Bay Area Summer event, hopefully more to come…

As days get shorter and the weather is cooler, it’s a tell-tale sign the calendar year is transitioning to Fall, while Summer Festivals are dwindling down ‘till mid-September.  The West Coast region has been privileged to numerous wide ranging festivals from Hardfest in Southern California, Electric Daisy Carnival in Sin-City, Symbiosis and Stilldream in North Central Valley to Outside Lands in beautiful San Francisco and Paradiso in the Evergreen State of Washington, just to name of few.

In the past few years, the Bay Area has seen many all EDM Summer Festival events come and go such as the long reigning Love Parade aka Love Fest aka LovEvolution, Identity Festival, I love This City Festival and of recent Beyond Wonderland.  Though,  the bay area does not lack of world-renowned EDM talents making club/concert appearances or obscure events like ‘How Weird Street Faire’; it still misses a consistent annual summer festival where partiers can look forward to, year after year, being how the Love Parade once was, where partiers from Southern California up to Washington State made their ways to this magnificent one-day event which included an amazing after-party hosted by Skills and Spundae.

Summer 2016 has been good to the Bay Area thanks to World Town Inc. and Midnite Events for providing SUPERCITY SUMMER FEST, August 19^th, 2016, at the Oakland Coliseum for their 2nd festival installment since joining forces.  The first event, SUPERCITY 50, turned out to be a success attendance wise with a line up comprising of Alesso, Diplo, The Chainsmokers, Chromeo, Chuckie, Showtek and K Theory despite the VIP experience debacle.  But this time around, they braced for the storm and delivered an event to hopefully look forward come Summer 2017.

SUPERCITY SUMMER 2016 was a total success in all facet from the VIP experience to higher attendance with a very responsive crowd and oh by the way…!!!  Did I forget to mention it was an all-star billing of DJ SNAKE and SKRILLEX… need I say more?  And to add to this madness, these guys were complimented with Carnage, Krewella, Laidback Luke, A$AP Ferg, Kiiara and Sage The Gemini.

Being my first time at SUPERCITY and upon my late arrival to the show, I caught the last half hour of Laidback Luke banging on some big room techy four-to-floor sound which started my evening quite well.  Entering thru the VIP entrance, I was curious to see the accommodation and to no surprise, it seemed well handled with not much to complain.  The VIP lobby had a small DJ stage set up, lounge couches and a catered full bar.

After a little stroll around the venue and some alcohol recharge, I made sure to catch Krewella, since my last encounter with the group has been many moons ago.  These ladies definitely knew how to rock the house by performing to some of their hit songs such as “Alive”, “Legacy” and “Lights and Thunder”.  Though their tracks were digitally played, an added drum set gave the performance an organic feel.  Besides them, DJ Snake and Skrillex were on my ‘must not miss’ agenda but first I want to touch on Carnage’s set.

The first and last time time I saw Carnage was at Beyond Wonderland 2013, by Insomniac.  As a disclaimer, hardstyle or hardhouse isn’t a sound I care for but I can appreciate a good set of such genre when I hear one.  With that being said, I did enjoy his 140+ BPM hardhouse set at the time.  Fast forward to SUPERCITY SUMMER 2016, and I must say that Carnage’s set was a big disappointment with no real progression or flow; nevertheless, he did have some good moment.  As I am one person’s opinion, my stance may or may not resonate well with some fans but to each their own.  His sound may have changed over the course of 3 years incorporating that hip hop and trap style fusion, but regardless, as long as his fans enjoyed his set then that’s all that matters.

My anticipation of DJ snake and Skrillex were as expected and though I was rambling around, I managed to capture as much as possible from both sets.  The crowd’s energy and anticipation for both artists were certainly at a higher level.  For those who have seen them in the past, there wasn’t really anything new other than a very eclectic mash up sound of electro, trap, hip-hop and many more.  And because this was my first time seeing them, I had nothing to compare this experience to.

But without a doubt, they rocked the house…!!!

Many positives came out of this show but let’s break down the various make-ups of an event—The venue, talents and production.

a premium with a greater VIP and GA price differential to cover the cost.  Talent is imperative to filling up the house and DJ Snake/Skrillex effortlessly achieved it but I would liked to have seen a big room house artist added to the line-up for an event of such magnitude.

Altogether, SUPERCITY SUMMER is an event definitely worth looking forward to in 2017 with a wish list as a 2-day event with a broader line up from trance to trap. It receives two-thumbs up from me and hopefully the boys from World Town Inc. and Midnite Events will continue on the momentum.

-Jawn Gee