Featured Photo Credit: Arc Music Festival
Chicago is very well known as the home of house music. To this day, nightlife in Chicago closely resembles what the city offered back in the 1980’s. DJs are still bumping electronic music until sunrise at intimate club venues and warehouses scattered all throughout the city, and Chicagoans absolutely live for it. Despite the city’s deep-rooted connections to the underground music scene, Chicago unfortunately hasn’t seen many large-scale events that emphasize that part of the city’s colorful history. While there are Chicago festivals that welcome legendary artists from various genres, we are consistently deprived of a festival whose primary focus is what we’ve introduced to the world – house music! Well, the wait is over. For its inaugural event, Arc Music Festival is on a mission to curate an unforgettable Labor Day weekend. Arc plans to merge Chicago’s glorious nightlife community with international festival culture to offer a truly unique experience.
The Lineup
Arc Music Festival is bringing what this city desperately needs, an event that prioritizes the people and the music that have shaped Chicagoan social life for decades. The lineup features international house and techno powerhouses, of course. However, the lineup also includes local artists who are largely credited for keeping Chicago’s music and nightclub industry alive. To quickly review, the lineup features Bob Moses, Gene Farris, Hot Since 82, Nicole Moudaber, Steve Gerard, and Zhu. Plus, THREE sets by the legendary Eric Prydz. Attendees, prepare yourself for a traditional Eric Prydz set and an Adam Beyer b2b Cirez D set at the festival. It doesn’t end there, though, as a closing party at Chicago’s newest warehouse venue, Radius, is featuring a third Prydz alias set, Pryda.
This will be first time ever that Prydz is scheduled to play an individual set as each of these three primary aliases all at the same event. How Arc managed to pull that off, I don’t know, but I want to personally thank whoever is responsible for making it happen. Unfortunately, Prydz’s only other currently active alias, Tonja Holma, is not on the lineup. Nevertheless, this lineup is flawless as the combination of local icons and international stars is curated perfectly. Check out the Spotify playlist below to familiarize yourself with the lineup.
Elrow PsychROWdelic Trip
It’s also abundantly clear that the inspiration for Arc was not only the city’s music scene, but also Europe’s ever-flourishing nightlife and festival scene. Elrow is a European traveling party/festival experience. The party circuit is known for their incredible production, vibrant atmosphere and amazing music. The first U.S. Elrow party was scheduled for May 2020 at Radius in Chicago. Well, you can probably guess how that turned out. Spoiler: it didn’t happen. However, Elrow will be presenting a stage at Arc! Expect a grand stage like you’ve never seen before.
Arc Music Festival tickets are flying fast! Get them while you still can here. Hotel and transporation packages are on the way, so keep your eyes peeled for that as well!