VELD Music Festival Recap

It’s that time of the year again. The August long weekend is marked as the busiest weekend of the summer with VELD, Caribana and OVO Fest all happening at the same time. For EDM lovers, VELD Music Festival was the place to be.

The first act we caught was none other than The Chainsmokers. The main stage was already packed with thousands of people, and the boys of The Chainsmokers did not disappoint.  Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall were full of energy as Taggart started jumping around the stage keeping the audience hyped. They even had security dancing along and hyping up the crowd. Best known for their hit song “Selfie”, they performed a remix of the song and even included their hit song “Kanye” where every single person in the crowd started singing along to the catchy tune.

Unfortunately due to weather conditions, their set had to be cut short. Grey clouds starting approaching and the unpredictable weather caused major delays for people who were waiting to enter the venue as well. The festival was delayed by an hour and the crowd started becoming grumpier and started chanting “Let us in”. Some eager people even tried to climb the fence from General Admission gates to the backstage gates. Hearing the disappointment from the crowd, The Chainsmokers decided to climb on top of their trailer and keep the audience entertained. The amazing duo satisfied the people outside who missed their set.

The delay restored back to normal around 6 pm and Nicky Romero took the stage. Though his set was cut short as well, he made sure the crowd went back on their feet and forget the disruption even happened. Romero performed his hit single “Toulouse” and my favourite “Warriors” and the crowd went wild, cheering non stop. After his set, the talented DJ/producer took the time to meet fans backstage and take pictures with everyone.

The next act to hit stage was legendary electro house DJ/Producer Steve Aoki. Aoki recently performed a “Titanic” stunt at Tomorrowland and performed the same remix during his set at VELD. Amazing to see every single person sing “My Heart Will Go On” with lots of energy. Aoki also threw in the Lion King song and everyone seemed to enjoy it as well. One thing though, I was disappointed that Aoki didn’t preform his famous cake stunt, where he would throw cake at the audience during his hit song “Cake Face”. None the less, his performance kept the audience cheering for more.

Next on stage was another headliner, Kaskade. One my personal favourite acts, the handsome DJ and record producer played a crazy set with lots of wild lights causing everyone to dance on their feet. He preformed some of his newer tracks such as “Disarm You” along with some old ones such as “Last Chance”. Everyone remembered the lyrics to the catchy song and almost everyone in the crowd had their phones out recording this moment.

Almost half an hour late for his set, A$AP Rocky finally hit the stage close to 9 pm. For the first song, A$AP Rocky didn’t even perform with the rest of his crew. Once he hit the stage, a red lacy bra was thrown at him. Interesting way to start off his first five minutes. The whole stage was overcrowded but everyone was super excited to see A$AP and his crew.

Last but not least, headliner DeadMau5 finally hit the stage with a unique dome that covered half the stage. Playing a few songs inside the dome, it wasn’t long before the dome opened up and the famous Mau5head was displayed. Surprisingly, Joel Zimmerman took off the mask and continued playing throughout the night. He played some of his hit songs such as “See Ya” and “Ghosts and Stuff” and kept the audience hyped for the rest of the night.

Day two was cut short due to severe weather conditions. We fortunately arrived at the venue early enough to catch a few of the acts before the festival was cancelled.

The first act we caught was Toronto based duo Dzeko & Torres.  These two talented duo started the day off right by playing a variety of remixes including Linkin Park’s ‘Numb”, Major Lazer & DJ Snake’s “Lean On” , Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and even a special remix of Drake songs just for Toronto. For 2pm, the stage was crowded with people and everyone was already full of energy. Every security in the front started pumping their hands up in their air as Luis Torres and Julian Dzeko made every one wave their hands back and forth screaming “Hey, Oh”.  The duo tried something interesting by making every single person in the crowd get low on their knees and as soon as the beat drop, everyone jumped up at the same time. An amazing way to start the day, the boys finished off their set by playing some of their original mix such as “Alarm” and “Air”.

Next up was Mat Zo, who unfortunately had to leave in the middle of set due to weather conditions. This only lasted about ten minutes, but fans who eagerly waited to catch a full hour of the set were very disappointed. As soon as Zo got back on the stage, Zo’s catchy beats got everyone dancing their frustrations away.

The worst was just about to come as Dutch producer Oliver Heldens hit the stage right after. One of the most recent producers to break out into the EDM scenes, fans were eager to catch Heldens on stage. Fans caught about 45 minutes of Heldens set, before INK Entertainment made the tough decision of cancelling the rest of the festival. The clouds started to roll in and the weather was called to get even worse.

We had fun while it lasted, and there’s still many more years to come! Remember safety first !

**UPDATE!!! A recent statement from INK Entertainment : 

Thanks to Live Nation and INK Entertainment for making this possible!