Photo Credit: Klemen Stular
By: Katarina Cvetko
Last weekend marked the 6th annual edition of Austria’s largest electronic music festival. With over 180,000 tickets sold and visitors from over 60 nations, Electric Love Festival pulled off yet another successful year and is giving some of the biggest festivals a run for their money. Having attended over 75 festivals all over the world, Electric Love remains in my top three and I cannot recommend this festival enough! Here are the most unforgettable moments from Electric Love 2018.
THE OPENING CEREMONY
Each year when the sun goes down, the party truly begins with the official Electric Love opening ceremony. This year, Electric Love’s resident DJ Felice officially opened the festival on the piano with strings, a choir, and the ‘Bürgerkorpskapelle Hallein’ marching band all coming together to make every second of the show spectacular! Check out the opening ceremony below.
THE SURPRISE B2B SETS
Due to flight delays, one of the acts wasn’t able to make it to their time slot, so the organisers of the festival worked quickly to ensure that the hardstyle crowd would not be disappointed. Hard dance lovers were blessed with not one, but two, surprise b2b sets on the Q-Dance stage! The last-minute schedule change was Atmozfears joined by Toneshifterz and Code Black for a surprise 60-minute set filled with up and coming summer anthems. Having these three artists play together is a rare occurrence and it was interesting to see how they worked together to combine their unique sounds into one.
Da Tweekaz eventually arrived and teamed up with Sub Zero Project for yet another special performance. Rather than changing the schedule around like most festivals, the organisers took it upon themselves to create something unique and exclusive to Electric Love. Seeing these extremely rare b2b sets will definitely be one for the books!
Photo Credit: Heidie Duteweert
CLUB CIRCUS
The indoor stage dedicated to drum & bass brought a piece of America over to Salzburg with big names such as Kayzo, Slushii, and San Holo, making an appearance on the new and improved Club Circus stage. The stage design improved tremendously from previous years and created a more intimate concert style vibe. My favourite memory from this stage was standing in the VIP deck and watching the entire front row head banging on the rail! This might sound like nothing special but seeing headbangers in Europe is about as rare as hearing a crowd ‘Hey-Ho’ in the US!
My favourite set was without a doubt Kayzo who closed out the second night of the festival and kept the party going until the early hours of the morning! The combination of pop punk, rock, and hardstyle sounds created an incredible set! I was also able to interview him before his set and discuss everything from his musical inspirations to relationships and everything in between. Check out the article here.
Photo Credit: Heimo Spindler
THE EARTHQUAKE
Despite dancing in the pouring rain all weekend, Electric Love was blessed with perfect weather for the final day of the festival. The earthquake was in fact, the man-made one that closed out Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike’s set on the main stage! For the first time, I was able to stand on the other side of the rail during their set and watch a sea of people moving 8 steps to the left and 8 steps to the right all at once. It was without a doubt one of the most unforgettable sights I’ve ever seen at a festival!
Photo Credit: Heimo Spindler
THE FINAL SHOW
After a weekend of incredible shows and exclusive performances, Electric Love closed out the magic with a spectacular final show on the main stage. Fireworks filled the sky to the sound of Brennan Heart’s ‘Hard Knocking Beats’, bringing a piece of the hardstyle world onto the main stage. The entire Electric Love team then followed onto the stage as the crowd sang along to John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ with confetti raining down over the main stage. While this was one of the shorter end shows I’ve seen, Electric Love definitely made it feel like one of the most special.
Photo Credit: Heidie Duteweert
Electric Love is without a doubt one of my favourite festivals in the world and after attending for the third year in a row, I am already counting down the days until I get to return!