As soon as we arrived at the festival, it started to downpour. We spent the first hour or so jumping from mushroom to mushroom to hide from the rain while Grandtheft played to an enthusiastic half naked crowd.
And believe me, if it weren’t for my camera gear I would be rejoicing in the rain with the rest of them. It was another one of those constant sweat moustache days and whatever was falling from the sky was more than welcomed.
VIP Bottle service was in full effect, ripped tanned bodies & electric swingers everywhere- these people take their partying seriously. Rightfully so too, I mean if you had one weekend off from working all summer to let loose what would you do? I talked about how positive the atmosphere was the first day of the festival compared to a multi-genre festival like Osheaga, and it still rang true on day two. Everyone was just happy to be outside and surrounded by good vibes. It definitely felt a bit like a Vegas pool party, only the uniforms were a little more fluorescent.
I discovered along the way that although Ile Soniq is the best place to see great EDM, it may not be the best place to see rappers and hip-hop acts. I’m still having internal debates myself whether seeing hip-hop acts at festivals is good at all. I feel it usually only attracts people because they won’t have the chance to see them anywhere else because festivals are the only ones with big enough budgets to reel them in, so they settle and say it’s the only way.
We were all excited for Azealia Banks’ set, we rushed to the side of the stage but were quickly disappointed when they heard how low the sound was compared to the previous DJs who you could hear from across the water. This probably wasn’t her doing, but didn’t help the crowd to stick around. Maybe it was because the bar for live performance was set to a new height the day before with Die Antwoord’s incredibly mesmerizing set, but it was a downer that we couldn’t even see her dancers because they were dressed the same colour as the black background. I think it’s hard for the EDM crowd to switch from electro to hip-hop if they have a vibe going so they don’t even bother trying to come down for those acts, just scurry to the next stage where they can hear another DJ play Rihanna’s BBHMM.
Day two of testing out the cashless system was better than the first I suppose. It’s something to get used to and easier to manage when you’re in the crowd, no more scrounging quarters together to buy that Smirnoff Ice.
We ended up just tipping our leftover dollars to the nicest vendor we could find, but if you still have money that you didn’t use on your bracelet and want it back, you can go to their website and go through the steps to get it back.
Scroll down to see Ile Soniq come to life!
Photos by Blair Smith
As soon as we arrived at the festival, it started to downpour. We spent the first hour or so jumping from mushroom to mushroom to hide from the rain while Grandtheft played to an enthusiastic half naked crowd.
And believe me, if it weren’t for my camera gear I would be rejoicing in the rain with the rest of them. It was another one of those constant sweat moustache days and whatever was falling from the sky was more than welcomed.
VIP Bottle service was in full effect, ripped tanned bodies & electric swingers everywhere- these people take their partying seriously. Rightfully so too, I mean if you had one weekend off from working all summer to let loose what would you do? I talked about how positive the atmosphere was the first day of the festival compared to a multi-genre festival like Osheaga, and it still rang true on day two. Everyone was just happy to be outside and surrounded by good vibes. It definitely felt a bit like a Vegas pool party, only the uniforms were a little more fluorescent.
I discovered along the way that although Ile Soniq is the best place to see great EDM, it may not be the best place to see rappers and hip-hop acts. I’m still having internal debates myself whether seeing hip-hop acts at festivals is good at all. I feel it usually only attracts people because they won’t have the chance to see them anywhere else because festivals are the only ones with big enough budgets to reel them in, so they settle and say it's the only way.
We were all excited for Azealia Banks’ set, we rushed to the side of the stage but were quickly disappointed when they heard how low the sound was compared to the previous DJs who you could hear from across the water. This probably wasn’t her doing, but didn’t help the crowd to stick around. Maybe it was because the bar for live performance was set to a new height the day before with Die Antwoord’s incredibly mesmerizing set, but it was a downer that we couldn’t even see her dancers because they were dressed the same colour as the black background. I think it’s hard for the EDM crowd to switch from electro to hip-hop if they have a vibe going so they don’t even bother trying to come down for those acts, just scurry to the next stage where they can hear another DJ play Rihanna’s BBHMM.
Day two of testing out the cashless system was better than the first I suppose. It’s something to get used to and easier to manage when you’re in the crowd, no more scrounging quarters together to buy that Smirnoff Ice.
We ended up just tipping our leftover dollars to the nicest vendor we could find, but if you still have money that you didn’t use on your bracelet and want it back, you can go to their website and go through the steps to get it back.
Scroll down to see Ile Soniq come to life!
Photos by Blair Smith
