This year’s Lost Lands Festival was the biggest event in dubstep yet, unanimously said to be the best one out of the three years the event has taken place.
I had the pleasure and opportunity to go for my second time around, and even with years of festival experience under my belt, this festival easily became my favorite one.
Although I did VIP camping for Lost Lands 2017, my group and I rented an airbnb in Columbus, Ohio. The festival was a forty-five minute shuttle to Legend Valley near Thornville, Ohio. As hectic as that sounds to drag our tired bodies to the shuttle, it was actually incredibly smooth running.
Friday: We started out with Marauda (formerly Mastadon) who kicked our weekend off with a heavier set. Ghastly and Zeds Dead played incredible sets, dropping a ton of bass house. This was an awesome switch up, considering we had two more days of heavy bass to go through. I excitedly anticipated Zeds Dead dropping their new song “Feel So” live, which they had just released that day.
Although I am personally not the biggest fan of Black Tiger Sex Machine, they played an amazing set at the main stage, Prehistoric Paradox. Their visuals were extremely well-done, and it’s safe to say that they really did “take us to church”.
We then did some stage hopping, which was actually incredibly easy to navigate. We caught the first hour of Excision’s massive two hour set. He absolutely destroyed that crowd with insanely updated Paradox visuals. Hopping over to the second biggest stage, Wompy Woods, we caught the end of the massive Circus Records Takeover featuring Cookie Monsta b2b Doctor P b2b Funtcase.
Photo By: Lauren Pineda
(Circus Records Takeover at Wompy Woods. Image by Lauren Pineda)
Needing a bit of a break, we sat in the back of Wompy Woods while submerged in the best of classic dubstep. Following that Circus Records Takeover was Rusko, who did not disappoint.
We took another break by just hanging out and walking around, exploring the entire place. There was so much room, and we discovered the smaller stages. We were waiting for Tisoki and Calcium to play at the Raptor Alley stage. Although it sounded like they were throwing down, the volume on that stage unfortunately was not loud enough. Probably due to sound ordinances, we decided that it wasn’t worth it to stay. Bluetooth speakers were louder than that stage, and the entire crowd was complaining about the volume.
Saturday: Friday was amazing in itself, but we had no idea that Saturday was going to be even better. Kicking off the second day with Svdden Death at the main stage, we were already drowning in heavy metal and dubstep. He played such an awesome set to rage to, but we had no idea how much fun Dion Timmer was going to be after. This kid showed his talents in the way he mixed up his chops with feel-good music, that we were left in high spirits.
We were still stuck at Prehistoric Paradox not wanting to miss Boogie T b2b Squnto. We saw a ton of Boogie T, since many other producers brought him and Subtronics out to jump in. He always had his guitar with him, and it was so cool to watch him shred with whoever else was playing.
We hopped on over to Wompy Woods to check out the special guest, Trampa. He destroyed his set, and was personally my second favorite of the entire weekend. We caught a little bit of Kayzo before he started getting into his hardstyle ways, and then popped over to catch 12th Planet at the main stage.
We got super close to the rail for 12th Planet who expectedly played a set how a legend like him should play. We stayed for Ganja White Night, who interestingly announced that this was going to be their last time playing Lost Lands, and then threw down a groovy set. They also brought out the Boogie T. rio, just adding to the funky vibes that they were conveying.
We decided to check out the Takeover Stage, which was just the Wompy Woods stage cut in half. Playing on the right side of that stage, we got stuck there because of all the smaller up and coming riddim DJs that we just couldn’t miss throwing down.
Starting off with Al Ross, we thought we were going to leave after that. However, we were pleasantly surprised with a set from Dubloadz, who was originally supposed to go b2b with Dion Timmer. However, due to flight conflicts, he had to sadly announce that he was not going to make it. Yet, somehow scraping by, he made sure to make up for it with his pop up set.
We finished the night off with Bommer, Codd Dubz, and Zia. They also had brought out Subtronics, Boogie T, and Dion Timmer, and it makes complete sense why we did not leave that tiny stage for two hours past when we thought we were going to head home.
Sunday: Sunday was not only my group’s favorite day, but my favorite day as well. Blunts & Blondes played b2b with He$h in their widely anticipated set. It started to lightly rain, and the entire atmosphere of the festival immediately turned up. The crowd was loving the cooling temperature, and it just made everyone want to dance more.
We saw the first twenty minutes of Funtcase, dipping into our inner metal as he threw down UK filth. We skipped over to the main stage for probably the best set of the weekend: Slander b2b Spag Heddy. This was not only my favorite set of the weekend, but also my group’s favorite set, and many others’ favorite according to social media.
It was raining just enough to refract the lasers, making the lights look like they were glittering. You can see this in every recorded video of Slander’s song “Superhuman”, dropping into the Spag Heddy remix, and the entire crowd singing at the top of their lungs in the sparkling rain. It was one of the most beautifully well-done sets I have ever seen in my entire festival experience.
We followed that set with an awesomely heavy set from Herobust, and continued to stay for Nghtmre. Nghtmre brought out Slander, Kompany, and Subtronics. Although we didn’t get to catch Subtronics’ set, we definitely saw enough of him to catch a set’s worth.
We finished our weekend with a little of Phiso, DMVU, and Au5. I personally had never heard of Au5 before, but I was so thankful we ended with him. Playing a ton of melodic dubstep in his set, we were able to leave the land of filthy bass on a lighter note, calming down from raging all weekend.
Lost Lands was incredibly well-done, and Excision did so much good for the area. There were nice workers constantly picking up trash from the ground to keep the valley clean. The medical team was quick, zero deaths were reported, and water was easily accessible. Lines were not incredibly long, and the crowds were easy to navigate through because many were so polite. The stages were easy to get to, the food was good, the dinos were huge, and everyone was as PLUR as possible.
I couldn’t be happier to call myself a basshead, and would probably say that this year’s Lost Lands was one of my favorite festivals.
