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It’s Not Surreal; Dreams Did Come True at the Dreamscape Festival [Event Review]

May 14, 2015 By RaverRafting Staff

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“City of Dreams” Stage -Credit Life Color Studio

Dreamscape… where do we begin? Let’s first start off by saying this festival was one of the chillest to date that we have ever had the pleasure of covering. Effortless and stress free. Taking place at Camp Ramblewood in Darlington, MD made it an ideal location for east coast ravers to assemble due to its proximity within a few hours drive of New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, and Boston. The size of the grounds were completely on point, as it was big enough for the thousands of ravers in attendance to have plenty of room to camp, and just small enough to make the walk between the three stages take no time at all, making it easy to catch every single act that was on your list.

LOOK AT ALL THE ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!!! -Credit Kevin Madert

CAMPING
The grounds of Dreamscape were breathtaking. Props to all the people involved with decorations especially the immensely talented Rania Peet who turned the 100 acre grounds in to an Alice in Wonderland-esque daydream. Check out this sweet time-lapse video of how she did it:

Dreamscape at night -Credit Conor Gray Photography

One of the best parts of camping was that attendees could set their tents literally ANYWHERE. Yes that’s right, anywhere, which is unlike almost all other camping festivals, packed into a tiny campground like sardines (TomorrowWorld last year). There were other options of renting cabins which came complete with beds, showers, and bathrooms. The grounds also featured an east-Asian decorated barn, a huge warehouse appropriately named “The City of Dreams” and a huge pool right next to a stage where people could cool down after turning up.

TWRK Turning up the Saturday pool party. -Credit Conor Gray Photography

PEOPLE
Down to Earth, cordial, happy, friendly… just a few words to describe the people that were surrounding the grounds all weekend long. And the staff more than any. One fan described it as a “feel-at-home type of environment” where everyone treated each other and the grounds with the utmost respect. The endless array of hilarious and creative festival outfits also kept things interesting and people chatting. We appreciated that all of the usual festival jokes were in full force: Carl is still nowhere to be found, people are still in need of buttscratchers, and no one can agree on who the real Dirty Dan is.

ARTISTS
The acts at Dreamscape were positively superb. Being that the walk between stages was so brisk we were able to catch almost every act, which is unheard of at large festivals. We wish we had room to write about each artist individually but for the sake of time and space we going to limit it to the acts that resonated the most.

Must Die! Getting super into his set – Credit Conor Gray Photography

Friday arriving just in time to catch an epic set from the OWSLA prodigy Must Die!, he knew how to keep it 100% by including classics with a twist such his hit Hell Cat with a “What is Love?” mash up and an unexpected “Too Little Too Late” dubstep remix that dropped into Boss Mode by Knife party. Hospital Record’s wonder boy Metrik also did not disappoint with his raw UK drum and bass flare utilized flawless samples from Porter Robinson and Nosia.

Metrik – Life Color Studio

On Saturday the almighty Bass God blessed all with the perfect overcast of clouds and no rain which made it possible to actually get a good nights sleep rather than the usual 7AM wake up. The first set with our cup o’ joe catch was TWRK who turnt up the pool party early in the PM with a trap set for the ages. They got the crowd feeling some way that’s for sure, with an old school Backstreet Boys trap remix and the ideal amount of rap-meets-trap combo. Party Favor kept the BPMs and the pool party splashin which later transitioned into one of the fan favorites of the day by Massacat.Massacat was an artist we were unaware of prior to this weekend, and she completely rocked our world with her deep electro-house vibes that were so fresh, it made fans feel the need to literally make it rain on her mid-set, pool party style.

Dr. Fresch absolutely killing it -Credit Conor Gray Photography

After getting our allotted dose of Vitamin D at the pool, next up in the City of Dreams was Dr. Fresch. With a sound that can only be described as a mix of house/deep house/nu disco, when asked to characterize his sound he described it as; “an underground house party vibe, with just the right amount of familiar sounds for people to relate to it.” With that being said, if you’re heading to EDC Las Vegas, we highly recommend checking him out.

Even though the pool stage had to be closed a little early because of noise violations, Myadd, Zapata Bros, BUKU, Marvel Years, Manic Focus, Michal Menert, Thriftworks, Plaeground and Space Jesus all gave fans unbelievable performances that we won’t soon forget.

Space Jesus: always washed never conditioned -Credit Conor Gray Photo

At night, seeing Trentino bring DJing back to its roots with his unbelievable scratching skills made it easy to see why he represented the U.S.A at Red Bull’s Thre3style World Championships.Dreamscape also brought an experience that few other festivals provide, by having an environment where fans and artists are unified rather than separated. There were no barricades or big bouncers with neon yellow shirts telling you where you could and could not go. This gave fans the a rare opportunity to interact with artists freely which sets it apart in the best way possible.

OVERALL IMPRESSION
To sum it all up Dreamscape gave the artists and the attendees a setting with complete creative freedom. This is something truly unique and can only be experienced at a composition as Dreamscape. Be sure to check out this gem next year to find out for yourself. If you can’t wait that long, we suggest looking into purchasing a ticket to Big Dub Festival also hosted by BADASS Raves July 29th- August 2nd at Four Quarters Farm in Artemas, PA to see what other great experiences this management company can do.