Airdrop Records, Agency & Blog

Photo Credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for Made-Event.com

It’s official, NYC now has its own electronic music festival. After many attempts from Larry Tee’s to last year’s hyped minitek, many have tried and many have failed. I am sure that there were a few people like me going to the festival to analyze how well it was produced just as much as listening to 40+ big name DJs. Made Event’s Electric Zoo Festival has succeeded in creating a festival leaving fans wanting more and a profitable long term venture.

PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Kowalchyk for Made-Event.com

With a wealth of talent and 26,000 fans over the course of a rare rain-free weekend in NYC, Made Event definitely held up to expectations and delivered a smooth experience. Taking place over Labor Day Weekend, the production was carefully planned and ran seamlessly. Both days were loaded with high in demand artists across the different sub genres of electronic music making it difficult to chose one day over the other. As a part of Airdrop that has its own vision when it comes to music, I just can’t force myself to be a fan of many of the artists like Roger Sanchez . Nonetheless, I was still excited to catch sets from Francois K, Luciano, Steve Bug and many others as well as hear a few new DJs. The Sunday School Stage, surrounded with its signature degenerate yellow school buses was the home for most of the music I came to listen to, especially on a perfect summer day and night.

PHOTO CREDIT: Julia Skya for Electric Zoo

In general, everything was well thought out; however there were a few details that would have improved the experience, like being able to be on the dancefloor without being totally submerged under a tent (except for the main stage)… or a more practical VIP tent.

Photo Credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for Made-Event.com

Why I think 2010 will be one of the best US festivals of the year?

The lineup will be big… Just how big? I am not sure, but Made will probably keep a similar format, which means the number of artists may not increase too much. Though there is still potential to add some big names to the after parties, maybe also add another stage at the festival. Either way, I think there is a budget and industry confidence to convince Ricardo Villalobos to make a huge US return or just make Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra’s lineup fantasies come to life…

What this continued success could also mean?

The US electronic music industry will keep growing as whole. For the fans, it means more opportunities to see DJs they love and discover new ones, also in turn fostering new artist growth.

I truly hope that the growth of the “DJ market” in the US will propel the industry to adjust methods of accountability for performance royalties. This is of great benefit to the composers/producers behind the music and whose face is not always the one on stage. Richie Hawtin made a major leap in this direction with the launch of the Twitter Traktor DJ app.

PHOTO CREDIT: Bennett Sell-Kline for Made-Event.com

I have faith that many of the issues that came up this year will be corrected or adjusted to their best of abilities. I can only hope that in future editions Made Event will take more creative risks and possibly even take a few extra steps to leave people in total awe.

TILL NEXT YEAR!