u/Unlikely_Priority_56

Looking for something with a vibe close to Dekmantel Festival, more leftfield/electro leaning stuff. Artists like Objekt, Colin Benders, Upsammy, Gyrofield, Jasss, that kind of direction.

Are there any raves, parties, or clubs in LA that lean that way? Please no hard techno recs, that’s just not my thing.

Any warehouse parties, smaller collectives, or promoters I should be following would be super appreciated

Looking for something with a vibe close to Dekmantel Festival, more leftfield/electro leaning stuff. Artists like Objekt, Colin Benders, Upsammy, Gyrofield, Jasss, that kind of direction.

Are there any raves, parties, or clubs in the Bay Area that lean that way? Please no hard techno recs, that’s just not my thing.

Any warehouse parties, smaller collectives, or promoters I should be following would be super appreciated 🙏

So this is my review of Sziget. Lots of personal opinions here plus useful info for anyone planning to go next year.

Sziget Ville Premium
I stayed at Sziget Ville Premium with my friend. The accommodation was fine, but it was rough because our cabin was in direct sun, zero shade. And you can’t pick your cabin, they just assign you a number at check in. Toilets were clean, showers were solid in the Ville Premium area. Overall a good option if you don’t want to deal with taxis back to the city every day. The one thing I’d do differently next time is definitely go for the igloo with AC. Side note, if anyone’s stayed in one of those, does the AC actually hold up if the igloo’s in direct sun?

VIP upgrade
I got it for clean toilets, decent food, no bar lines, and a comfy shaded spot to chill. Everything delivered except the food. The food was straight up bad. Especially the VIP booth at the mainstage. I got a chicken burrito there and it was so salty I almost threw up. Had to toss it.

Vibes
The vibe in the VIP area wasn’t really it either, except for a few sets (Sub Focus and Dimension for example). So I ended up spending most of my time outside the VIP zone. That said, the regular dance floor isn’t exactly some legendary vibe either. Same as VIP, tons of yappers and people constantly filming everything on their phones instead of being in the moment. Not really complaining though, it’s one of the biggest and most commercial festivals in Europe, so obviously you’re gonna get that crowd and there’s no real “dance floor culture” to speak of :) But on the non VIP floor you could still find pockets where people were actually going off. You just gotta hunt for it, as long as the area isn’t too packed.

People
Hungarians, huge love ❤️. Met a lot of Hungarians and they were the nicest people at the whole festival. The most unpleasant, unfortunately, were the Dutch. They brought their vibes right along with them to Sziget. Zero awareness of people around them, zero manners, zero etiquette. Not surprised though, honestly that tracks as the standard Dutch experience.

Music
Music was good overall. I get that not everything can be my thing at a fest like this, you can’t please everyone. But there were a ton of sets I genuinely loved. Naturally, the more hyped and mainstream the artist, the more aggressive or the more boring the crowd gets. Like Zara Larsson, her fans are actual demons. The crowd at Peggy Gou looked like they were about to fall asleep, kind of matched her music tbh lol. But people at Skrillex and BMTH were sooo nice! Really had lots of fun ⚡️

Guys, can we please stop pushing through to extremely busy spots and shoving your way to the front of a group of much shorter girls? If you’re taller than everyone around you, maybe just… stand behind them instead of in front? We got there early, we’re not blocking your view of anything by existing.

It’s such a small thing, but it makes a huge difference to actually see the stage instead of staring at someone’s back the whole set. A little empathy goes a long way, I promise you won’t miss anything standing one row back.

i’m searching for festivals with good music selection and crowd vibe +- similar to dekmantel across the world. can someone please recommend me?

my festival MVP was upsammy, no contest

ok so upsammy’s set was actually unreal. she went through so many genres in one set it was kind of insane, and the crowd’s vibe matched perfectly. everyone was just fully in the moment, no phones, just pure energy. 10/10, no notes.

meanwhile some of the other stages were lowkey ruined by shit crowd behavior. some stages had these big-ass groups of people who would NOT shut the fuck up the entire time. like bro we’re not at brunch. also so much unnecessary shoving, people just barging through like they own the place.

and don’t even get me started on the phone people. I swear to god I saw some guy record skrillex’s ENTIRE SET from start to finish on his phone. like sir. put the phone away and live a little 💀