Randall's Island

Electric Zoo is happening NOW! Head over to Randall's Island for New York's hippest Electronic Music Festival today, Saturday and Sunday anytime from 11am-11pm! This year, headliners include Tiësto, David Guetta and Armin van Buuren, and you can check out all other artists here.

And awesome music aside, what's making Electric Zoo even more hip is that the festival is instituting a set of green initiatives in an effort to be more environmentally conscious.

My Facebook Newsfeed poses a cultural contradiction: walls wail a lament of New York City nightlife, while simultaneous posts pop up about the surge of underground parties, which do truly host superb local talent. With Electric Zoo officially breaking the barrier of electronic sub-genres, where the future of house music lies is unknown, and in terms of dubstep, scary. For those of us underground lovers who refuse to shy away from this massive event of commercial mayhem, we do it for the Sunday School Tent, (and I'll speak for myself as I "Nordic-track" to Armin Van Buuren in gleeful reminiscence of raves circa-2000.) We do, after all, only get to see many of these artists once or twice a year, because sorry guys, right now Europe's party scene is 10-fold what we have here in New York. Nicole Moudaber is one of those such artists who you should not miss next weekend.

Electro fans from around the world gathered on Randall's Island Park this past weekend to get their dance on at New York City's own Electric Zoo. Despite the "dustboogers", the lineup was unbelievable, the weather was perfect, and the crowd came ready to move their feet.

THUMBS DOWN

The Chemical Brothers

Dubbleyou.Tee.Eff! What happened to you guys? Although this set was highly anticipated by Electric Zoo goers, it was quite the disappointment. The performance lacked emotion and “umph”. It was kind of, well, boring. But hey, at least the visuals were cool!

Dustboogers

Dancing leads to dust on Randall’s Park Island – a lot of it. Dust leads to dustboogers. Gross.

Less Is Not More

The crowd was bigger, the lineup was better, but the venue needs to step it up. There needs to be more signage regarding parking and where to walk, more water stands, more porta-pottys, more everything! It’s also time to start “enhancing” the grounds a bit, please refer to Ultrafest or Rothbury for ideas.

One Place At A Time

Because choosing between artists is so difficult sometimes, we wanted to see them all!


THUMBS UP


Diplo

When Diplo got on the 1's and 2's at E.Zoo, he didn't forget his A-game. The Red Bull Tent was bursting with energy both from the DJ and the crowd, who fed off of one another for the entire set. Diplo's unconventional integration of hip-hop favorites like "Beamer, Benz, & Bentley" with hard-hitting beats kept the crowd on their toes, literally - consistently amped and begging for more.

Kaskade

Kaskade’s sound is unfailingly emotional and heartfelt. His set this year at E.Zoo was no different. The music clearly connected the mass as they sang “Move for Me” and “Angel on My Shoulder” in perfect unison. Kaskade is a DJ who performs music that you not only hear, but feel, time and time again.

Above & Beyond

A&B’s set was packed with high-energy tunes like “On a Good Day”, "Road to Nowhere", and "Love Comes Again". They kept up crowd interaction by writing messages out on their laptop and holding it up for all to read – a gesture that was both unique and appreciated. At one point they wrote “Can you sing?” which was happily, and loudly, obliged. Towards the end of their set, they even hugged one another, and who doesn’t love that?

Fedde Le Grande

It was Fedde's first time at Electric Zoo, but it certainly will not be his last. Bringing energy from start to finish with intense visuals and lively mixes of "We Are Your Friends", “Walking On a Dream” and "Zombie Nation" amongst others, Fedde proved to be one of the best performances of the weekend.

Steve Aoki

If you came to party, you know to go to Aoki’s stage. Steve knows how to get you absolutely out of your skull, with both his music and his antics. His set included his own anthems “Turbulence”, “Pursuit of Happiness”, and his newest “BRRRAT!” (with Armin Van Helden). Amazing music, mind-blowing visuals, his signature champagne showers, and a dive into the crowd made Steve Aoki the perfect finale to a perfect weekend.

You!

This year’s festival was considerably more sizeable than last year’s, a testament to electronica music and to festival culture. We like this at Joonbug. With the music pumping and the crowd jumping, we can’t wait till next year! Wahoo!

Slideshow photos by Electric Zoo