Article by: Jessica Duncan
This year I attended more festivals in less time than I ever have before, all because of the glut of COVID-19 rescheduled shows in the Fall of 2021. From August to November, I attended HARD Summer, Lost In Dreams, Life Is Beautiful, Lost Lands, EDC Las Vegas, and Project Z.
This was my first time attending HARD Summer and I believe the venue change and expanded festival footprint at the NOS Center made it a better experience than previous years. My only complaint was that it was so hot for the early sets at 2 PM when gates opened, I wish the festival would have started later in the day and gone longer into the night. My favorite set was hands down the Skream Old Skool Set. I was finally able to catch the dubstep legend and hear all the songs that first got me into electronic music on a proper sound system. It was a trip down memory lane. while also being a very rare set.
The inaugural year of Lost In Dreams was a great experience. Insomniac utilized the space of the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center well and the lineup was expertly balanced for a festival specializing in melodic and future bass. It wasn’t that crowded and everyone there was super friendly. My favorite artist sets were Kaivon and Manila Killa b2b Chet Porter.
The festival I was most excited about was Lost Lands. I had previously watched the Couch Lands stream from the years before and decided that 2020 would be the year to finally send it in person. We all know how that turned out, so I was glad that I was still able to fit it into my schedule for 2021. The production for all of the stages was absolutely insane and I was able to see so many of my favorite bass artists, along with a few new ones. The vibes and the crowds were awesome; for a festival of heavy music, everyone was so nice and chill. It was also really cool to see so many of the artists enjoying other artists’ sets in the crowd. I met Lizzy Jane and Sippy while watching ZEKE BEATS’ set and Kompany while watching REAPER’s set. My favorite sets at Lost Lands were LSDream and Subtronics.
I have attended EDC Las Vegas every year since 2017, so I have experienced both the unbearable heat of EDC in June and the crazy winds of EDC in May. This year, I actually really enjoyed it being in October. It wasn’t too hot, nor as cold as I expected it to be, but I did miss the last set of the day being a sunrise set since the start and end times were a bit earlier in October. I spent most of my time at the Wasteland stage this year, but my favorite sets were Knife Party b2b Kayzo, Louis The Child, and Da Tweekaz.
This was also my first time attending Project Z, a festival that blends two of my favorite genres: dubstep and hardstyle. I was able to see legends like Rusko, The Glitch Mob, NERO, and The Prophet, as well as artists on the rise like Nitepunk. My favorite part of the festival was watching The Prophet and the other hardstyle DJs on the lineup hanging out in the crowd, meeting fans, and raging to the reverse bass.
This festival season definitely took a toll on my body, but the memories from it were all worth it. Now we turn our attention to the upcoming 2022 festival season! Check back for more recaps of the 2021 festival season by other Moon Lvnding contributors later this week.
