For those of us who made it down to Pimlico, Baltimore this past weekend for Moonrise Festival, the answer to this question might be a cautious “yes”. In comparison to last year’s installment, security issues and logistical problems were less frequent, which helped attendees focus on the music.
To begin our Moonrise 2017 review, start by watching the recap video.
On the first day, artists like MUST DIE! and RL Grime succeeded at getting everyone moving with bass heavy sets at the Solar Dance Tent.
While the event did make it through more than half of its scheduled sets that day, a severe thunderstorm warning led the event team to suspend the festival for about two and a half hours. As a result, artists like Migos, Boombox Cartel, Getter, Kaskade and Afrojack were unable to play their sets…
That was definitely upsetting for fans, but from a logistical standpoint, the team behind Moonrise handled the situation very well. The rain and thunder did force fans to huddle in the main building at the Pimlico Race Course.
Still, everyone was safe from the rain. The wait became more interesting since some very determined festival goers decided to croon Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the rain, and slide around in the mud on the race course. The staff and security members were very friendly, chatting with people and keeping everyone entertained.
The festival sent out innumerable updates to keep people in-the-know, and by 9 PM the crowd was on its way back into the festival venue. While the crowd was repeatedly told to remain orderly before re-entry began, many people comically jumped over fences and barricades to re-enter.
Set times were shifted to accommodate some of the remaining acts set to play on Saturday, giving everyone the chance to catch Carnage, Rezz and Madeon, among others. These artists made sure to give fans the best experience possible, given the storm-related issues. Madeon particularly threw down, with a sick light show and all of the fan favorites, like ‘Shelter’, his epic collaboration with Porter Robinson.
Take a listen to REZZ’a ‘Purple Gusher’ below:
On its second day, Moonrise took on an entirely different energy.
While the first day was as fun as feasibly possible, given the storm, the second day was all about sunshine and good vibes. Getter was able to play a set, since the festival reorganized set times, and fans were very pleased to see him, opening up some insane mosh pits.
Acts like Ookay drew in huge crowds with trap-filled sets. Markus Schulz had an awesome set, too, given that he was one of the few artists to provide fans with the trance experience during the weekend.
Listen to and download for free Ookay’s remix of Duke Dumont’s ‘Need U’:
Lil Uzi Vert made up for the lost Migos set. The crowd went crazy as soon as the opening chords to his hit “XO TOUR Llif3” began to play.
In a way that only he could do, Porter Robinson was the act that truly saved the weekend.
With hits like ‘Fresh Static Snow’, ‘Divinity’ and ‘Language’, which are arguably some of his best tracks to-date, he easily won over his audience. The crowd was ecstatic to catch the distinct act live, jumping, swaying and shouting along to each song. Fireworks, lasers, streamers and confetti filled the sky as the sun set.
As we hope you can tell by now, the event did not struggle as much as it did in 2016, and certainly made up for this year’s troubles. The staff was professional, the experience was authentic, and the music was top-notch. We are sure that we will be returning to Moonrise Festival next year, we hope that you will be too.
