Spring Awakening Music Festival threw a 3-day house warming rager that had the Hoffman Estates Major in great spirts came Monday morning.
This year, the Chicago native festival, changed its location to the massive 27 acres Poplar Creek. Some may have liked the new location, others may have not liked the journey there… however way you felt, once you entered the gates of SAMF, you felt nothing but glitter, love, joy, and music.
Getting to the grounds, from the city…which for me, it’s what makes SAMF so special – CHICAGO… was a bit of a journey. Ubers were in the upwards of $130 and about an hour and a half commute, one way. Hopping on the train (The Blue line in this case) took about an hour and 45 minutes and only cost $10 (both ways!). So for our squad, the train was a no brainier. The festival also provided free shuttles from the final train stop to the grounds, dropping everyone off right in front of the gates.
Getting in the festival was amazing. The staff was friendly and helpful, the check-in security staff was kind and thorough. I always believe in the benefits of VIP tickets, and at SAMF they stand true. Speedy entry, designated food and bars and way better restrooms. So next year, and if you’re 21+, get yourself a VIP ticket. It’s worth it! If you don’t, but want to, you can always upgrade to VIP once you’re there. Also, an amazing feature that I have not seen at any other festival was the VIP areas between the two main stages were connected! Providing VIPers the ability to run back and forth, not be stuck in the crowds, have faster food and drink lines and less waiting for restrooms. Which, also takes away from foot traffic in the general area. SMART move SAMF! SMART! MOVE!!!!
We all know the music is amazing, the lineup was filled with heavy hitters and the last minutes changes were the cherry on top! How Spring Awakening stands out among the rest festivals is on how they care for their attendees. Everyone was educated on what protocols to follow, adapted quickly when changes needed to be made (parking on day one – I was told – was a bit hectic), and the level of medics available to care for any emergency was incredibly comforting.
Day one gallery:
As a whole, Spring Awakening 2019 gets a B+! Not to mention I got to celebrate National Bestfriends Day with one of my top 10! Who, BTWs, had never been to a electronic music festival before – The ability to see a festival from a newbie’s perspective is amazing! So next year, grab your bestfriend, plan to stay near the grounds, your energy level and patience will thank you. As always, Spring Awakening was an amazing experience and so happy to call this one of my favorite summer festivals!
React Presents and Jam Productions announce the 1st round of artist that will rock out Montrose Beach on Friday, August 23rd & Saturday, August 24th! As Chicago’s exclusive beach music festival, Mamby on the Beach will be bringing amazing artist to celebrate the new festival location, Montrose Beach.
The Mamby 2019 headliners are Brockhampton, Troye Sivan, ZHU, Sylvan Esso, Virtual Self, and Flying Lotus 3D. Supporting acts include Quinn XCII, Phantogram, Santigold, Justin Martin, DJ Seinfeld, Summer Walker, A R I Z O N A, Sofi Tukker, a DJ Set by Washed Out, NAO, WAJATTA (comprised of Reggie Watts and John Tejada), and more. More artists will be announced very soon.
MAMBY ON THE BEACH 2019 LINEUP
A R I Z O N A
BOB MOSES
BROCKHAMPTON
DJ SEINFELD
ELI & FUR
ELTON
EMPRESS OF
FLYING LOTUS 3D
JOHN SUMMIT
JUSTIN MARTIN
KASBO
MANIFEST
MASTERIA
NAO
PAPG G
PHANTOGRAM
PHANTOMS
QUINN XCII
ROBOTAKI
ROOSEVELT
SAM GELLAITRY
SANTIGOLD
SMILES DAVIS
SOFI TUKKER
SOSUPERSAM
SUMMER WALKER
SYLVAN ESSO
THE ACES
TIM BARESKO
TROYE SIVAN
VIRTUAL SELF
WAJATTA (Reggie Watts x John Tejada)
WASHED OUT (DJ SET)
WINDY CITY SOUL CLUB
YOKE LORE
YOUNG FRANCO
ZHU
MORE ARTISTS TBA
While we still have a few months till we’re grabbing our SunBum SPF, favorite ASOS swimsuit, QUAY shades and sinking our toes in the sand… one thing is for sure; Mamby’s 2019 artist lineup is BEACHIN’!
React Presents is thrilled to announce the new location and dates for Mamby On The Beach 2019. Chicago’s only beachside summer music festival will return for its fifth year on Friday, August 23rd and Saturday, August 24th at Montrose Beach. The beautiful new location, conveniently located on the city’s Northside, will offer additional space to accommodate three stages, beach-friendly games and all-inclusive activities.
Mamby On The Beach yields a majestic experience unlike anything else in Chicago. This year React Presents is excited to partner with Jam Productions to feature an incredible lineup for the two-day festival, which showcases artist performances that represent a wide variety of musical genres. The lineup and tickets will be released on Monday, June 3rd.
Since its inception, Mamby called Oakwood Beach its home, a prime location boasting scenic coastal views with an unforgettable backdrop of the Chicago skyline. Over the past four years, Mamby has felt fortunate thanks to the endless support from the surrounding Bronzeville community, and continues to support Oakwood Beach through initiatives like the Mamby Movement Beach Cleanup. Now, as the festival continues to grow, React Presents and Jam Productions look towards the future and are excited to find Mamby a new home with a bigger footprint at Montrose Beach. The new location is a 15-minute drive from downtown Chicago and a 5-minute walk from the Redline Wilson stop.
WATCH THE OFFICIAL RECAP VIDEO FROM 2018
Montrose Beach will also provide more opportunities for Mamby’s famed More The Music series. Each year, the list of all-inclusive activities expands, with countless fun and games to explore, including silent disco yoga sessions, nutritional and wellness workshops, beach-friendly games, live painting, fire performances, tarot card and palm readings, meticulous art installations, and makeover options from the Braid Bar, Henna and Body Art Domes. A schedule and full list of More Than Music activities will be announced closer to the festival.
For attendees who want to take a dip in the lake, a barefoot stroll through the sand, or a musical romp alongside the festival’s exhilarated fans, Mamby will once again provide the perfect, sun-soaked getaway. Follow Mamby on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news and announcements, including the 2019 artist lineup and on sale of ticket options.
Spring Awakening Music Festival is thrilled to announce this year’s official after parties! Taking place at Chicago’s most popular nightclubs including Prysm, Spybar, Sound Bar, TAO and Electric Hotel, there are myriad shows throughout the weekend to keep the party going long after the festival ends. Tickets will sell out so grab yours now before it’s too late! Check out the complete list of after parties below.
THURSDAY JUNE 6: Pre-Party.
Dombresky & Gene Farris – Soundbar – Get Tickets HERE (21+)
And just like that, summer officially starts in the circle city. The Indianapolis 500 kicks off a series of events that define the summer season in Hoosier-ville. The heat, the sun, the constant wonder if it will actually rain, and of course, the unavoidable farmers tan lines – caused by the constant uncertainty of really not knowing it will rain or not!
The 2019 edition of the infamous Snake Pit couldn’t ask for better weather. The morning overcast cleared around the time the green flag was waved and the sky provided enough clouds to not overheat the hearts that thump throughout turn 3 of the Indianapolis Motor Speed Way. The Snake Pit class of 2019 was initiated by Ricky Retro, followed by electro-deep house DJ Chris Lake (personal favorite), next Illenium dropped his classic uplifting beats before the Pre-race traditions and green flag allowed the Indy 500 drivers take over the track.
The music resumed with Alesso taking over the decks. He’s hour and a half set fueled up the energy and brought back to life the rookies that were a little too drunk by the end of Chris Lakes’ set – we’ve all been there. Skillex took over as race day came close to it end. He’s music kept up with the roaring of the cars as they approached their finals turns and the energy throughout the track cheered the victory of Simon Pagenaud. Our Snake Pit will always deliver an incredible time, generate memories that will leave forever; specially the ones that some might forget. Wether the 2019 edition kicked started your summer festivities or provided you with major FOMO, rest assure that better planning (on your part) for the 2020 Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit is undeniable. Check out the 2019 Snake Pit Presented by Coors Light SQUAD:
How are you celebrating your Memorial Day Weekend?
This past weekend, Swedish House Mafia reunited for three historic sold-out nights at Stockholm’s Tele2 Arena, breaking the venue’s attendance record with over 115,000 fans attending the shows. See footage of the epic performance HERE.
Photo Credit: Hannes Söderlund
Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso gave fans everything that has made Swedish House Mafia one of the most compelling live acts in the world – a stunning production, their classic hits such as “Don’t You Worry Child,” “Save The World,” and “One” plus a special first listen of some brand new music.
Photo Credit: Hannes Söderlund
Fans from around the world travelled to be a part of the spectacular shows and were treated to a massive production featuring a 54 metre long and 17 metre high screen, a vast floating stage, three giant circular lighting rings creating Swedish House Mafia’s signature logo and three huge circles of fire that were suspended above the packed crowd.
Photo Credit: Hannes Söderlund
Swedish House Mafia’s story so far has been one of amazing highs, with the trio achieving global success that propelled them to the forefront of dance music. Despite later facing difficult times that saw the breakdown of friendships along the way, Swedish House Mafia has put the past behind them, coming back together as artists, friends and family. Their return to their hometown marks the beginning of the next chapter for the iconic trio.
Photo Credit: Hannes Söderlund
Fans can catch Swedish House Mafia this summer and fall as they bring their incredible live show all over the world. Please visit http://swedishhousemafia.com/ for additional info, and watch for more from Swedish House Mafia coming soon.
New decade, new location, new vibes! North Coast Music Festival turns 10 and it’s celebrating with a bang!
BASSNECTAR and MAJOR LAZER will headline North Coast’s 10 year anniversary over Labor Day Weekend on Friday, August 30 and Saturday, August 31. Additional acts include Jauz, Jai Wolf, Tchami, Flux Pavilion, Big Wild, Gorgon City (Live), Snakehips, Trampa, Ookay (DJ Set), Yung Bae, Dirty Monkey, SG Lewis, Anna Lunoe, i_o, Melvv, SoDown, Ford, Inzo, Stratus, Align, Elevatd, GoodSex, Birthdayy Partyy, and Dee Mash. Counting over 25 acts encompassing a wide range of electronic styles will perform across two stages at the festivals new home.
The now 2-day festival will move to Huntington Bank Pavilion, located on Northerly Island in Chicago. Huntington Bank Pavilion is a massive outdoor amphitheater located on a beautiful man-made peninsula off the shores of Lake Michigan – where “Coasties” will now be able to enjoy a refreshing lakefront breeze along with a backdrop of the city skyline.
VIP, Single Day and Two-Day Tickets will go on sale at 12:00pm CST on Friday, April 26 at www.northcoastfestival.com.
ULTRA Music Festival made its indelible mark this past weekend on its new home in Miami’s picturesque Miami Marine Stadium & Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. With over 170,000 fans from over 105 countries attending across 3 days, the 21st edition proved to be the biggest yet for the World’s Premier Electronic Music Festival. Exclusive headlining performances from Carl Cox, The Chainsmokers, Dubfire B3B Nicole Moudaber B3B Paco Osuna, deadmau5, Galantis, GRiZ, ILLENIUM, Jamie Jones B2B Joseph Capriati,, Louis The Child, Marshmello, Martin Garrix, NGHTMRE + SLANDER present Gud Vibrations, ODESZA, REZZ, Richie Hawtin, Sasha | John Digweed, Testpilot, and Zedd helped mark a new chapter in the festival’s ever-expanding history.
The 21st edition featured 8 unique stages, all meticulously curated in sound and production. The world-renowned Main Stage provided attendees with yet another year of unparalleled performances with Marshmello, Martin Garrix, and The Chainsmokers closing the festival each night. To add a new dimension to the already scenic Miami Marine Stadium, the Live Arena hosted visually stunning and immersive performances from headliners Galantis, Gigantic NGHTMRE, GRiZ, ILLENIUM, Louis The Child, ODESZA, and the legendary Tom Morello. Canadian mainstay deadmau5 brought his highly anticipated Cube 3.0 stage to life for its worldwide debut on Saturday. Before taking the production across the nation on his Cube 3.0 tour, the Canadian native gave ULTRA patrons and livestreamers a first look at the new and improved version of his classic ‘Cube’. Positioning the globally revered producer dead center with a 360-degree swivel, the stage is both undeniably arresting and visually encompassing. Fellow Canadian, Lights, took the stage with deadmau5 to perform ‘Raise Your Weapon’, and an instant classic, ‘Drama Free’.
UMF TV provided a livestream across the 3 days of the festival, inviting viewers to experience the new venue in the comfort of their own home. Commencing daily at 5:00PM EST, the livestream broadcast one-of-a-kind performances from ULTRA’s new home to 30 million viewers worldwide. Performances from the likes of Tiësto, Alesso, Dog Blood, deadmau5, Carl Cox, The Chainsmokers and Armin van Buuren were featured across the weekend, among many others.
ULTRA Music Festival once again featured a slew of unannounced surprises, with Armin van Buuren bringing out one of the weekend’s most intriguing guests, Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth. The two debuted a remix of the legendary rock band’s iconic song, ‘Jump’, which had the entire festival on their feet. NGHTMRE & Slander brought out NBA Hall of Fame member Shaquille O’Neal for nearly five minutes, in a fantasy back-to-back-to-back appearance. Martin Garrix filled the ‘TBA’ slot on his STMPD Records-hosted stage at UMF Radio on Sunday, Afrojack called upon Rae Sremmurd, and The Chainsmokers united alongside ILLENIUM to unveil their monstrous new collaboration.
For the first time in the event’s history, RESISTANCE reigned supreme on its very own Island, as it welcomed performances from some of house and techno’s most in-demand names. Often imitated but never outdone, Carl Cox’s Megastructure made its return to ULTRA Music Festival’s underground haven with standout sets from Belgian star Charlotte de Witte, Jamie Jones B2B Joseph Capriati, and Tale Of Us, rounding off the three-day festivities with a monumental B2B courtesy of techno titans Adam Beyer and Maceo Plex. Premiering at the event’s 21st edition, the Reflector stage dedicated its 2nd day to Richie Hawtin’s PLAYdifferently, closing its debut with a B3B from Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber,and Paco Osuna. Other Reflector stage highlights included headline performances from Testpilot, Sasha | John Digweed, Sven Vath and Black Coffee. Offering revelers yet another brand new stage to enjoy, RESISTANCE Island welcomed the Arrival stage, provided by Burning Man’s PLAYGROUND sound camp, featuring euphoric performances by house and techno pillars including Alan Fitzpatrick, Cristoph, Technasia B2B Carlo Lio, and more.
ULTRA Music Festival’s new home on Virginia Key presented new and timely challenges to implement conscious environmental practices. ULTRA’s ecological commitments primarily focus on pollution prevention, nature preservation, waste reduction, community engagement, responsible resource strategies, and traffic mitigation. By minimizing any potential environmental impacts that may result from production, ULTRA will soon become an example for festivals around the world to follow. Following the festival’s conclusion, the Miami Seaquarium took to Twitter to commend the locations of the speakers and sound levels, reassuring concerned environmentalists of the safety of their animals post-event.
“Through its new sustainability initiatives, event organizers maintained the event grounds in good condition throughout the weekend. All crews, patrons and volunteers observed the event’s Leave No Trace initiative by keeping dance floors clear throughout the event and even usingpocket ashtrays provided by organizers to reduce cigarette litter. Cleaning crews worked tirelessly through the night following each event day and to ensure that Historic Virginia Key Beach Park and most of the surrounding perimeter areas were clean by 5:00AM.” – ULTRA Music Festival
“The required environmental management and remediation plan, not required of any other music festival to occur at these locations, was prepared, finalized and delivered to the City of Miami on time on January 28, 2019. During the proceeding months, weeks, and days leading up to the event, Ultra Music Festival has stood tall and worked with Cardno to meet environmental requirements of their license agreement, including construction, deconstruction and during the event on March 29 – 31, 2019.” – Cardno
“At all times during the production, event organizers operated real time compliance monitoring for noise impacts at both festival sites and in the surrounding areas. In our experience, this is unprecedented for similar events.” –Trinity Consultants
With the City of Miami, City of Miami & Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue working tirelessly to make the event and its attendees as safe as possible, 36 arrests – albeit mostly preventative ones – were made over the weekend, making the event one of the safest editions to date.
With the conclusion of the 21st edition of Miami’s very own ULTRA Music Festival, the event has confirmed their return on March 27, 28, 29th, 2020. **Pictures provided by Ultra Music Festival | Get in PR!
Check out the complete list of SAMF 2019 artists below. Some notable acts include Galantis, Zomboy, Yellow Claw, Malaa, Dillon Francis, Flosstradamus B2B 4B, Benny Benassi, Space Jesus, Chris Lake, Shiba San, Liquid Stranger, Claptone, Nora En Pure and many more. This year’s Branded Stage showcases will be hosted by Destructo’s AMFAMFAMF (All My Friends), Above & Beyond’s Anjunabeats, and React’s very own Bass Kitchen.
Spring Awakening Full 2019 Artist Lineup.
For 2019 in Poplar Creek, more than 90 artists will perform across five unique stages, demonstrating a dynamic variety of genres within the electronic music spectrum. Spring Awakening Music Festival will also feature stunning stage production, interactive art installations, carnival rides, and much more. Stay tuned for Single Day tickets and more announcements.
The new 2019 location boasts 27 acres of land, nearly double that of last year’s site, which allows for bigger and better stages, more production, and additional experiential environments. Complimentary shuttles from nearby Metra stations to the festival grounds will be provided to fest-goers. Additionally, the grounds are less than ten minutes from multiple hotel options, and for the first time in SAMF history, the location will allow for festival parking on site.
2019 FESTIVAL TO BE HELD JUNE 7–9 IN HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL
GA AND VIP PASSES ON SALE NOW:http://www.springawakeningfestival.com/
As the air starts to warm up and the time springs forward an hour (or whatever it is in your time zone), we can finally say… the wait is over! THE WAIT IS OVER!!!! We finally know where Spring Awakening will be making us dance this summer AND by whose beats (well, we still gotta wait a little longer for the FULL-ish lineup, but you catch my drift)!!!
DJ Snake | GRiZ | Illenium | Martin Gerrix | Rezz | ZEDD
“The 2019 all-star lineup includes Grammy-nominated hit-maker DJ Snake; Grammy-award winning producer/DJ/multi-instrumentalist/songwriter, ZEDD; DJ Mag’s three-time No. 1 Top 100 list DJ, Martin Garrix; Juno Award-winning Canadian DJ/producer, REZZ; funk/electro-soul/future-funk DJ/producer/sax master GRiZ; and melodic bass producer extraordinaire DJ ILLENIUM. The full lineup will be revealed on Friday, March 15.”
Poplar Creek at 59-90 Entertainment District in Hoffman Estates, a Northwest Chicago suburb.
The 2019 edition to the Spring Awakening headlining lineup, the festival also announces its new location: Poplar Creek at 59-90 Entertainment District in Hoffman Estates. Doubling the space from last years’ location, the 27 acres lot will provide parking (1st time ever), bigger stages, more production, more space for attractions and, as SAMF states “additional experiential environments.”
Unlike previous years, SAMF will be providing festival goes with free shuttles form nearby train stations to and from the festival grounds, and for the first time in festival history: parking ON SITE (so have a sober buddy)!! So grab your squad and get to planning! Spring Awakening has continue to grow over the last few years and with a new location, the possibilities for an incredible time are endless!!!
Spring Awakening 2018
Tickets Are On Sale Now at www.springawakeningfestival.com and for nearby hotels info, click here.
