Greatest Day Ever Descends on the Bronx

This past weekend, the Bronx was shaken by the fourth annual Greatest Day Ever festival presented by Adidas Originals. The festival was headlined by Diplo and Dillon Francis, and also featured performances by What So Not, Bro Safari, Post Malone, Anna Lunoe and more.

The Greatest Day Ever featured rides, food stands and carnival games in the venue, while the actual stage was indoors in a warehouse. The rides afforded views of upper Manhattan, Randall's Island and the eastern side of the Bronx. 

For me personally, the highlight of Greatest Day Ever was the music. What So Not’s set was my favorite of the weekend (highly biased opinion here), but Greatest Day Ever featured a variety of genres, as the event was not a purely EDM-centric festival.

From eclectic future sounds to hip-hop and moombahton, Greatest Day Ever showcased different sounds to appeal to the different tastes of the crowd. Lines moved quickly and it took me less than ten minutes to get into the festival.  

Greatest Day Ever definitely had the quintessential gritty warehouse rave vibe which brought me back to early raves.

The warehouse was large, there was ample space to dance (as long as you weren’t trying to ride the rail) and you could see the stage from anywhere within the warehouse. It was easy to move out of the crowd into a cooler spot where you could still hear and see everything that was going on.

The lighting and effects were surprisingly good for a warehouse event, and there were enough entrances and exits that there was little crowding while going in and out of the warehouse.

As Greatest Day Ever is one of the younger festivals on the circuit, we would like to offer a few kind suggestions to consider for the 2018 event.  

1. Allow hydration packs, or at least have enough free water.

Lack of water was the primary gripe of attendees, and for good reason. Warehouse raves are hot, there is very little ventilation indoors, and while buying water at a festival is certainly not unheard of, the festival had promised attendees that there would be an abundance of free water. Water ran out both nights before headliners went onstage, and while water was eventually restocked, it does become a safety hazard for attendees in a hot environment.

2. Smoother transitions between sets.

We understand that different sets may have different sound requirements that would take some adjusting. However, it got awkward when there was ten minutes of silence after a set was over, then generic EDM music would be played, paused and then played again while the next performer was getting set up. The long transitions and lack of music at times would bring down the energy of the crowd (although the next performer usually got it up again), maybe next year work on making the transitions smoother.

3. Better ventilation 

Heat is always a complaint at festivals but especially for indoor venues. It got incredibly hot and stuffy inside the warehouse, especially because the only ventilation was via the entrances. There were no open skylights, no fans or anything to ameliorate the heat inside the warehouse. A few fans would do a lot to help attendees, many of whom looked like they were coming out of a downpour when they exited the warehouse. 

Greatest Day Ever was was affordable, accessible and had a good lineup with a variety of different sounds for the crowd. I enjoyed my time there and am excited to see what Greatest Day Ever does next year! 

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