Ringing In The New Year With Decadence Arizona [Event Review]

New Years Eve serves as a time for reflection, resolutions, and plans for the forthcoming year.   If you are anything like us, then some of your plans will include attending an abundance of music festivals in 2017. Thanks to Relentless Beats, we were able to kick our plan into action and attend one of the largest New Years Eve festivals, Decadence Arizona.

The third annual Decadence Arizona took place over the final days of 2016 at Rawhide Event Center in Chandler, Arizona.  The venue dripped in gold and black decor and housed three stages that were named after beautiful gemstones.  The names couldn’t have been more appropriate, as the stages sparkled and shined under the mesmerizing lasers each night.  The layout of the event grounds was ideal; the stages being relatively close allowed attendees to maneuver from set to set with ease (you will understand the importance of this when you see the insane lineup).

Day one brought on some of our favorite sets of the weekend.  It included artists like Sam Feldt, Disclosure, Slushii, MALAA, Deadmau5, Marshmello, Green Velvet, and more.  Upon entering the festival, you were welcomed with the sounds of the Emerald Carnival stage.  This stage was reserved for Arizona’s local DJ/producers.  It was much smaller in comparison to the other massive structures, but trust us when we say it held just as much talent.

Our night began at main stage, better known as Diamond Arena, where Disclosure made their Arizona debut with an impeccable DJ set.  The duo dropped their ever so popular “Latch” and Flume’s remix of “You and Me”.  The night followed at the Sapphire Hall stage with mysterious house master, Malaa.  This was our most anticipated set of the night, as this was our first time seeing the masked man live.  The Parisian house producer threw down all of our favorite originals including, “Prophecy”, “Pregnant”, and “Fade”.  We definitely were not the only ones excited to see him, as the crowd was filled with masked attendees decked in “Who is Malaa” gear.  Towards the end of Malaa’s set,  we made our way back to Diamond Arena to prepare ourselves for Deadmau5.  We stood on the elevated VIP structure that allowed us to overlook the stage and crowd and take in the progressive sounds of Mr. Zimmerman.  He took us on an emotional journey with a beautiful “techmau5” performance playing songs like Maceo Plex’s “Solar Detroit” and Jay Lumen’s “LondON” .  It was unexpected, it was breathtaking, and definitely the standout performance of the night.

We made our way back to Rawhide for day two, prepared to take in another night of infectious positive vibes and electrifying music.  It being New Years Eve, the attendees arrived dressed to the nines, with an overload of glitter, sequin, and sparkle.

Saturday introduced artists like DJ Snake, Zomboy, Zedd, Slander, Justin Jay, Chainsmokers, Shiba San, and many more.  The first artist on our schedule was superstar producer, DJ Snake.  He hyped up the crowd at main stage, dropping Jauz and Ephwurd’s “Rock The Party” and all his radio bangers including, “Turn Down For What”, “Get Low”, and “Lean On”.  We followed Snake’s set with Slander’s “GUD Vibrations”, where the duo captivated us with the emotion filled “Love Again”.  They even made sure to throw in a shout out to their good friend NGHTMRE (can you say #friendshipgoals).

The time had finally come to ring in the new year.  Guests had a few options as to where they would like to share their NYE kiss.  They could count down with Jauz as hundreds of balloons dropped into the crowd at Diamond Arena, groove to Justin Jay as he turned Sapphire Hall into his own “Funkytown”, or head bang to the bass tearing up the Emerald Carnival stage (shout out to Mike Dao).  We had the pleasure of counting down with Dirtybird player, Justin Jay.  As we welcomed the new year, Justin took us back in time dropping Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration”.  He took festivalgoers on a “Fantastic Voyage” with “Can’t Hang “, an unreleased original he’s been teasing us with for some time.  Hands down, our favorite performance of the night.

Finally, the night concluded with The Chainsmokers and Shiba San.  We decided to keep the funk alive and stick with another member of the Dirtybird family, Shiba San.  To simply put it, his performance was unreal.  He kept fans grooving with original singles like “Okay” and “I Like Your Booty”.  Check out the video from Shiba’s set below:

Being an Arizona resident and having worked many Relentless Beats festivals, Decadence was a very special event for us to cover.  We would like to applaud RB for producing a spectacular event and allowing us to ring in the new year at the biggest EDM show Arizona has witnessed.

We hope you guys had a wonderful New Years Eve and your year is filled with health, happiness, and great music ;).  Make sure to join us next year for Decadence 2017/2018.  If you are looking for a festival to hold you over until then, check out Insomniac and Relentless Beats Valentine’s themed festival, Crush Arizona.

Connect with Decadence AZ:
https://www.facebook.com/DecadenceAZ
https://twitter.com/DecadenceAZ
http://decadencenye.com/

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