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Official Digital Dreams Review Thread
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| DJOS2 |
Will start things off with a press link...
http://www.thescenemagazine.ca/digi...s-expectations/
What: Digital Dreams 2013
Where: 909 Lake Shore Blvd West – Flats at Molson Canadian Amphitheater (Ontario Place) – aka Echo Beach
When: June 29 & 30, 2013 – 3pm-1am
TOTAL SCORE: 9.8/10
Well over 50,00 heads (25k per day) passed through Ontario Place during the two day event which saw the likes of Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Porter Robinson, Dubfire, Bob Sinclair and Dash Berlin. A provincial flood watch and the annual Toronto Pride Parade did not stop fans from making history for a second year in a row.
Review by: Darrell Shelley
Memorable Sets:
DAY 1 -TJR – 6pm – Dreams Stage
As an underdog, newly signed to Chris Lake’s 360, TJR’s unique blend of House/Electro warmed up the crowd even more than the hot Lazy Rich set. This led nicely into the evening for Fake Blood and Bob Sinclar. Playing a combination of originals and remixes, this was the pivotal time slot to let the crowd know why they were at Digital Dreams 2013 and TJR did not disappoint – BIG RESPECT! (watch interview)
DAY 2 – DASH BERLIN – 8pm- Dreams Stage
Dash Berlin pulled off an intense set that saw crossovers from Trance to Dub Step breaks. After jumping on the DJ riser twice, Berlin proceeded to re-mix Darude’s classic Sandstorm which had the crowd going absolutely berserk before closing out the set for a fabulous warm up to Gartner and Tiesto.
Best moment:
In the photo pit when, unknowingly, I lost my sunglasses and some random fans worked together to get my attention all the way down the barricade until someone helped me retrieve my shades.
How awesome was the crowd was at Digital Dreams 2013? Read below…
With a 30+% chance of rain coming Saturday June 29, day 1 of Digital Dreams was predicted to be a wet dream. In fact parts of Union Station in Toronto experienced flooding early Friday morning with Environment Canada forecasting about 40 millimeters of rain Friday in Southern Ontario. With images of the historical flood in Calgary last week still fresh in their minds and a provincial flood watch in effect for parts of Southern Ontario, EDM fans from across the province were not deterred from attending Digital Dreams 2013. Some people brought their rain gear and the organizers looked prepared for whatever mother nature was planning. The rain however, held off and a beautiful 23 degree heat led into a magical evening.
Was it something in the music? Perhaps the good people vibes? Or maybe mother nature herself is just a fan of Digital Dreams. In either case, the clouds passed over head around 6pm (just as TJR started his set) and only a few drops of rain were felt.
The crowd was as multicultural and diverse as you would expect with costumes ranging from furred boots rainbow girls to Elvis Impersonators. There was a large amount of 19-24 year olds, a handful of underage kids and some of them were certainly experimenting with lyrics from the Jefferson Airplane song “White Rabbit”, however the majority of the crowd was exceptionally well behaved.
Perhaps it was the $100-$150 GA or the $200-$250 VIPs that kept out most of the riffraff. I heard of one group that spent $1500 on private bottle service for 4 that were planning to attend each evening only for Paul Van Dyk and Tiesto! In fact tier 1 platinum VIP bottle service sold for as high as $4000 for 12 guests.
Digital Dreams tends to cater to a very mature crowd which is contrary to what the general pubic thinks. There were many well to do career people in attendance and a retired couple in their mid 60s dancing right up in front near the stage.
On our way to the concert, the taxi driver was quick to express his opinion about those drug people down at Echo Beach.
“It’s just too much trouble, those people and the drugs” he muttered in his thick foreign accent.
Knowing there was no way I could convince someone who’d never been to a festival like this before, I simply paid the fare and smiled.
A vast majority of the crowd were the 80s babies who came from the school of Destiny raves in Southern Ontario in the early 90s. They’ve grown up, got real jobs, had kids, bought homes and were there to party their asses off no matter what the cost, without any trouble. It’s no surprise that live nation picked up ex-Destiny veteran Canadian electronic music producer Ryan Kruger (aka OS/2) to head up their new Electronic Nation in 2011.
Whatever Kruger is doing, it’s certainly working. Around 25,000 people attended on day one and day two saw a few thousand more heads despite the Gay Pride celebrations that were taking part all over the city. With two massive washroom stations and few more small ones scattered throughout, washroom lineups were a non issue. Security was a mix of friendly faces and rotten apples, perhaps this is to be expected when 50,000+ heads travel through the gates over two days. There were enough of them for the job and they did it well, I saw no weapons, no major problems and no one was seriously injured.
There were plenty of places to buy food and beer, free filtered water stations provided by Event Water Solutions and bottled Dasani if you preferred to pay the $3. The only thing missing was a wider selection of alcohol.
Our interviewer Julie Beauchamp who caught up with DJ TJR on Day one was looking for a shot of something strong:
“Anything except rum” she said “rum doesn’t agree with me”. After a long search we found only Bacardi products all with rum in them, some free samples were being handed out which was a bonus. Heineken or Molson Canadian were the beer options. It was obviously an agreement with the liquor sponsor that limited the selection for sale. Back stage and VIP had a larger selection including wines and vodkas. It would be nice to see the festival take on a vodka/wine sponsor next year, which will increase sales and please the crowd.
Sticking to beer we decided to peruse the entertainment on the three stages. The main stage aka Dreams Stage was where the main headliners played, it was more techno and trance. Stage two, Echo Beach was geared towards trance and house and the third stage House of Boom consisted of hardcore, dub step and trance core. Forty-five DJs entertained for two full days.
Notable performances that stood out were (see above for top choices):
DAY 1
Jelo ,Lazy Rich, TJR and Art Department
DAY 2
Damn Kids, Dash Berlin, Datsik and Dubfire.
Headliners Paul Van Dyk and Porter Robinson brought was was expected of them and Tiesto closed out the show on Sunday night to a record breaking attendance.
Sound and lights provided by Toronto’s Towers productions was second to none.
“The set up didn’t take too long. But I was here until 1:30am on Friday night waiting for Tiesto’s lighting guy to finish up. Man that was a long day! I don’t know why he needed to stay that late, but you’re in for a fantastic light show tomorrow night that’s all I can say.” said one of the crew members backstage on Saturday.
After asking dozens of people about the experience, the general consensus was that they got their money’s worth and will return again next year.
“It’s awesome I’m having a great time.” – Victoria
“Tiesto’s set – the light show’s amazing, the music he’s killing it, he’s got the crowd going crazy, there’s not much you can ask for” – Chevon Jodan (DJ Shavi)
“It’s pretty crazy, I like the music” – Matt (working the festival)
“I think it’s amazing , it’s alot of chemistry for everyone at once., there’s alot of different genres out here and arts are really explored through many different perspectives” Angelo Mariani
“Someone gave me this bracelet because I was complaining about being tired and it says ‘stimulate on it’, I thought that was nice” – Baily (working the festival)
“I paid $235 for a two day VIP” and it’s worth it? ” Hell ya!” – Rainbow Girl
“Dubfire over at Echo Beach is killing it! Dubfire is by far the main attraction of the night” – David & Paul
“The crowd’s been pretty good, low key everyone’s having a good time.” – Security Person (working the festival)
“Trance all day, trance family buddy! Never gonna live this one down” – Anonymous
No matter how many times we asked we couldn’t get a single negative comment about Digital Dreams 2013. There may have been a few hiccups and a few exhausted people as to be expected, but overall the experience was enlightening, overwhelmingly positive and very well organized. If mother nature was willing to change her plans to attend this years festival then it’s a clear indication that Ryan Kruger and Electronic Nation did something right and that fans will expect nothing but the best in years to come. |
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| Guest |
:haha: :haha: :haha:
I was seriously JUST gonna post this |
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| planetaryplayer |
| The sound at echo beach could have been better- day one from Paco and richie all I heard was the same bassline and nothing else, day two I heard main stage but I could hear some of the actual song atleast. Alcohol prices were stupid high. Too many repeat bookings - those would be my negatives. Day 2 significantly better, nice amount of food options. Had no real problem with the crowd. A few neon kids were standing at the front waiting for porter Robinson to come on as richie hawtin -was pretty funny.enjoyed art department a lot. Umek was solid, lawler and dubfire killed it. Weather was nice. The stage was pretty cool too, my friend thought dubfire was trying to open up hell with his red background and arrows. |
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| darouge11 |
| quote: | Originally posted by planetaryplayer
The sound at echo beach could have been better- day one from Paco and richie all I heard was the same bassline and nothing else, day two I heard main stage but I could hear some of the actual song atleast. Alcohol prices were stupid high. Too many repeat bookings - those would be my negatives. Day 2 significantly better, nice amount of food options. Had no real problem with the crowd. A few neon kids were standing at the front waiting for porter Robinson to come on as richie hawtin -was pretty funny.enjoyed art department a lot. Umek was solid, lawler and dubfire killed it. Weather was nice. The stage was pretty cool too, my friend thought dubfire was trying to open up hell with his red background and arrows. |
spades :P |
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| MSZ |
| Review thread by one of the people involved with the event, oh nice. |
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| geroin |
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| Guest |
| :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: :haha: |
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| kotsy |
| Not much else to say. Saturday was a little underwhelming musically but sunday as great. They really expanded the grounds from last year and there was a lot if food to choose from - the cheeasteak pouting from hogtown may be the best pouting I've ever had in my life! Was disappointing to see much less familiar faces than last year...hope there's more next year!! |
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| The Rattler |
Saturday was pretty much what I expected, pretty mellow throughout the day on Echo Beach until Richie came on. Paco Osuna and Boris were fun, but then the vibe died as Art Department and Azari came on. I know that's not popular opinion here but as much as I like their productions, I find them to tame in that setting. Sunday I thought was amazing in comparison to last year, a comparison I can make because well it's basically the exact same lineup.
I got there to see the Junkies, I love these guys at any time of the day. Destructo I had low expectations for but I really enjoyed his set, a very interesting sound. Starting with Umek everybody gave much more energetic sets than last year. Umek was a blast to watch being fairly close to the stage with the beach balls flying everywhere. Mark Knight was fun, a bit sloppy but I'm surprised he played Gary Beck - Video Siren, love that track. Steve Lawler was awesome, what a great set to introduce Dubfire...
Where I got massively disappointed, not because of him but hearing Tiesto all over everything. It was pretty cool however to hear him beat and key match everything Tiesto did, even timed breakdowns and the lot it was pretty neat. I left at 11:30 to get to Moskito before the lineup and...
Holy was that something else, it wasn't a b2b set as we were promised but Umek totally delivered. I usually prefer darker techno but man, Umek is always fun. He smashed the sauna that Moskito had become until Mark Knight came on and played a much more fun set than he did at Digi. Great night. Great weekend.
I thought that this year was much better than last year, everything seemed more wide open and spread out. There didn't seem to be as many bottlenecks when trying to move around either, good job there for sure. Drinks are still absurd but that's festival life, had a great time. Can't wait until next year, I'm curious to see if they'll make it 2 days again. No long weekend? |
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| randallpink |
| how about art department finishing their set with daft punks "alive" off of homework. i pooed my pants when that came in |
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