Around the world in festivals and concerts, the artists performing, and the fans of both, 2017 has been a massive year! From location changes to first time ever b2b’s, to top quality production and the best of vibes. The music scene for electronic music, jam, and the camping/transformational festival scene has had quite possibly their best year yet! While it still isn’t over and there are massive New Year Eve events across the nation that will end out the year in style, we wanted to write an article of our favorite moments that The Chronic Electronic has covered this year. From the first festival that we covered this year at Gem and Jam Festival to the most recent Goldrush Festival and everywhere in between. With dank music, epic stage production, and gnarly crowd responses, we hope our list covers some of your favorite moments too. We look forward to 2018 where we get to share even more memories from more events. In order to do that we need your help! So if you agree /like this list please share it on media platforms to get as much reach in the audience as possible! Thank you and enjoy!
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10: Dimond Saints at Gem & Jam After Hours Stage
Gem and Jam Festival was the first festival that we covered this year and what an event to kick off the best year ever! They had a location change and it definitely turned out to be for the best. Camping was actually on site compared to the previous year, along with RV Hookups and tons more room inside the festival grounds for activities, art, vendors, and bigger and better stages. The whole festival was spectacular and was an amazing upgrade from the previous year as they also incorporated 2 main stages so one would start when the other would finish and keep that rotation up until the last sets of the night. On top of that their after-hours stage was inside a building that held the perfect amount of people and unique stage design. This is where a handful of amazing acts came to throw down some talent, with Desert Hearts going deep Friday Night, the bass-heavy acts took over Saturday night.
I had never seen Dimond Saints before their performance at the after-hours stage at Gem & Jam… and let’s just say, it was amazing! Dimond Saints is made up of Releece and An-Ten-Nae. The gnarly mixture of audio production comes together to make a “hybrid worldly trap” type of sound which is perfect for kicking up dust and thugging around with your scarf to heavy bass and unique samples. They had music thumping for an hour and a half with stage performers changing out constantly, keeping it fresh on stage! This wicked combination of mastery in music and performance arts on top of personal life revelations that caused me to only shed weight and grow had marked a special spot in my heart and is one of my favorite moments from the year 2017. Check out a video of Dimond Saints at Gem and Jam below! (Gem and Jam Festival is coming up next month, click this link to read our article, view set times and get tickets!)
9: The Beauty of the People and the Nature at Envision Festival in Costa Rica
There is beauty in everything and Envision Festival expresses that knowledge in the jungle and beachfront of Uvita, Costa Rica. Having world-renowned yoga teachers and instructors along with some of the best visionary artists and musicians/producers, Envision caters to many appeals. Envision is one of the leading festivals in the world for yoga and making a positive impact on our planet. The Festival is a leave no trace event and with that, along with many other precautions and ways to minimize your trash output, Envision is hands down one of the cleanest, MAJOR festivals in the world. That is also mainly due to the type of audience that Envision attracts. Passionate, creative, humble, caring, daring, and peaceful are just some of the characteristics of the people that come to Envision, but all share that trait including staff. With all that plus other unique perks, Envision and the people involved has marked a moment in our life that we will never forget. You do not want to miss out on the beauty in the jungle, the festival, and the people. You can find more info here by clicking this link!
8: Tipper w/ Android Jones MicroDose VR at Arise Festival
The deadly combo of Android Jones and Tipper is renowned as some of the most beautiful and chaotic music and visionary arts combo not only in the festival scene but in the galaxy! With unconfirmed reports that Dave Tipper is actually an alien, it makes sense to why this would be one of our favorite moments of this year. We had the opportunity to do coverage at Arise Music Festival through Party Guru Productions and along with the amazing music that Arise had booked for their 5th year and the plethora of workshops, this was hands down their biggest year at Arise too. They had, for their first time ever, Sold out on Saturday night, and it clearly showed. The ending set of the night on the main stage went to none other than Tipper and Android Jones with his microDose VR technology. Meaning, Android Jones got to play with visual through virtual reality and in real time. He had only done this a couple times before so getting to see this was a change up from the previous times that these two have previously collab’d, that I have seen. And what a realm of opportunity. Check out our video of their amazing performance below!
7: Bassnectar at Hulaween..lulwut
Doesn’t the title say it all? Suwannee Hulaween has been progressively increasing the dank electronic artists in their lineup. They have a mixture of jamtronica, bluegrass, and psychedelic rock, but each year they have been increasing electronic and bass music, along with hybrids of instrument and electronic. This year though, they topped all of the previous years with massive electronic artists coming to the special grounds that the spirit of Suwannee provides. With RL Grime, Space Jesus, Liquid Stranger, Claude VonStroke, Griz, Bassnectar, and many in the lineup this year, Suwannee Hulaween had reached their cap for an outstanding year! Bassnectar had taken the main stage Saturday night and well.. he did not disappoint! He had played classics, filthy new songs coming from his upcoming EP, and gnarly tunes from friends and peers that turned out to be one of the best Bassnectar sets all year. Watch him toss down Slather for the first time at Hulaween below.
6: Space Mom Abducting Souls at Goldrush Festival
There is another alien in our top moments from this year. This one goes by Space Mom, Aka, Rezz. Her style is a dark and ominous electro sound that leaves goosebumps on your skin. Her sound goes to the maximum with ultimate release. She is just a one of a kind artist and her set in the desert at Goldrush Festival was just immaculate! Her sound on this epic stage at Goldrush too was just the cherry on top of the abduction of our souls. The massive stage was the biggest stage that I have seen space mom on yet and what an outcome. She played a plethora of new music, some of her popular songs, and other artists in the scene who produced a grimy electro song. (The whole festival was absolutely amazing and a festival that we hope to return to. Check out our review of the festival in this link and watch a clip of her throwing down some chaos below!)
5: Golf Clap at Sonic Bloom with Face Melting Visuals
Sonic Bloom is one of our favorite festivals in the nation. From every aspect and person involved, Sonic Bloom consists of nothing but the best of vibes. With the Unified Field as the basis of the foundation of the festival, the festival thrives on connection through the community, arts, nature, and both spiritual and intellectual growth. (Even physical growth for the flow performers, yoga lovers, and tightrope walkers!) One of their stages, the hummingbird stage, is their most intimate major stage. With top-quality visual production on this exquisite Humming Bird Stage, watching music here was an experience like no other. Combined with some of my personal favorite music – house music, and it called for a party. Sonic Bloom has been increasing their house music (among other genres) but their selection in-house DJ’s and producers really went from 0 to 100 quick. This year they had Claude Von Stroke, Desert Hearts, Golf Clap and more on this visually picture perfect stage!
While each artist had their own vibe of house, the one who called to us, was the dirty duo from Detroit. Hailing from their label, Country Club Disco, they brought a rave to the woods of Sonic Bloom. Keeping the party energetic for 2 hours, and with the Hummingbird Stage being surrounded by live art, art installations, and the art gallery. Roaming around discovering art to dank music is one of my favorite moments from 2017. When you were done looking at painted/drawn/sculpted art/ you can look at the stage and see epic art by infinite visuals (melt creative) or the 4k lasers that were just extremely vivid! Get a glimpse of one of the most legendary intimate stages in North America! (You can read our review of this beloved festival here!)
4: Dabbing during Zhu at Global Dance Festival
Lets first start off one of our favorite memories with the fact that Global Dance Festival moved from Red Rocks to Mile High Stadium and it was the perfect move for this festival. It has evolved into what a festival should be! Three main stages all filled with top of the line production and gnarly awesome artists who truly had their talent shine bright. Global Dance Festival this year, just like the years before, has brought big named electronic artists to Colorado for their first time. This year, was the mysterious and electrifying house artist that incorporated live music and vocals. That would be no other than Zhu. Having not released his public image until his first performance in 2015, Zhu had kept his mysterious act up for quite the time and finally, Colorado got blessed by this magnificent music. From covering M.J’s Thriller to their renowned hit Faded, and everywhere in-between this might easily have been one of the best sets of music that we have heard. It was perfect. Now…. dabbing out of a rig along with this music-induced euphoria. That was perfect.
3: Groove Cruise: Partying in Mexico 
I could say that the whole Groove Cruise Experience was one of my favorite moments (which, honestly it was and could be read here in this dank review but that would take up wayyy to much space and time)!! So out of that, once in a lifetime experience, I would have to say, landing in Ensenada Mexico and going to the Private Hilltop Estate for 6 hours of music, tacos, and drinks was my favorite part of the Groove Cruise adventure! It wasn’t enough time in the beautiful cliff-top estate, but, it was still one hell of an experience. There were two stages, basically broke down by mainstream house and electronic music and underground house and tech on the other stage. Well.. both were freaking epic but I ended up getting stuck at the underground one getting lost to the deep beats by Billy Kenny followed by the unique Green Velvet. Both of them know how to party.. but seeing the legend Green Velvet in this intimate venue in Mexico might have been the best part. (You can see what I’m talking about thanks to DJ Mag with this Live Stream.)
Even the best things have to end, and I have seen Green Velvet multiple times before, so it was a time for a change up! Heading to the main stage with a tequila & pineapple juice in hand, I walked into 3lau tearing up the dance floor with drum and bass tracks, bass house, future bass, and more! He got my blood pumping and it was the perfect buzz to get your feet stomping too. With this stage completely packed, I danced through the crowd multiple times, getting pictures of the crowd and different vantages of the stage, I had an experience that I will never forget. It’s something you’ll only get on the Groove Cruise… Their 2018 Cabo Experience is gonna be next level, let’s not miss out on that, shall we? Grab tickets and info here through our detailed article.) Watch a video of 3lau getting down with drum and bass at Mexico.
2: Oregon Eclipse (All of Monday)
The gathering of a lifetime. Now, this is an experience that people will rarely get. The experience of going to a 7-day long festival and seeing the Total Solar Eclipse in its totality! This wasn’t an ordinary festival though… it was a gathering. A collective of 13 different festivals from around the world to come together and collaborate in one place for one of the biggest events of the century! Now it was 7 days long full with the best of moments from start to finish, including my birthday, which was on the 22nd, the day after the Total Solar Eclipse! But… our favorite moment had to be the whole day of Monday… from start to finish it was just magical. With 7 hours of UK Dubstep from Truth, Mala, and more on the deep dub stage with epic pillars (in the picture below), While on the “main stage” was Minnesota and Dimond Saints during the eclipse itself.
Going back and forth from the epic OG dubstep to the energetic and pumped up bass heavy music was the perfect musical adventure. With it being no more than a quarter mile distance, the walk wasn’t that bad compared to how big the grounds were. Following the several hours of music and catching the sunrise on the eerie day of the eclipse was an experience that I will never forget. Walking back to the RV to get prepped with food, mimosa’s and dabs for the eclipse, we got ready asap and headed our way to the designated spot for the eclipse viewing! This is where 50,000 people all moved to one location.. for one sole purpose. To witness the Total Solar Eclipse. This was something I have never seen before. For as far as my eye could see, I would only see people herding their way to a spot for this natural phenomena. As the moon got closer and closer to overcoming the sun, the air crispened and cooled. I instantly understood why back in the dark ages, they thought the end of the world was coming. While I was hot at that time every other day, I was getting chilly that Monday. Then the sun vanished and when it did.. it almost made a sound with the visual effect that it did. The shadow of the moon took over the land and the sky transforming it into a dawn/dusk landscape view with unique colors throughout the horizon. But the real jaw-dropper was looking at the moon.. the oh so dark moon… it was an experience in and of its self that I know, will leave me craving more. After that Euphoric moment, I chilled and stumbled upon dank music all day and throughout the night, but nothing would compare to the total solar eclipse. Not even the dragonfly landing on my left shoulder and chilling on me for 10 minutes. This might have been my favorite experience of all and it left me craving more.. and if you weren’t you’d be feeling the same! You can go to their next gathering during an eclipse in Chile in 2020! Let’s make moves.
1: Asadi at Euphoria Music Festival
Last but definitely not least. Asadi. An artist who went from a few thousand likes on Facebook to 100,000 within months because of his crazy talent on the beat pad! Persian Trap Music, as he calls it, and it definitely fits. This brilliant and talented producer records sounds from instruments such as Persian Tar and Sitar and samples it into his beat pad for a one of a kind sound! He had started his musical journey at the young age of 16 but really got his foot in the door when he moved to Orlando. Actually in the same location where I had birthed The Chronic Electronic, at Full Sail University. Within months of his project Asadi, his videos had gone viral with millions of views on multiple videos. That got him the opportunity to perform at Euphoria Music Festival. The second festival that he had ever played at, (Phoenix Lights was the night before,) and both resulted in packed crowds. I can speak for the Euphoria one as moving through the crowd was a hassle but was so much fun as everyone was getting down super wonky like to the unique bass music. Asadi has an energetic and bright stage presence, with outstanding talent, and gnarly creativity. This resulted in a set that no one has seen before.. and it was massive! The stage at Euphoria Music Festival, first of all, is one of my favorite stages in the scene! The Dragonfly Amphitheater is an exotic stage with a river background with lush trees that at nightfall, get projected on with trippy visuals. You just have to experience the amphitheater to grasp its magnificent beauty. But with that amazing vibe from that environment along with the radical performance from Asadi, it was hands down one of the best moments of 2017!
We wanted to thank each and every one of you for taking time and checking out this article recapping some of our favorite moments in 2017. If you like what we do and this article, share this article and keep up to date through our socials which are posted at the top of the website, or at some of the links below! Also massive shout out to Caren West PR, Infamous PR, Global Dance, Kannibalen Records, (and if I left a couple out I’m sorry) for giving us these amazing opportunities for the festivals this year! Without y’all we wouldn’t be where we are today! Thank you!