headline the stage along with sets by the beautiful and talented Maya Jane Coles and Maceo Plex. As we stand to the side of the stage, Maya Jane Coles drops ‘Easier to Hide’ for all the tech-house fans in the crowd. The stage is a nice escape from all of the high-octane music going on throughout the festival. While the crowd is a bit thin, those who stick around are rewarded with great music. Being the only tented stage in the venue, it also benefits as it is getting quite cold as the clock strikes midnight which brings in a lot of unsuspecting visitors who hopefully will walk away with a new appreciation for this type of music.
Like Wonderland itself, the venue is filled with areas for exploration. Set upon a hill (which gets a bit tiresome at times) the venue is absolutely huge. Concessions, albeit a bit pricey, are never that far out of reach and free water is available. The only complaint we have is the placement of the drum and bass stage which is awkwardly placed over off to the side of the venue all on its own.
Around 1 in the morning, mist has settled in on the hills. Steve Angello is getting ready to wow the crowd with his infamous big room house tracks. Dropping crowd
favorite ‘Relode’, a collaboration with Sebastian Ingrosso and Tommy Trash, early on in the set sends almost everyone at the main stage into a frenzy. Say what you want about the man (as DJ Sneak already seems to do), but his flawless blend of chart-topping hits is breathtaking, even if it might be pre-recorded. In the moment it’s almost impossible not to be gripped by Swedish fever. Looking out to the crowd as he plays ‘Save the World’, it’s a moment in which the surge in popularity of big room house in the United States makes sense. Everyone is singing along and having a great time.
Chatting with the crowd, it’s as if no one is aware that across the country the biggest electronic music festival is going on, and it doesn’t matter. At first, we were a bit skeptic of scheduling Beyond Wonderland during the first weekend of Ultra, as well as placing it at a venue so far out of the city. But our skepticism is squashed the minute we arrive. There’s a lot of talk about the commercialization of electronic music these days, but when we get in my car at the end of the day those themes don’t really cross our mind. After all, we have a smile on our face the whole drive home. KEVIN CAMPS
djmag.com 075
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