Electric Zoo Unleashes Techno’s Wild Spirit: Festival review and exclusive photos

Techno is an electrifying beast. Have you ever seen it come alive, in all its convulsing florescent glory? On Labor Day weekend we witnessed this savage creature come to life at the Electric Zoo, New York’s two-day electronic music festival on Randall’s Island. The event was indeed a site to see: amplified pulses fueled the steely veins of this hi-fi creature with a force that made its body spit shimmering, metallic glitter and spew jarring laser beams of oranges, reds and greens. And when the right nerves were pushed, it galloped forth in thundering speed and roared a jackhammer-like shrill...

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

After the first day of the festival, we announced that “Hurricane Techno” had hit Randall’s Island. And that is no exaggeration. The experience did feel like a storm - one powered by millions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art production, from the sound to stagecraft and the overall visual conduction.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

Waves of people – roughly 25,000 each day from around the globe – flocked the island and swarmed the four stages. From a distance, you could see a mile of hands in the air, all raised and undulating to the pounding, slapping beats that reverberated throughout the premises.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

And the music? According to the New York Times, “the dominant beat was the sound of house music,” but this description just makes our house-loving hearts whimper. There was no house music at the Zoo. The musical breeds that dominated were a hodgepodge mix of banging techno, dizzying progressive trance, party-jamming electronica and ground-shaking dubstep. By the end of the night our ears were soar and our brains throbbed with serious techno cloggage.

We’re not going to turn our noses up to the line up entirely – The Chemical Brothers were outstanding and Major Lazer rocked out an impressive performance. And according to our survey of festival attendees, the diversity of acts topped last year’s performances.

Chemical Brothers. Photo credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

More Chemical Brothers. Photo credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

Musical tastes aside, we left the festival feeling very impressed. In a sense, this event was a testament to the strength of the global dance music community and just how incredibly advanced the world of future music is. The masterminds behind it all, Made Event certainly receives our stamp of approval for production and running a professional show. See it to believe it!

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

Photo credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

Photo credit: Scott Kowalchyk for ElectricZooFestival.com

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com