Featured Photo by Doug Wojciechowski / Paxahau
Movement Electronic Music Festival is one of Detroit’s most beloved traditions, inspiring the Mayor to annually declare an entire seven days as “Detroit Techno Week” each year. The 2020 festival takes place on Memorial Day Weekend, May 23-25, and pays homage to the birthplace of techno with the three-day fest, plus dozens of other music events lighting up every venue in town ‘til the early morning hours. And now, right on time, the 2020 lineup is out!
Three daily lineups have dropped on three separate days this week, with today’s being the final piece to an oh-so-satisfying puzzle of techno, house and the best beats from the underground. Day one’s announcement made us do a doubletake; stacked with names like Dirtybird house-mogul Claude VonStroke and Detroit techno legend Carl Craig, almost every name on this bill could be mistaken for a headliner—but this was just the beginning.
Saturday is heavy with Papa Claude’s gang of Dirtybird artists, including Ardalan, Justin Martin, Walker & Royce, and VNSSA: a badass female house artist who’s popping up on bills everywhere. As of 2020, the label has been spitting out the most contagious house, future house, experimental and just plain old booty-shakin’ tracks for 15 years. Fingers crossed we’ll get some guests spots during Movement’s extra-long set times and see some birds hop B2B all weekend long.
Even as an incredibly niche festival, Movement constantly reaches for artists in every direction to assemble a bill that’s diverse and represents even the smallest pockets of the global scene. This year, the fest has provided us with a stack of female artists that’s extensive and glorious: Avalon Emerson and LadyMonix will hit the decks on Saturday, while Sunday boasts Brazil’s finest, ANNA, with other scheduled sets from The Black Madonna, Ellen Allien, TOKiMONSTA and more.
And while the local Detroit talent steals the hearts of their hometown like no one else, the best of the best fly in from around the world to dish out the hottest techno from Europe and beyond. Boris Brejcha will be in from Germany to spin his brand-new release, Space Diver, that just dropped January 24th. The underground techno-trance and eerie melodies on this album are the type to have you closing your eyes in the crowd to feel the music.
Paxahau dropped the entire 2019 lineup all at once around this exact time last year. There’s no doubt that this year’s daily tease was intentional, with each day more exciting and surprising then the last. Monday’s closing Memorial Day bill arrived late and stole the show.
Hey… You’ve got a little drool on your chin.
TESTPILOT (aka Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmau5), Chris Lake and Richie Hawtin will all make their return to Hart Plaza to close out this wild weekend. What better way to spend your day off from work than with Lee Foss and Loco Dice? The dream of this hot, holiday-weekend party in Detroit with techno’s finest is the best thing getting us Midwesterners through this Winter.
Three-day and single-day passes are available for both GA and VIP now! Grab your tickets here and come witness what is shaping up to be the best Movement yet.