Digital Dreams Festival takes over Toronto
In preparation of Canada Day, two days of loud mix beats, bouncing lights, and thousands of people dressed like they’re going to Coachella...Digital Dreams has hit the Molson Amphitheater once again for its third year. Electronic Dance Music (EDM) has gone from underground to becoming Canada’s largest two day music festival with over 100+ acts with headliners Tiesto, Justice, Eric Prydz, Dash Berlin, NERVO, Deep Dish, and more. Guests, also known as Ravers, are entertained by a weekend full of booze, drugs which sent over 22 ravers to the hospital, and dancing at a festival where EDM is becoming part of the cultural norm. This year, an additional stage was added, with a total of four different stages surrounding the amphitheater grounds.
Also, an additional to this year was the “Cashless Wristbands,” where guests had a pre-paid wristband in order to purchase anything on grounds. It was a very convenient method and hardly no line ups were formed. Instead of people digging for cash in their wallets, all they had to do was tap their wristband. All the money that wasn’t used was guaranteed to become refunded to guests after the festival.
The grounds consisted of many different vendors sampling products such as Vitamin Water, NOS energy drink, Hawaiian tropic lotion, and Bacardi. There was also quite a variety for food options, which included food trucks such as BeaverTails, Pappas Greek, Smoke’s Poutinerie and Bacon Nation.
Nearby the Dreams Stage, where all the major performers played, there was a mini-carnival set up where guests can wait in line to go on rides for free. It was pretty dazing seeing glow sticks up in the air and ravers jamming out to beats while in the air.
Day one of the festival, was very hectic and a bit disorganized. But being the first day with over 29,000 people in attendance, it just required a lot of patience. The acts we were able to catch consisted of Australian twins NERVO and duo brothers Like Mike & Dimitri Vegas who lighted up the Dreams Stage. On the other side at the Bacardi House of Boom stage, acts like Crystal Method graced the stage with their hit “Name of the game,” as the crowd slowly started to increase throughout their set. Day one didn’t have as much of the big names as day two would have, but there was a whole variety of genres playing such as Trance,House and Dub step.
Day two of the festival, was a lot more organized than day one. Media was treated a lot better, the entrance line up was more organized, and there was more security surrounding the premises. The first act we caught on stage was The Chainsmokers. They really knew how to pump up on the crowd in terms of visuals, with all the smokes that surrounded the stage and robots which danced to their set. Their beat, was a bit over played because a lot of it consisted of remixes of their hit song “Selfie.” After thier set, The Chainsmokers had no time for interviews and rushed straight to Newark for another set. Busy guys!
Another act we caught, were Canadian duo Dzeko & Torres. Paul Oakenfold cancelled his set, and Dzeko & Torres pushed their set later, gracing the audience with their presence instead. Everyone seemed still just as pumped to see them play, and it really brought out the underground acts. We just discovered the duo and we fell in love with their remix of “Demons” and “Anywhere for you“. The duo played an hour set before Dash Berlin hit the Dreams stage.
Dash Berlin, who we had the honor to interview, played a killer set gracing through the horrible rain and thunderstorm with his trance music. The weather didn’t let the crowd stop them from raving and the crowd continued jamming out to Berlin’s incredible hour and thirty minute set. That’s dedication, considering the artist hospitality tent almost flew off because of the storm!
With the storm only lasting a few minutes, Ravers anxiously waited for headliner Tiesto to come on stage around 10:30 PM. Of course, Tiesto made a grand entrance with beats from his newest record “A town called Paradise” where the crowd jammed out to his hits like “Red Lights” and “All of Me” remix. Increasing the energy level even more, Tiesto actually brought out singer-songwriter, Matthew Koma, out on stage to sing their hit song “Wasted.” It was truly an amazing sight to see all the visuals and the crowd all gathered together enjoying the final set for the Dreams stage.
EDM isn’t just about watching the performers anymore, it’s about all the visuals. It takes the whole stage presence to the next level. If you want to have a good time and enjoy something with your friends, it’s something everyone should experience once in their life. It’s very contradicted, but it’s hard to have an opinion until you experience it yourself. Though VELD is more mainstream music, it’s almost a miniature version of the festival and it’s something ravers should still check out!
Until next year….