ON THE FLOOR
Zoo Conservation C
overing this year’s Electric Zoo festival brings forth a flood of experience: pounding beats, day-glo crowds, underground representation side by side with cash-cow commercialism, and ultimately tragedy. There’s really no way of starting a review of
the fifth year of the New York City mega-festival without acknowledging the elephant in the room; namely, the deaths of two festival-goers and the hospitalization of four others which resulted in the canceling of Electric Zoo’s third and final day. Our hearts go out to the families and friends affected. It’s important to note that Electric Zoo is a meticulously planned, well-oiled beast. There are safety precautions in place, from multiple free water refill stalls to four first-aid tents and even announcements made in-between acts on every stage urging people to monitor their partying, and check themselves and their friends periodically. Although both deaths are being blamed on MDMA, or Molly as it is commonly known, at the time of writing there is no evidence as to what the cause was beyond unfounded media announcements — a subject that we’ll return to later.
Preceeding this abrupt ending, we arrive at Randall’s Island on Friday and immediately set about exploring the debut of the second main stage area, which transforms this year’s festival site from impressively large to mind-bogglingly huge. Further exploration unveils new twists on some of last year’s stages, including the 360-degree stage, and even more impressive circular visuals at the Hilltop Stage. We then take the first dip of many into some of the excellently curated food stalls, which feature the Big Apple’s premiere roving culinary delights like Roberta’s Pizza, Banh Mi Freaks, and Beekman’s Burgers. Finally, the realisation that last year’s dusty grounds are held down by a crop of fresh grass (reportedly costing the promoters a cool million) and a quick trip to — get this — clean, queue-free port-a-loos cements our beliefs that a lot more thought and money has gone into the Zoo’s fifth edition than previous ones. We camp out at the Sunday School Grove tent for the majority of Friday, which boasts a back-to-back line-up of some of our favorite DJs starting well before midday. Local disco-house mainstay Nathaniel Jay, who co-runs the Love Revolution label and is one half of Soho 808, kicks the proceedings off with a classic set of house and mid-tempo openers. We do some more rounds of the site, with another cheeky food break thrown in, and return in time for a masterful set from Joy Orbison. A steady stream of people trickle in as the British producer jumps around, spinning tracks from his own hits to peak-time cuts by Floorplan, the tent packed full of smiling revelers by the time he finishes later than expected, since Scuba cancels at the last minute. Cassy steps up next and plays one of her immaculate sets that keeps Panorama Bar crowds going into their 12th hour, imbuing her alloted time with soulful deepness.
A quick toilet break, with still surprisingly sanitary cubicles, affords a momentary glimpse of Skream jamming out with his usual finesse. Unfortunately his MC serves only to hinder, rather than enhance. Once Cassy finishes, leaving us screaming for more, Four Tet does nothing short of blowing our minds with a set heavy on his own exquisite productions and full
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djmag.com
Electric Zoo’s fifth year may have been cut short, but it’s still leading the way when it comes to thrilling line-ups and rave safety....
Cassy
Moderat
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