The EDM Scene in Gainesville, Florida is Suddenly Exploding

For those of you who have never been to Gainesville, it’s not a big place. There are only 125,000 residents, almost half of which are students at the University of Florida. But for a city less than a tenth of the size of the Miami-metropolitan area, the EDM scene in Gainesville is going off.

Huge names like the Bingo Players, Flux Pavilion, Markus Schultz, Gareth Emery, Gramatik and Morgan Page are all stopping in Gainesville in less than two months.

For those of you who aren’t from Florida or have never been to Gainesville, there’s only one appropriate response for this schedule: holy. f*ck.

Here’s a short explanation as to why this is crazy:

Until recently, the only decent EDM scenes in Florida were Miami/SoFla, Orlando and Tallahassee — each separated by a minimum of 5 hours in the car. Miami has always been the life-blood of the Florida scene (See Ultra, Miami Music Week, shows by every DJ you could ever want to see on a weekly basis), but DJs would also stop in Orlando on the way.

Tallahassee may sound like another strange place for a big EDM scene, but more than half of the people who go to Florida State University are from the Miami/ South Florida area (this figure is definitely not based on fact, just on what several of my FSU friends told me for this story). These kids practically grew up listening to EDM, and have turnt that scene off the damn charts (more on the Tally scene to come).

But alas, Tallahassee is also almost three times bigger than Gainesville. A good DJ would roll into poor, old Gainesville once every six months — four months if the EDM gods were happy with the Gators. Meanwhile, Tally would book huge names like Kaskade, Dillion Francis, Diplo, Excision and a ton of others more than once a month.

So what’s going on in Gainesville now?

Promotion companies, namely The Dynasty Group and Digital 4orePlay, are competing to bring the biggest names they possibly can to Gainesville, all to the benefit of long-waiting EDM fans in North Florida.

The scene has exploded as a result, much to the unbridled joy of UF EDM fans, who used to have a 2- or 3-hour drive to the closest shows. Now, people are driving from Jacksonville to see shows in Gainesville. Wait, what?

Here’s a list of some upcoming shows you won’t want to miss in the Gainesville area. Click a date to learn more:

September 19 – Clockwork

September 20 – Gareth Emery

September 24 – Gramatik, HeRobust, Exmag

October 4 – Markus Schulz

October 7 – Rusko feat. Dynamite MC

October 10 – Robbie Rivera (email alexr@361nightlife.com for tickets)

October 15 – Bingo Players, MAKJ, Bassjackers

October 23 – Flux Pavilion, Skism, Roksonix

Ocober 27 – Morgan Page, Audien, Maor Levi

November 23 – Bro Safari, Torro Torro, Crnkn

Going to a show in Gainesville is a great investment, mainly because UF has been ranked as one of the top 10 party schools consistently since 2006. I can personally guarantee that you won’t leave a show without being invited to an after party.

Get some sunscreen, guys, because Gainesville is burnin’ up!

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