Trouble at TomorrowWorld

This was the one festival I was looking forward to attending. Unfortunately, due to financial problems over the summer, I was unable to go. Never in my life have I ever been so grateful to not make it to a festival. TomorrowWorld was a nightmare this year and from it sounds like, it's nobody's fault except the people running the fest.

The festival got an expected couple inches of rain within the first two days of the festival. Because of the rain and the amount of people walking around, it quickly turned to one big mud pit. After the last show of the night, the campers went back to their tents, but the off site festival attendees were not as lucky. Uber cars and shuttle buses were getting stuck in the mud, making the festival call off any types of transportation. This left thousands of people stranded and livid. Not only that, but the staff wouldn't let people leaving refill their water bottles before leaving, which left many people dehydrated as well.

There was no communication to the event staff or the security, so this led to people sleeping on cardboard or plastic bags in the cold and the mud, people walking 8 miles to get to the nearest transportation, and even people sleeping on the side of unlit backroads. Uber even took this chance to screw over the customers and there were reports of people having to pay $200 for their 10 mile drive to their hotels. Apparently there were two girls raped on the unlit roads, as well as people having to be hospitalized due to dehydration. There were even complaints of the staff being high on drugs and not doing what they were supposed to be. TomorrowWorld then decided to close the fest to everyone but the 40,000 attendees who were camping. They did offer refunds to the people unable to attend Sunday, but that understandably didn't make any of them happy.

Running a festival has HUGE responsibilities, one includes insuring the safety of the festival goers. Leaving them stranded and not communicating on how to get them safely back is a big problem. If there is rain in the forecast, you have to have a back up plan or 2 with any problem that could occur, and cars getting stuck is a major one. I've attended many fests where rain causes problems and every time the situation has been dealt with the best possible way. TomorrowWorld had no care in the world to help their attendees. This is the most insane thing I've read about weather problems and the outcome of it and I'm so glad I escaped from that nightmare. Just from hearing news like this, I don't think I'm ever interested in going now.

-Blaze

Decadence Releases Stacked Lineup

This exciting New Year's Eve festival in Denver, Colorado spent the last two days announcing a new artist to the lineup every 30 minutes for 5 hours of the afternoon. Let me tell you, it made for a stressful two days to see each name slowly get released.

They started with a big room house DJ Hardwell. I'm not too excited about this only because of my music preference. When I go to see a DJ, I want to see a lot of original material and not someone who samples other people's music while screaming " 3 2 1 JUMP!" every 15 minutes. Big room house is just not my cup of tea.

Then some smaller name acts got added that I was a little excited for like The Floozies and JackLNDN.

It was when they started announcing the harder hitting names when I was jumping out of my seat with excitement. Names like Figure, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Excision, and Odesza. The headlining act of the first night is one of my favorites as well as hundreds of thousands of more, Bassnectar. And honestly, you can't celebrate the New Year in Colorado without expecting Bassnectar to make an appearance.

Next day, the stress was real because this day was the deciding day on if my friends and I would for sure be spending our New Year's in the city of Denver. They announced Gramatik, who I am always down to see, What So Not, Galantis, and a few other names I was unfamiliar with. At this point, my entire friend group was torn. Decadence was good but not stacked like we were promised and there were other festival opportunities with a better lineup.

Shortly after they announced ticket prices and when they would be going on sale, along with two more BIG announcements to make this lineup better than the rest. My friends and I were throwing names out like Pretty Lights, Above & Beyond, all of our hopeful favorite headliners. I was hoping it was Pretty Lights and Deadmau5 considering it's been years since I've seen Pretty Lights and Deadmau5 is one of my all time favorites.

The first announcement was the Skrillex and Diplo duo, Jack U. No one was thrilled about this. Skrillex is a great producer and a talented artist and him alone or with his other duo, Dogblood with Boys Noize, is fantastic. Unfortunately Diplo is not that great. To me, he's tainted the eletronic music industry and is not that great of a DJ. When it comes to producing his own music, he's great; but, he's cocky and a misogynist and you can see it all over his social media and his performances. So I will be Skipping out on Jack U solely because of Diplo.


Finally the last name was released. I couldn't handle it, I screamed, immediately sent it to all my friends, and then screamed some more because my hopeful guess became true. The last name they released, the producer who will be bringing in the new year is... Deadmau5! Excitement is now in the air in my group of friends and the decision was unanimous that we were not missing out on this festival. Planning has already started and we are only in the month of September.

We have yet to see any other New Year's Eve festival lineup drop to compare to Decadence, but as of now there is now comparing and our minds are set.

I can't wait to be in Denver once again to ring in the new year!

-Blaze

The Brains Behind Bonnaroo Announce New Florida Festival

Music festival junkees will be thrilled to hear that a new Bonnaroo and Coachella like festival is coming to South Florida.

Details were released on Thursday that Okeechobee, Florida will host a new, bigger festival on March 4-6, 2016. This will be the biggest camping festival as it is located on 848 acres of land called Sunshine Grove. To give you an idea on how large that is, Bonnaroo is on 700 acres and holds up to 90,000 attendees.  Now image what opportunities an extra 148 acres can offer.... exciting right?

The new festival will release the lineup later next month and will include 80 different acts including bands, producers, and DJ's from around the world.

This event will include a white-sand lakeside-swimming beach and bar, wooded VIP camping areas, various art installations. Just like Bonnaroo, the festival will be very environmentally conscious and provide recycling bins, serve food on compost plates, and reduce the waste.

I'm hoping to be able to make it to the first year of this festival. Not only is my birthday March 2nd ( hint hint) but its in a new location with new festival attractions I'd love to experience. I can't wait to see what it's first year will look like and see how successful it'll be.

Now a days, the industry of festivals is so heavy saturated that it's hard to start a new one. But with the brains behind Bonnaroo putting this together, I have faith.

Now to wait for the lineup!

- Blaze

 

It Really is a Time to be Alive

Drake and Future surprised fans by dropping a fire mixtape a day after announcing their collaboration.

This came unexpected considering Drake is releasing a new album later this year and Future released his new album July 6th.

Apple's Beats 1 Radio premiered the album on Sunday with Drake explaining how the mixtape came together and basically told listeners that the mixtape was an accident.

He said how he went to visit Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for six days in hopes of collaborating with Future. 

Drake also mentioned how he chose the title for his new, spontaneous album. When he realized his trip to Atlanta would produce a collaborative effort with Future, Drake told writer and friend Ernest Baker about the project. Baker replied, "What a time to be alive," and that's how Drake named it.

The mixtape has 11 tracks and is pretty much a mixtape of Future featuring Drake. The chemistry works as expected and is blowing up on the Itunes charts and making a trend on twitter as #WATTBA.

You can listen to the full album on the Apple Music, but isn't available on popular music streaming sites yet.

So with this new collaboration and having both artists on the lineup for the upcoming fest, Austin City Limits, does this mean we will see the duo perform this mixtape together on stage? I know I can't wait to see.

What a time to be alive indeed.

-Blaze

Queen Bey is Blessing Us Again

Naughty Boy music yesterday tweeted a time countdown and some great news for Beyonce fans. She will be featured on a new track of theirs called " Runnin ( Lose it All)" along side Arrow Benjamin. With the tweet, they shared a snippet of the new song. The track had already been leaked last month, but only featured Arrow Benjamin.

This is new material from Beyonce since her self-titled album back in 2013. The Naughty Boy album will also include collaborations with Bastille, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.  Their new song will be debuted September 18th.

-Blaze

Look Out for Scammers!

I just wanted to make this post to make sure people are aware of how easy it is to get scammed when buying tickets to a sold out event, the warning signs you need to see, and the best way to get a decently priced ticket to a sold out event.

I decided to write about this because I was almost scammed into buying two face value Weekend 2 Austin City Limits tickets. Buying from second hand buyers, like StubHub and TicketCity, can be too expensive and I do suggest buying it from private sellers on Craigslist because that is your cheapest option, just be careful.

The biggest warnings I've noticed when buying from private sellers on Craigslist is the scammers don't want to use PayPal. PayPal helps prevent from getting scammed. If they have a different option they want to use, don't fall for it. The guy that almost got me wanted to use Walmart 2 Walmart pay option and that is the fastest way to lose your money.
In a festival situation, you're going to find tickets for sale all over the place, so it'll make you feel uneasy about doing any type of transaction with someone on the other side of the country. Ask the person if they can send you a screen shot of their receipt. It'll have their name and the date that they bought it. That was my last warning sign I got when the scammer never texted back a screen shot of his receipt.

Also talk to the person a little more than just about the transaction. If they put a reason as to why they can't go to the event on the ad, ask them again and see if the story matches.
With my current situation, I ended up finding a seller in the Dallas area and we keep each other updated on money, when the wristbands have been shipped, etc. She agreed on letting me be the only potential buyer since I was the first person to get a hold of her and we haven't made any money transactions yet since she doesn't have the wristbands. With simple communication between you and the seller, you can figure out if you for sure have a ticket.

For those still looking, wait until all the wristbands have been shipped. Having the wristbands in person already helps validate the transaction. Also, the closer to the date of the event, the cheaper and more frantic people are trying to sell their weekend passes.

So if you haven't gotten a pass yet, don't give up!! And be careful of shitty people trying to make a fast buck.

-Blaze
  

New James Bond Theme Produced by Dyanmic Duo

To much speculation, Sam Smith announced earlier in the week that he has recorded the new theme song for Sam Mendes's new Bond movie, Spectre.  Along with the new song announcement, Sam Smith tweeted that the song is produced by his favorite collaborative artists called Disclosure and Jimmy Napes, who has worked on many huge records with Sam Smith and Disclosure.The new song is called "Writing on the Walls" and will be released along side the Disclosure's sophomore album Caracal on September 25th.

Disclosure are one of my all time favorite artists and I think when they collaborate with Sam Smith, they create musical masterpieces. "Latch" became an overnight hit and their new song together "Omen" isn't far from it. I myself can't wait to hear this new James Bond theme and I especially can't wait for their new album.

-Blaze

Backwoods Bash Security Under Investigation for Death of Detained Attendee

Tragedy hits Backwoods Bash as news comes out of a 34 year-old attendee named Patrick Murphy died while being detained by festival security. According to Fox23, the OSBI is now involved in this investigation as more information begins to unfold about that night.

According to a report, Patrick Murphy began exhibiting erratic behavior who was then subdued and handcuffed by security. Shortly after, Murphy stopped breathing and EMT's were called to rush him to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Backwoods Bash officials made the decision to fire the security company and made a public statement saying :

"We apologize for anyone who had a less than positive experience with security at Backwoods this year. We have taken the necessary steps to fire the company and will not be bringing them back next year. During the event there were several incidents which Backwoods had to relieve some security staff of duty due to inappropriate actions. In our attempt to keep the event safe and secure, we failed our patrons by hiring a company who wasn't able to perform for us. We look forward to improving your experience by finding the right security company for next year."

There were many complaints against the security this year showing inappropriate behavior, not to just the attendees, but the artists as well. One electronic DJ, FYER, ended up cancelling his show due to the security attacking his tour manager with a knife for reasons unknown.

This news is awful to me and makes me keep stressing how it's the job of any type of security to protect the people and keep the peace, whether it be the actual PD or just security at events. These men and women need to be trained PROPERLY and THOROUGHLY to prevent instances like this. Excessive force and use of weapons should never be the way to deal with erratic people and this could have been 100% avoided.

My deepest condolences go out to the friends and family of Patrick Murphy.

-Blaze

Backwoods Bash Exceeds Expectations

This year was the year to be at Backwoods Bash in Stroud, Oklahoma. This was it's 7th year in the little town, but its first year to book some unbelievable and biggest acts yet. Starting the first night with Infected Mushroom headlining and having ODESZA headline the last. Not to mention some other great acts like Porter Robinson who blew everyone away with his ambient tunes, The Floozies, Manic Focus, Lettuce, and The Motet. Backwoods also had some great local acts like Helen Helter Skelter, Diludic, and Ed Crunk.

This festival is definitely on the lower scale of popularity, only because of the names they are able to bring, making it a very uncrowded and awesome. All the festivals that I'm used to attending have no less than 50k festival goers, so experiencing something this small scale was almost like a breath of fresh air.

I would say the downfall of the festival is the time they put it on and how far away the campground was away from the stages. Early September heat in humid Oklahoma is nothing to mess with and it's crucial to stay hydrated and keep that sunscreen on. I was not a fan of the 102 degree days and spent most of the daylight hours in the shade , otherwise it'll make for a very miserable and tiring night for you. Also, I've never been further than a 15 minute walk to stages ever at any camping fest I've ever attended and Backwoods had a very hilly 45 minute walk which I would label almost miserable.

I'm sad that Oklahoma didn't bring back Mystik Sanctuary, which was the same weekend as Backwoods last year, but this year made up for it. Another festival for the books!


-Blaze

Bassheads Unite at a New Location

Bassnectar fans rejoice as the new Bassnecter New Year's Eve 360 location is announced. The original location of the popular New Year's Eve show has been in Nashville, Tennessee and now the sell out show is located in Birmingham, AL.

The show includes exciting diverse opening acts with hard hitting Paper Diamond and the amazing glitch hop trio The Glitch Mob, which is always a guaranteed incredible show. I promise you, you DO NOT want to miss a show like this. A New Year's Eve with Bassnectar is one to remember.

Pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow, September 9th at 10 AM. This is a show that sells out so get your tickets fast!




-Blaze

Phases of the Moon Canceled

Earlier in the year, Terrapin Ridge Productions announced a merger with Pipeline Productions along with the announcement that the Phases of the Moon Festival would be relocated to Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Arkansas, the same location that the festival Wakarusa is held. This festival had booked popular acts like STS9, Beats Antique, Yonder Mountain String Band, The Disco Biscuits, Moe, and many more.

The organizers have made the announcement that they are canceling the fest. In this press release they stated:

Dear Phases of the Moon Community,

It saddens us to inform you that Phases of the Moon Music & Art Festival has to be canceled. We were very excited to have had the opportunity to continue the Phases adventure in Arkansas this year. Unfortunately, due to a significant number of unforeseen obstacles, including the continued closure of the only road leading into the festival site, we were left with no choice but to cancel the event. We apologize sincerely for this inconvenience and hope to see all of you at great live music and events in the near future. A separate notice will be sent to ticket holders concerning refunds.

Thank you for your love and support.

Sincerely,
The Phases Team

With this being said, many festival goers are not happy about this news. Many who bought their tickets had also attended Wakarusa in which they encountered the same obstacle, but continued the fest. I myself did not attend Wakarusa this year but I had several friends attend tell me there was a traffic problem, but nothing worth cancelling a fest.

The community was excited because this was Phases of the Moon's second year, but first year in its new location in Arkansas. The inaugural year was located in Illinois and brought thousands of happy festival goers and campers.

But if you're sad about this news, just remember that there's always a new festival to attend the next month.







-Blaze
 

I Can't Feel My Face When I Listen to You

 The Weeknd has become a popular name this passed year starting with his 50 Shades of Grey hit  " Earned it." In the month of June, all three of his radio hits were on the Billboard Top 100 and he's making a big name for himself. With that said, he dropped his new album " Beauty Behind the Madness" on August 28th. Coming from a big The Weeknd fan, I was a little worried of how this new album would be considering he is now a more popular name which would make his normal 5 minute vulgar ballads into 3 1/2 minute, top of the charts, pop tunes. I can tell you though that I've been listening to this album on replay since it dropped. There are some incredible, unpredictable songs featuring some amazing artists like Lana Del Ray and Kanye West, making this album just as good as Trilogy. Granted, his slow burning ballads are not quite the same, he still stuck to his vulgar sexual lyrics but has evolved in a beautiful way.

Listening to this album has made him on my must-see list as I prepare for his headlining show at Austin City Limits Festival. Not to mention his first ever performance on MTV's The VMA's where he performed his hit " I Can't Feel My Face" and was definitely one of the better acts of the night.  I've seen him before but never like this and it makes me excited for what the future holds for The Weeknd.

I would rate this album at 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. I hope all music fans out there enjoy this album just as much as I am!

- Blaze