Photo via LED Presents | Instagram
There are several perks and privileges with an indoor festival during New Year’s Eve. First, California New Year’s celebrations are during the winter and an indoor festival means you’ll be avoiding the cold outdoor temperatures and keeping warm. Second, with one stage you won’t be missing out on any important sets. A third is having the option of relaxing and enjoying the show on the bleachers or riding the rails at the pit area. Last and certainly not least are the multiple restroom stalls maintained all night by the amazing staff.
As we recap and remember the amazing three days of OMFG NYE from December 29-31, My Life Everyday aka LED Presents deserves a special shoutout and recognition, because without them we wouldn’t have been able to have all these artists over in San Diego. These artists all brought their A game and delivered incredible sets over that weekend that there are way too many to highlight. But here are several artists named that blew our expectations away at the Pechanga Arena:
Mitis
Mitis has been on my radar for a while now. My friends were recommending several mixes and tracks, including “Breathe” featuring Fathom and I was hoping to hear this live. This was also the one opportunity I had in seeing him in my city and for the first time. Let me tell you: Mitis did not disappoint at all.
Manila Killa
I was always a fan of Manila Killa ever since him and Candleweather (as Hotel Garuda) played a remix of Space Jam at EDC Las Vegas in 2015. From there Manila Killa’s tracks like “Youth” and “I Want You” featuring Robotaki instantly became some of my favorites. Hearing those tracks live? Even better. But the reason why Manila Killa is on here isn’t just because of personal favorite tracks, but how he’s able to play for the crowd. A perfect example was when he played the newest hit by Ariana Grande titled “Thank U, Next” and everyone going crazy and singing along to it.
Kaskade
When I say San Diego is blessed, I truly mean #blessed because we were gifted a special TWO hour set by none other than Kaskade. As soon as you heard his track “Fun” during his intro you already knew that this set was going to keep you moving all night. From notable tracks from his Atmosphere era like “Last Chance” and “Something Something Champs” to tracks off Automatic such as “Disarm You” and “Us,” I caught myself singing to almost every song he played.
Boombox Cartel
I never realized that I knew a lot of tracks by Boombox Cartel, so as soon as I was listening to this set I couldn’t stop moving. Easily one of my favorite sets from the second night (and not just because I finally heard “B2U” live), Boombox Cartel was able to maintain and keep the energy going right after Illenium’s set.
Illenium
Speaking of ILLENIUM, I’ve seen him multiple times and was planning on doing a break to go to the bathroom and to grab food during his set. Thank goodness I decided to do that during the set transition after because his set blew me away. Illenium took me on a rollercoaster of emotions: from wanting to throw babies (theoretically, not literally) during the heavy-hitting tracks like “Gold” featuring Excision, to wanting to cry from emotions during “Crawl Outta Love.” Another plus is that I found a new artist that I like (Slooze) because of this epic mashup below!
Gammer
The last time I saw Gammer was EDC Las Vegas this last year, and I’ve been needing to experience another set from him again. Of course I was a little sad at first that Gammer, or his epic track “The Drop” wasn’t going to be the countdown into 2019, but he still threw down an amazing set to kick off the early parts of New Year’s Eve and hype the crowd up for an incredible night. Lastly, I love a good meme and the fact that Gammer played a mix of “All Star” by Smash Mouth as one of the last tracks of his set (and immediately playing his flip of “Zombie” by Ran-D after) made me love him 1000000x more than I did before.
Porter Robinson
The energy was at an all-time high with Porter Robinson‘s very first set of 2019. While waiting for the most anticipated set of the night, I noticed how packed the pit and the bleachers were with fans wearing inspired or official merch. He created a new intro for his DJ sets a few months prior, so like other fans, I avoided videos and waited anxiously to see this live. Worth. The. Wait. During Porter’s set, everyone was singing in Unison (no pun intended) to his iconic tracks like “Sad Machine” and “Shelter” with Madeon. Everyone was also in shambles as he played heavy-hitting tunes like his Worlds live edit of “Fresh Static Snow” and classic tracks like Daft Punk’s “Digital Love.” This may be biased because of the countless times I’ve seen him since 2014, but I’d say that this is one of my favorite DJ sets by him.
Again, thank you so much to My Life Everyday for curating such successful events with lineups filled with legendary producers and on-the-rise artists. We’re so glad to have experienced three days of epic sets and grateful to have spent this New Year’s Eve weekend at LED OMFG!