VELD festival takes over Downsview Park
The busiest weekend of the summer has hit upon us once again. The grounds of Downsview Park was taken over by VELD Music Festival once again. The line up consisted of some of the biggest names in electro dance music and also included different genres by adding more rap/hip hop artists. This years headliners included Major Lazer, Future, Zedd, Tiesto, Tory Lanez, and Migos.
On the first day of the festival, we made it on time to catch one of this summer’s hottest hitmakers Zedd. After taking a year off from performing and focusing on writing music, he made his grand entrance back to Toronto and opened his set with “Beautiful Now.” The whole hour and a half consisted of smokes, lights, and fire. He performed his hit singles including “Stay the Night” “Clarity” “Break Free” “I want you to know” “Stay” and his latest club-pop tune with Liam Payne “Get Low”.
The final act of the night, Future showed up 20 minutes later than his scheduled time. The rapper, appeared wearing a white jacket, black jeans, black hoodie and dark glasses. He started the set off strong with performing hits such as “Mask Off” “Move That Dope” and “Draco”. Future kept to himself during most of his set, but kept the energy of the crowd going all night long. It was a perfect way to end the first night of VELD.
Day two of VELD we were able to catch Toronto (London) based duo Loud Luxury. The duo started the day off right by performing their hits “Fill Me In” “Going Under” and their latest “Show Me”. The energy from the crowd was extra loud for the hometown duo.
The next act we caught was W&W. The dutch duo William & Ward pleased the crowd with their darker trance tracks. The crowd went wild when the duo played their hits such as “Lift Off” and “Bigfoot”. The duo’s crowd interaction was great. The duo seemed like they were having a great time watching everyone dance and breaking it down to their tracks.
Meanwhile over at the Remy Martin Stage, we had a last minute replacement for Lil Uzi Vert with French Montana. One of the opening songs he performed was an older crowd favourite “Ocho Cinco” and the crowd went absolutely wild, with cheers that were heard from the other stage. The crowd knew the lyrics to every one of his singles including “Pop that” and “Moses”. He also mentioned how much he loves Canada and coming to perform here. French kept the crowd hyped all through his hour set, closing with one of his biggest hit “Ain’t Worried About Nothing”.
Back over at the main stage, French producer Tchami took over with his impressive set list. If you are familiar with Tchami, he rocked his clerical collar top and dark sunglasses as part of his signature look. Sporting the priest/Cathedral theme, Tchami incorporated a diverse mix of house music and performing his hits such as “Missing You” and “Prophecy”. He even incorporated a few remixes such as “Propaganda” and “Body Language”.
Over at the Remy Martin stage, Tory Lanez pleased the female crowd by shouting out the Toronto ladies, and mentioning how much he loves the Toronto crowd. He even took the time to make a song with the crowd, and with the help of his loving Toronto fans, everyone helped him in his signature move of crowd WALKING during his set. The crowd helped him make it very far into the crowd and safely back to stage, where the energy continued as he climbed stage barricades and continued to perform reggae inspired tunes.
At the main stage, everyone gathered for Tiesto. One of our favourite DJs made a grand entrance with glasses and bright yellow headphones. The whole crowd had their hands pumping in the air, girls sitting on top of shoulders, and even the security team was dancing along to Tiesto’s catchy house tracks. He performed all his big hits including “Red Lights” “Wasted” and “Secrets”. The crowd even got a special appearance from Dzeko who performed on the main stage earlier during the day. Tiesto brought him up for his remix of Dzeko and Torres hit single “L’Amour Toujours ft. Delaney Jane”. It was a wild hour and a half and Tiesto made sure to close his set with a slam with fireworks and lights flashing everywhere.
The night wasn’t quite over yet, as every attendee made their to the main stage, anxiously waiting for Major Lazer. This is where you could see the huge distinction between how big the audience was day 1 compared to a completely packed day 2. The trio made a grand entrance with flames lighting up and dancers taking over the stage. Diplo was even supporting a Blue Jays jersey. The set had everything, from fireworks, loud beats, confetti cannon blasts, dancers, and amazing crowd interaction. Switch and Diplo take the backseat while MC Skerrit Bwoy keeps the crowd entertained with his MC skills. The trio did move around and took turns sharing the limelight. Diplo even did a bit of zorbing and went into the crowd. They even got the crowd to take of their shirts at one point and throw it in the air. The crowd was more than willing to participate and the trio had everyone “get low” and jump up at the same time. The trio performed some of their hits such as “Cold Water” “Know No Better” and their mega hit “Lean On”. The night ended with everyone hyped up, fireworks and smiles all around.
Overall, VELD never disappoints! We can’t wait too see what VELD 2018 will have in store next year!
Thank you to INK Entertainment
