Photos by Daniel Lopez for Festival Squad
Written by Austin Nguyen & Kyle Yan
For nearly a decade, Lights All Night has given festival goers a reason to count down the New Year with “soon-to-be” friends and your festival family. As each and every year passes, it seems that this festival continues to grow even more. Although the weather was freezing outside, but hot and humid due to the energy from the crowd; Lights All Night is THE staple, end-of-the-year festival in Texas. With such a bold claim, this festival is not all hype.
The Venue
There were five stages and vibrant art pieces. And what is Lights All Night without a LAN party? Not kidding. LAN brought in Dreamhack Gaming Lounge’s powerful computers. Austin and I was playing League of Legends, Counter Strike and Overwatch while waiting for Luca Lush to perform. Yes, people get competitive with video games; but no bad vibes here. Just playful banter. With neon vibes of an electric festival, Sweet Tooth Hotel fits right into LAN. I felt like I walked into a vaporwave room with an extremely aesthetic overload. One can only imagine the Instagram content on all the LAN hashtags. Look up #LAN or #lightsallnight, because you will not be disappointed. Seriously. The stage production was well thought out, as confetti rains and CO2 fogs the stage as the beat drops. And of course, lights……All night. Let’s see what Austin has to say about the artist performance.
The Artists
Night 1
This year’s Lights all Night was amazing. This festival was actually my first I’ve ever been to and each different stage that was set up did not fail at all. Starting Day 1 with the main stage, Lights all Night kicked off with Young Bombs. They quickly got the crowd amped and energized, ready for the rest of the night. After seeing them live, I went to move on to the next stage which was called “Intergalactic.” By the time I got there, Quix was on. I have never heard of him until Friday night and now he has one more fan. Quix’s set was nothing but full of energy. He kept the crowd constantly moving, vibing, and headbanging. One thing I enjoyed from him was that it was not all dubstep on their set. He added in some rap music as well which is a big plus on my book.
Pretty much on Day 1, The Intergalactic side was mostly filled with Trap, Rap, and dubstep. Quix and 1788-L did not fail to constantly keep that side of the room headbanging and moshing. Back to the main stage or “Supernova,” the legend himself Kaskade was now on. Kaskade brought out smooth house vibes along with what made him famous with his unique trance music. His set was the perfect throwback for fans there were long in the electronic music scene. The last set I got to see before I ended the night on Day 1 was Rezz. Out of everyone’s set that night, her’s had the most unique sound. Every song that was played had a grungy dubstep-like vibe. She had the whole venue full of non-stop headbanging. Steampunk visuals were being played, with fire coming out of the stage. I walked out physically tired but not disappointed at all; excited for the next day.
Night 2
Day 2 started out with Ekali’s House set. His house set was perfect to get the crowd pre-amped for what was in store for the second night. Almost every stage during Day 2 was full on headbanging. If you did not find yourself getting pushed around in a mosh pit or shaking the guardrail while swinging your head back and forth, you were really doing the second night wrong.
After spending time in the gaming lounge, Kyle and I quickly heard Luca Lush and rushed down to the main stage. Luca Lush has a unique heavy techno sound to most of the remixes of popular songs. Personally, I’ve been to his shows when he was smaller but seeing him on the big stage was amazing. Constantly on the mic, engaging with the crowd, he deserved to be one of the headliners for Day 2. Next, was probably my favorite artist out of the entire festival. Ekali was on next and he played every genre of EDM. I could not help myself and caught myself dancing with other festival goers. The next headliners had the main stage constantly filled. Rapper Gucci Mane had the crowd roaring throughout his entire set. It was amazing even though this was an EDM festival, someone like Gucci Mane could still entertain the audience. The next person to take the main stage was Excision, he played heavy dubstep most of his set but also snuck in some future bass in his set as well. His visuals were amazing and kept the audience constantly engaged.
Before Tiesto started, I had to check out the smaller artists playing outside. One that caught me by surprised was Paragrime. I had no idea how he did it, but he had a crowd, in the blistering North Texas cold, hyped and energized while he was playing. After an hour or so in the cold, I rushed in to see another legend end the night, Tiesto. I was expecting his set to be similar to Kaskade but it was the total opposite. I can see why Tiesto was voted Best DJ of all time. His set was the most entertaining and definitely the right way to end Lights All Night. He played a good mix of everything and the flow of everything was just right.
I remember talking to a couple of friends a couple of months ago. When the lineups for LAN had just released, I remembered how hesitant they were about going. If I could go back in time, I would tell them just go anyways. The entire festival was an amazing experience. I would repeat last weekend over and over again. Lights All Night is the perfect way to end the year. Even if you’re not a huge EDM fan, I say give it a shot anyways. You won’t get let down and for sure, you will dance the night away.
Check out this mini recap Lights All Night posted after Day 1 below!