North Coast Festival is back for its 15th anniversary edition from Friday, August 29 – Sunday, August 31 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, IL. They are bringing the heat this year with the most ambitious nighttime programming to date—27 afterparties at some of Chicago’s most iconic venues. The afters, also known as The Night Lights series, feature many big-name acts, including Excision, Dimension, Zeds Dead B2B Liquid Stranger, amongst others.
The weekend kicks off on Friday with SVDDEN DEATH at 115 Bourbon Street, Kaskade at House of Blues, Louis The Child at POLEKATZ, Galantis at Sound-Bar, Chris Lake at TAO, Ray Volpe at Magoos, Lil Texas at The Pavilion at Branding Iron, Kai Wachi at Joe’s On Weed St, and Ian Asher at Electric Hotel.
Saturday’s lineup includes Sofi Tukker at Ramova Theatre, LP Giobbi at Electric Hotel, Of The Trees performing an Odds & Ends Set at Garcia’s, Excision at House of Blues, ATLiens at Joe’s On Weed St, Zingara at Magoos, Westend & Joshwa at POLEKATZ, NGHTMRE at TAO, and Dimension at The Pavilion at Branding Iron.
The weekend closes out with Zeds Dead B2B Liquid Stranger at Ramova Theatre, Bonnie X Clyde at Electric Hotel, Daily Bread at House of Blues, Apashe at Magoos, Brownies & Lemonade with surprise guests at POLEKATZ, ARMNHMR at TAO, and Prosecute, PYKE, Stooges, and VKTM at The Pavilion at Branding Iron.
In addition to the official North Coast Afterparties, they have also revealed the set times for all three days of the festival. Friday kicks off with performances from Louis the Child, Tinlicker DJ set, Yookie, Infekt, Ray Volpe, and many others. Closing down the night will be Chris Lake from 10:00 PM – 12:00 AM at Stadium: Evolved, Kaskade from 9:15 PM – 10:45 PM at The Shipyard 360, SVDDEN DEATH VOYD set from 9:30 PM – 11:00 PM at the Mega Vega, and Remorse from 9:45 PM – 11:00 PM at Silent Disco.
The party continues on Saturday with sets from Distinct Motive, Muzz, Zingara, Dead Mau5 (drum n bass set), Rohaan, Of The Trees, Peekaboo B2B Caspa, and an Atliens OG trap set, among others. Ending the night with a bang, Excision plays the closing set from 10:45 PM – 11:55 PM at Stadium: Evolved, Sofi Tukker plays from 10:00 PM – 11:15 PM at The Shipyard 360, Seven Lions’ set is from 9:30 PM – 10:45 PM at Mega Vega, HASHBBC closes out Club Coast by White Claw from 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM, and WERØ finishes the night from 9:45 PM – 11:00 PM at Silent Disco.
The weekend closes out with a bang on Sunday, featuring performances from Heyz, Bonnie & Clyde, PYKE, Daily Bread, Liquid Stranger, Apashe, Rezz, VKTM, RL Grime, and more. Finishing out the final sets of the weekend, Zeds Dead’s set is from 9:15 PM – 10:30 PM at Stadium: Evolved, Brownies and Lemonade Takeover after RL Grime at The Shipyard 360, Zedd from 8:30 PM – 9:45 PM at Mega Vega, the Stooges play from 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM at the Fire Pit, Subverb from 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM at the Chill Dome, and Ray Callahan from 9:45 PM – 11:00 PM at Silent Disco.
To add even more excitement to an already out-of-this-world weekend, North Coast also implemented transformative stage upgrades in honor of the 15-year anniversary. The main stage, now Stadium: Evolved, is 95 feet larger, features an extended DJ booth into the crowd, and packs 680 watts of lasers, 270 CO₂ tanks, 16 million video pixels, 317,000 watts of sound, and a revamped rooftop fireworks and pyro show. The former Shipyard has transformed into Shipyard 360, an all-angles experience with 12 pillars of lasers, pyro, CO₂, and high-fidelity audio surrounding a custom DJ booth. The Mega Vega stage also gets a boost with a 20% larger build, 450 watts of lasers, over 5 million lumens of lighting, 24.6 million video pixels, and 135,000 watts of sound.
If you have made it this far, one thing should be extremely clear—this year’s North Coast fest is not one to miss, and neither are the afterparties. If you want to witness the exciting new stage upgrades and spend your nights partying until the early hours of the morning, get your tickets to the “Night Lights” afterparties here. Check out North Coast’s socials below to stay up to date on festival announcements!
