Decadence Arizona 2018: Leave the Hate Behind and Bring in the Love to 2019

The champagne bottles have popped, the confetti has fluttered, and the soles of our shoes are worn. Decadence Arizona made their fifth edition the best party we could ask for to ring in 2019. We just want to say congratulations to everyone that made it through another year of dancing, loving, and growing. With the new year ahead of us, we’re excited to plan out our future festivals with our ever growing rave family. We found ourselves looking forward to the countdown with the goal of only bringing love to 2019 and leaving behind negativity and hate in the past, and Decadence Arizona was the perfect place to inspire this goal.

Day One:

As we walked into the festival, we realized that Decadence had greatly expanded across the grounds in order to accommodate bigger stages and plenty of carnival rides, (our favorite The Ring of Fire), as well as booths sporting rave wear, cute vapes, and the best food. Attendees posed with giant holographic geodes or inside the giant white balloon that you could climb into and feel on top of the world.

We headed over to the main stage, Diamond Atrium, to start our celebrations with Arizona native Blossom. Watching Emilie command the room, pink bob in tow, she immediately brought high energy that breathed life into the atrium for its first burst of music. We got a playful mix of bouncing rhythms from her collab with BIJOU, “Expert”, and her latest single, “Call Me” to remixes of well loved tracks like Chris Lake’s “Turn off the Lights” to Kendrick’s rhymes on Schoolboy Q’s “X”. As her set came to a close, we were buzzing with energy and met up the rising artist to talk about her successful 2018 and future plans for the new year. Check out our interview here.

Next up was Kidnap in the Sapphire Ballroom. The stage was a giant warehouse that emanated the origins of the classic rave set up. This was our first time catching the UK based producer and to put it plainly, his set was just straight mystifying. We got an incredibly beautiful deep house mix of Radiohead’s “Everything in its Right Place” among other melodically intoxicating tracks like his latest experimental “Turn2U”. We stayed around to catch one of our favorite spaceman, Moon Boots. We got to experience his discography like his gentle treatment of Fiora’s vocals on their single, “I Just Want Your Attention” and intricately layered title track from his Anjunadeep album, “First Landing”.

It was hard to leave our beautiful little warehouse bubble but it was time to move to the main stage to lose our minds to the legend Skrillex. Bassheads, headbangers, and party animals filled the dance area to the brim. It became an absolute jumping madhouse as the long time EDM veteran sparked it up with fan favorites like “Purple Lamborghini”, his remix of Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE”, and his well known smasher “Recess”.

As fans reset their necks back into place, the most famous pair of swirling red goggles hovered onto the stage before the lights blasted across the atrium to reveal REZZ. We felt our souls get snatched up into the REZZ hemisphere and she took us down her rabbit hole of dark, maddening bass. She played her latest collab with Blanke, “Mixed Signals”, as well as got all the REZZ goodies such as her Mau5trap release, “Edge” and “H E X”, where a giant REZZ looked down upon us as we felt the menacing rhythms smash into us.

Next up, Porter Robinson came in to bring us into his world of sound full of awe-inspiring build-ups and brimming dexterity of his production abilities. While many have only experienced his purely “Worlds” set or him as his alternate persona, Virtual Self, this DJ set was an incredible combination between the old, the new, and what is yet to come. Robinson didn’t just play out his famous hits like “Divinity” and “Sad Machine” straight through but threw in even more melodic bass goodness that we weren’t ready for. We felt an immediate rush of emotions, from pure happiness to finding our footing to get down to his spectrum of bass, including his Virtual Self stunner, “Ghost Voices”. Porter Robinson’s performance was definitely the favorite of the first day if not the whole festival.

To the end the evening, some popped over to the Sapphire Ballroom for a raucously good time with Valentino Khan while others had already made a home at the main stage and stuck around to catch trance legends Above & Beyond. We decided to continue into our feels with the latter to close out day one, with their chart toppers, “Northern Soul” and “Happiness Amplified” having us stir up our dance circles with our rave family and share the love all around. As the final lasers stretched across us and the last note drifted into silence, Decadence left us in a state of bliss (and also a state of trance) as we geared up for the last 24 hours of 2018.

Day Two:

Day two was a cold and rainy one, but as residents of the City of Lights, we did not allow that to dim our glimmer. Decadence attendees arrived to the venue dressed to the nines, radiating with shimmer and sparkling New Years Eve crowns to match. After many family photos in front of the Decadence art installation and a champagne toast to the New Year, we were ready to take on the final night of 2018.

The night commenced at the gleaming Diamond Atrium for the rarest gem out there, the rising talent, Alison Wonderland. The Aussie native dominated the tented megastructure and did what she does best, f***ed us up on a spiritual level with her booming Awake hits.

As if the stage wasn’t already brimming with AWonderFam, MelloGang made their way in for a highly anticipated performance from the masked superstar, Marshmello. From the opening track and beyond, the producer hyped up the crowd with his certified Platinum single “Alone,” an amped up remix of Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch,” and the tear-jerkingly beautiful, “Happier.”

Next up, we were prepared for a marathon at our favorite stage, Sapphire Ballroom. The Sapphire stage shined all night, featuring an unbeatable lineup with the first artist on our schedule being the progressive house maestro, Cristoph. The Pryda Presents artist enraptured the crowd, taking us on a journey with his captivating progressive sound. When his latest release with CamelPhat, “Breathe,” filled the warehouse, it seemed as though time froze for a moment. People all around hugged one another and sang along to Jem Cooke’s hauntingly beautiful words. It was one of the highlights of the night and easily, one of the top sets of the weekend.

Cristoph’s performance was followed by a two hour show from the Chicago house legend, Green Velvet. Green Velvet gave us the unconventional, eclectic tech house set of our dreams, dropping his famed “Flash” and “Percolator.” The legendary producer happened to be one of the countdown sets. When we started counting down… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and the clock struck 12 AM, giant balloons dropped down from above and GV’S signature green laser beams struck us right into the New Year.

Although Green Velvet was our choice for ringing in 2019, Decadence Arizona festivalgoers had the option to set the New Year ablaze with equally dazzling performances from NGHTMRE b2b basketball great, DJ/producer, Shaq aka DJ Diesel at the Diamond Atrium or the fired up local production duo, Rampant at the Ruby Courtyard.

We continued the madness of 2019 with the banging beats of Chris Lake and Chris Lorenzo, as they made their Arizona debut with their new house project, Anti Up. The match made in heaven pair had the shufflers going wild, playing everyone’s favorite anthem, “Pizza,” Chris Lake and Dance With White Girl’s “Give Her Right Back,” and tracks from their debut EP, Hey Pablo. It was a party from start to finish!

Finally, it was time to close out the second night of Decadence Arizona. Closers consisted of local favorites with the exploding bass, Mike Dao b2b Dark Mark, the leader of pop driven, melodic music, Gryffin, and last, but certainly not least, the powerhouse producer, Eric Prydz. We ultimately made the decision to get lost in the progressive sounds of Lord Prydz.

Eric Prydz is notorious for his closing sets and this one was no different as he delivered yet another chills-worthy performance. His golden track selection and out of this world visuals enrapt you, building on a storyline, until you are left awe-struck and sometimes even in tears. Prydz’s set list consisted of originals from his many musical aliases, including “Niton (The Reason),” “We Are Mirage” with Empire Of The Sun, and Cirez D’s “On Off.” After enthralling the audience for the final hour, the music came to a halt, the people of Decadence roared with cheer, and Prydz took a final bow before exiting the stage.

With that being said, check out this clip from Eric Prydz’s set:

Every year, we look forward to Decadence Arizona, as it symbolizes the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next. We’d like to thank Relentless Beats for the experience to kick off another year of festivals with our rave family. RaverRafting family, here’s to leaving hate behind and only bringing in love to 2019. Cheers!

Co-written by: Bianca Benjamin

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http://decadencearizona.com

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http://relentlessbeats.com

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