Seismic Dance Event 3.3 was a rollercoaster of a ride! Apart from being one of the first festivals back after the pandemic, there were also massive hurdles thrown at RealMusic Events to make even the most seasoned promoters scream. Not only did they pull off an amazing music event but they did so with a layer of tough skin and perseverance.
After over a year with no festivals, fans were ready to let loose and get back to a sense of normalcy. The excitement was in the air and you could feel the electric energy radiating from the crowd.
Day One
To say day one of Seismic Dance Event 3.3 was amazing would be selling it short. The weather cooperated, the artists were on point and the vibe was stellar. The absolute highlight of day one would have to be the double rainbow that shined over Spencer Brown’s set on the Volcano stage. It was magical! The first festival back in over 365 days and a freakin double rainbow is over the venue?! You couldn’t have planned it better. Spencer played some familiar favorites such as “Windows 95 On Acid”, a remix of deadmau5’s “fn pic (ov)”, and a remix of ilan Bluestone‘s “Will We Remain”. The Anjunafam was in full force for Brown’s set and it was great to see so many familiar faces. This was only the beginning of what would be an evening of incredible moments.
Lee Foss brought some old-school grooves to the Tsunami Stage including a remix of “Everybody’s Free”. Also at the Tsunami Stage, Claude VonStroke brought the energy and blew the crowd away with his Dirtybird antics. As always, his set did not disappoint. To close out the night, Deep Dish brought those throbbing, heavy, hard banging beats to the Volcano Stage. Their set was outstanding and the perfect way to close out day one.
Day Two
On Saturday, I woke up to pouring rain which isn’t a good sign for an outdoor festival. By around noonish, RealMusic Events put out a delay to doors. Doors that were originally supposed to open at 1 PM were pushed to open at 5 PM. As of 4:30 PM, the festival was officially canceled for the day. No promoter wants to cancel an event, this is probably a promoter’s worst nightmare but for the safety of the fans, it sometimes has to be done. RealMusic Events is not alone, a shut-down of a festival has happened before at EDC Las Vegas, Movement Electronic Music Festival, and many others. They scrambled to move some of the Saturday Seismic artists to clubs around Austin.
Around 8:30 PM, they made the official announcement for the pop-up club events. The lines to enter these pop-up shows were insane. The line to see Artbat and The Martinez Brothers at Summit was over a block long. The line at Cedar Street Courtyard for Bob Moses, Walker & Royce, and Black V Neck wasn’t any better. On the other side of downtown at Vulcan Gas Company, the venue for SidePiece, and Subset brought the crowd to the heart of Sixth Street but many were unable to get into the show. These pop-up shows were a treat for the people who were able to attend and I applaud RealMusic Events for putting these shows together in record time.
RealMusic Events also hosted after-parties at Club Malta which were on the festival grounds on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. All of these events sold out and they kept the party going into the wee hours of the morning.
Day Three
The alert was put out Sunday morning that Seismic day three was a go, rain or shine. It was another cloudy, gloomy day but the ravers were out in full force! Matthew Dear was on the Volcano stage when I arrived at the venue and there was a crowd of drenched, dancing fans already in their groove. DJ Tennis was on next and he brought it hard and owned the stage! The festival was starting to fill up, the rain was letting up and it was the beginning of what would be a massive night of spectacular tunes. I spent most of my night at the Volcano stage and the lineup for this stage was stacked! Paco Osuna was up next and was phenomenal but my highlight of the night was Deborah De Luca. This was my first time seeing her and I was blown away! Her brand of deep, driving, dramatic techno was just what the crowd needed. She even threw in some funky breaks with “Lethal Weapon” and some old-school vibes with a techy twist with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”. Zhu brought out his alter ego Blacklizt which closed out the extraordinary weekend of music.
The whole weekend was outstanding. Yes, there were some hiccups on Saturday but you can not control Mother Nature. And out of all the negative comments that were popping up online, what was heard in the crowd was something different. I heard gratefulness. Fans were grateful to be able to attend a music festival, to be able to be back in a crowd, listening and dancing to live music, and to be able to share this experience with their friends. It’s been a long year and it was great to finally feel like we are getting back to normal, and that my friends, is an experience of a lifetime.
*Featured image | via Clark Terrell*
