Electric Zoo 2015 Festival Recap
This Labor Day weekend started off with a bang as Electric Zoo kicked off their seventh annual EDM festival in NYC’s Randall’s Island. Electric Zoo survived what some have called ‘the Sunday curse’ with gorgeous summer sun shinning down on festival-goers during the three-day event. This year’s Electric Zoo produced fewer artists than previous years with a later festival start time and the elimination of a second main stage. The lineup also underwhelmed compared to past years with performances by headliners Avicii, Kaskade, Armin van Burren, Zedd and more. However, that did not stop over 80,000 festival-goers from taking part in the celebration.
Electric Zoo organizers were able to transform the festival with enhanced crowd control, a wide variety of delicious foods and snacks from popular New York City restaurants and vendors, abundant drink stations and two brand spanking new stages.
Featuring main stage, Riverside stage, Hilltop Arena and the Sunday School tent, Electric Zoo managed to provide non-stop music within all genres of EDM imaginable! Staying true to the animal theme, the main stage converted into a rising Phoenix with glowing eyes and elongated wings that produced LED lights throughout its body. As the sky turned to dusk, the main stage lit up the night sky with fireworks shooting off in every direction as NERVO, Zeds Dead, Deorro, Adventure Club, Borgore, and headliners The Chemical Brothers, Above & Beyond, and Alesso dropped sick hard hitting beats.
Riverside stage transformed into a trippy black and white octopus with its arms intertwined around the DJ booth where Sam Feldt, Markus Schulz, Thomas Jack and others threw down awesome deep house, trance and tropical house tracks.
Hilltop Arena and the Sunday School tent managed to turn day into night with enclosed tents and amazing lasers bouncing from wall to wall. Despite the muggy atmosphere, the artists were able to put on great performances including The Glitch Mob put on an out of this world show by performing with equipment facing the audience. Ravers shuffled and banged their heads to their music and a few even took to the floor to fully rage out.
Multiple portable bathrooms placed throughout the festival made for easy access and short wait lines. Food and drink queues also remained short for a greater part of the event. You could find the grass filled arena adorned with neon colored exotic animals, white picnic tables and party animals seen in crazy, bright creative costumes with arms filled with Kandi and some decked out in full iEDM RaveWear floating around!
The three-day festival came to an end with Alesso closing out the show followed by amazing pyrotechnics. Alesso played some of his top hits like ‘City of Dreams’ and ‘Under Control.’ However he closed the show with his powerful track ‘Heroes’ ft. Tove Lo reminding us that we are all heroes deep inside.
Electric Zoo has returned and remains as one of the best EDM festivals in New York. Check back soon for exclusive iEDM Electric Zoo Interviews with Don Diablo, Sam Feldt and many more!