Insomniac’s Nocturnal Wonderland returned last weekend for its 21st anniversary at San Manuel Amphitheater and Grounds in San Bernardino, California. Thousands of attendees gathered together to celebrate three days of electronic music, four nights of camping, and all the magical experiences Insomniac offers. As the sun set every night, the stages came to life with lasers and pyrotechnics, glowing art, and the painted attendees lit up under the Nocturnal sky.
When walking through the gates of any Insomniac festival, you are in for an unforgettable experience. There is always something extraordinary occurring around you. Everywhere you go, you seem to encounter art installations, costumed performers, carnival rides, artist performances, and much more. Nocturnal was no different, except with one amazing feature that enhanced it all, everything was blacklit!
Nocturnal took place at a large beautiful venue with rolling grassy hills that separated the festival into two sections which housed the five stages. Music was booming all around, whether you found yourself at one of the innovative stages, the Boombox Art Car, the Smirnoff House, or Corona’s Electric Beach.
Day one brought on artists that included Pig & Dan, Matador, 3LAU B2B Audien, Oliver Heldens, Mat Zo, Above & Beyond, Big Gigantic, and more. The night began with the deep underground sounds of the Sunken Garden stage. The stage was set up under a dimly lit tent structure with minimal lasers and a giant disco ball that reflected rays of light across the room. The dark ambience set the mood for the deep techno sounds of Pig & Dan, as they had the crowd grooving to their Drumcode releases. Irish techno king, Matador, took the stage shortly after to showcase his infamous live set. 
The Wolves’ Den stage was the largest stage at the festival; equipped with large LED screens and all the lasers you can handle. The stage was set hillside, which was perfect because it allowed for the best views no matter where you were standing. Nocturnal’s main stage had some iconic performances including the highly anticipated B2B set by 3LAU and Audien. They played a mashup of Audien’s “Hindsight” and 3LAU’s “How You Love Me” featuring Bright Lights that in turn made the crowd go wild. Their energy/song selection were great, and definitely main stage worthy.
Naturally, one Matador set was not enough, so we dropped by the Smirnoff House to catch an intimate DJ set. The Smirnoff House was set up just like it sounds, the inside of a party house, with red solo cup string lights hung on the walls. The house’s slogan was “Our House Is Your House”, and that couldn’t have been more true, because it felt like the DJ was throwing down in our own personal living room.
The remainder of the night was spent at the Labyrinth stage with acts like Mat Zo and Big Gigantic. The Labyrinth was our favorite stage in terms of design and production. It was set up as an open 360-degree outdoor oasis, surrounded by temple-like pillars that were connected by blacklit jungle bridges. The stage lit up the sky with pyro blasts and lasers with each artist performance. One of the most memorable sets of the night belonged to Mat Zo. He took us on a roller coaster ride playing a variety of genres. He started us off with some house, threw in some trap, transitioned to drum and bass, and finally closed his set with a Porter Robinson track. Big Gigantic closed out the night at Labyrinth. They had the crowd grooving to tracks from their new album, Brighter Future. They played “I’ve Gotta Know”, “Got The Love”, and our personal favorite “No Apologies”.
Day two brought along some change to the festival. Insomniac introduced Nocturnal’s fifth stage, Temple Noctem, and also had labels curate two of their existing stages. Above & Beyond’s Anjunadeep record label took over Sunken Garden, which included artists like Henrik Schwarz and Lane 8. Lane 8 played an impeccable set, and dropped his new remix of Deadmau5’s “Strobe”. Not far from the Garden, but with very different music, Bassrush was hosting the Labyrinth stage. Bassrush’s roster included producers such as Apashe, Troyboi, and Spor. The stage was packed whether Spor was throwing down some drum and bass or Troyboi was bumping his unique trap beats.
The newest addition to day two was the Temple Noctem stage, hosted by Basscon. The Temple provided headliners with the harder styles of EDM. This stage was set under a laser illuminated tent and Wasteland’s signature gas mask design. Basscon brought some notable artists including Technoboy, Max Enforcer, and LNY TNZ. We were able to catch LNY TNZ set as they hyped up the crowd and made the tent come alive with their faster BPM version of Yellow Claw’s “Till It Hurts”.
The Boombox Art Car was our stop in between stages. The vibrant flashing boombox had all of the talent without the chaos. It was the perfect getaway from all of the madness that comes along with the curated stages and big name DJ’s. Some memorable sets we were lucky to catch were from Cassio and Oscure.
Saturday night came to a close with Caspa B2B Rusko, Ame, Taiki Nulight, Evil Activities, and Odesza. We concluded the night with Odesza at the Wolves’ Den. Their chill melodic music and vibes was the perfect ending to a long night. The crowd gathered in on the hill, swayed, and sang along to their popular hit song “Say My Name” and ZHU’s “Faded”.
Day three had some of the most memorable sets of the weekend including Black Tiger Sex Machine, Flux Pavilion, Sacha Robotti, Hot Since 82, and more. Black Tiger Sex Machine arrived to Nocturnal with their new helmets and stole the show. They destroyed the crowd with their live set, lasers, and tracks like “Rockers” and “Religion”. As they would call it, they took us to BTSM church.
Flux Pavilion lit up the night at the Wolves’ Den with his lasers and even more fire tracks. He played “Who Wants To Rock”, Joyryde’s “The Box”, and everyone’s favorite Flux song, “I Can’t Stop”. Flux closed the set with “Emotional” featuring Matthew Koma and his classic remix of “Gold Dust”.
The Upside Down House made its return from EDC. The brightly colored stage was relatively close to Wolves’ Den, making it easy to go back and forth between sets. Although, it did not have the grand production of some of the other stages, the topsy-turvy design was much more unique. It also featured some of our favorite sets of the weekend, including Sacha Robotti. Sacha rocked the house with Kill Frenzy’s “Make That Booty Clap” and had us shake our “Tailfeather” Dirtybird style. To give you an idea of how good his set was, we could not force ourselves to leave and ended up missing Bassnectar.
The closing acts of the weekend included Deorro, Hot Since 82, ATTLAS, Chromeo, and Gammer. Hot Since 82 closed out Sunken Garden, as his label hosted the stage as Knee Deep in So Cal. His house techno style served as the perfect grand finale for a successful festival weekend. Hot Since 82 was one of our favorites at EDC, and now also a favorite at Nocturnal.
Overall, it was lit (literally and figuratively). The lineup was great, the production was over the top, and the vibes were amazing. We would like to thank Insomniac for allowing us to come out and experience Nocturnal Wonderland. We hope to see you headliners at next years festival, but if you can’t wait that long, join us for Insomniac’s spooky Halloween festival, Escape Psycho Circus.
Connect with Nocturnal Wonderland:
https://www.facebook.com/NocturnalWonderland
https://twitter.com/nocturnalwland
https://instagram.com/nocturnalwland
http://www.nocturnalwonderland.com
Photo Credit: aLIVE Coverage for Insomniac, Jake West for Insomniac, Marc van der Aa for Insomniac, Adi Adinayev for Insomniac, Nocturnal Wonderland’s facebook
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