2018 was slowly approaching as it was time for the EDM community to gather up once again before ringing towards a new year

During the week of December 29th through the 31st, there were many events happening all at once. The Bay Area had the infamous POPNYE making its return since the Oracle Arena a few years back. SoCal had Insomniac’s Countdown and as well as OMFG NYE. But after all, I decided to attend Countdown for only a day and it was an amazing experience.

Located at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino, I was greeted with tremendous amount of traffic but luckily, there were non-venue parking for $20. Although the event was in SoCal, weather felt like the Bay Area with cold breezes blowing our faces; nonetheless, I was surprised that security only took just about 10-15 minutes to get into the venue.

Since I was there for a day, we planned our route to see certain artists starting with Mercer, an act well-known for doing an awesome remix of All Stars by Martin Solveig & ALMA. Mercer was as expected; opening for the headliners and throwing classic Euro house music that can be heard at clubs. Next, we went to see What So Not, an Australian music producer and formerly a duo with record producer Flume. Since I missed his show in San Francisco a year ago, I wanted to eagerly see him. As soon as he opened his set with one of his infamous songs, High You Are, I immediately knew it would be a good one to remember.

We finished the night in making sure I saw Alison Wonderland, Galantis, and Porter Robinson before heading on out.

Even though I attended Countdown for a day, it was well worth it to celebrate the New Year among family and friends.

Happy 2018!

-David Nguyen