 and decided to go to the Works for the Substance party with Tony Rohr + Tim Xavier (as afternoon coffee boys), Camea, Dustin Zahn along with many others. The back room was a sweat fest and the beats were too hard for my liking. Camea played a great set but other than that, the music didn't really wow me. Met John Selway and Abe Duque.
Sunday
Woke up suddenly with a brutal energy drink hangover and not enough sleep, but I was really looking forward to checking out almost all of the artists so we got to the festival around 2. Still raining....bummer.
We beelined for the "real detroit" stage which was also tented and hosting Ryan Crosson when we arrived. The set was superb but the levels were up way too high and even with earplugs we had to leave. Wandered around the grounds until we came across Kate Simko in the beatport tent - fantastic live set. Heidi was up next and despite being from Canada, I had never heard of her. This girl has crazy energy. After Heidi came Misstress B who played a much tighter and consistent set than when I saw her last. After her set, I caught little bits of D.Diggler, Gui Boratto and Abe Duque. I was beginning to get techno ADD at that point and a lot of things had started sounding the same. There was an abundance of minimal and it did get somewhat tiring after about 24 hours.
Michael Meyer saved the day though - I wouldn't even know what to call his set, very dark Kompakt type stuff, but still danceable. Stayed there til about 10:30 when we left for the hotel. I regret not seeing Steve Bug but I heard he was just okay, and I was minimal'd out.
For Sunday night, I had tickets for Barbara's after party, the tronic party and the richie party.  Barbara's set was right at 12 so we checked that out first. The venue was a very poorly laid out restaurant/lounge with tents set up outside, where she was playing. No vibe/crowd in there at all really and they would not stop with the horrible smoke machine - probably on account of it being DEAD in there and not wanting people to notice - we left around 1:15 for tronic.
At this point a sports game had just let out + festival people = completely insane downtown detroit. The tronic party was in a "historic music building" which was three floors, all looking like a cheap sports bar. Stayed upstairs mostly for John Selway, Christian Smith and Deetron, though we did go down to the grungy, weird little basement to check out tony rohr who was great. Deetron was the highlight of the night, playing really deep and danceable techno until they closed at 5. Didn't make it to richie's party because it closed down right at 4, despite the fact that richie came on much later than expected.
Back to the hotel to await details on the annual Monday morning outdoor after after party. I was running out of gas but really wanted to check out a party off the beaten path.....and it was. Butane, Matthew Dear, Ryan Crosson and Seth Troxler were on at some weird bar thing in a bizarre area of town. totally word of mouth. Behind the building was a beautiful grassy space with lawn furniture, sunlight and draft beer. Stayed about 45 minutes then bailed to get some shut eye.
Monday
Missed Gaiser, Paco Osuna, Lazy Fat People, 3 chairs and loco dice because I didn't get out of bed til 4:30pm.  Finally felt a bit more normal though and found the crew at the main stage, rockin out to John Acquaviva. Not my cup of tea at all - and can we please stop playing bay of figs and mouth to mouth already?
Next up was Luciano in the beatport tent. Completely ridiculous set. I couldn't decide between dancing and picking up my jaw off the floor so I ended up doing both. It was a real treat to hear a 2 hr set from this guy instead of the smaller timeslots other artists had. Just when I thought I'd heard my set of the festival, Richie came on and just destroyed everything. I like Richie but he has been losing my interest lately and after hearing mixed reviews about Mod last friday and the Minus after party on Sunday, I didn't have big expectations. His set was as I remember him to be maybe 3 or 4 years ago - much more thumping techno with all of the usual richie tricks and effects and sounds that make your skin crawl. The tent was rammed to the tits with people just going totally mental. It was the kind of vibe I was hoping to get from the rest of the festival but only Richie seemed to be able to bring it out of people.
At 10pm we jetted to the main stage to hear the man, Jeff Mills. Much respect to the guy for what he does but I was just not as into the track selection as I was with Richie's set. It was all over the place from hard to jazzy to deep. Still, it's hard not to get caught up with the thousands of other people losing their shit beside you. Stayed til close then went back to a hotel for more drinking and silliness.
Tuesday
ROUGH.......................
So in summary...the good: Richie, Luciano, Kate Simko, Deetron, Michael Mayer, Guido Schneider, the weather on Monday, the location, the diversity of people (ravers, old people, freaks, geeks, clubbers, kids, techno vets, techno noobs, people from all over the world), the sound set up (for the most part), the people I went with, the non-overbearing police and security presence.
The not so good: the weather, the price and means of getting food and drink on the grounds, not being able to take your own water in, not having anywhere to fill up a water bottle, somehow being in the hotel furthest from the festival, John Acquaviva, the somewhat disappointing and poorly attended after parties, not being able to sell my richie ticket because it was a will-call, did I mention the price of food and drinks?, the cabbies (though they are cheap), the lack of ATMs on the grounds until Sat evening, not having anywhere dry to sit (only stand) when it was raining.
Pics to follow, if any of them are non incriminating. (doubtful)
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