The start of festival season is always exciting. The first festival of the year sets the expectations for the following and releases all the pent up energy from the winter into early spring. In Ohio, thousands of college kids start their festival season in an Athens valley with #FEST. This festival put on by Prime Social Group has grown to be the largest collegiate music festival in the country with 15,000 attendees this year. We were lucky enough to see what #FEST had to offer this year and I have to say, I was really impressed.
This year was the first year that #FEST expanded to two days and the first year camping was added. The Friday pre-party featured music from one of the best new producers NGHTMRE and the classic duo of Big Gigantic. The crowd was small but rowdy which made for a real intimate vibe throughout the whole night. Trap rapper Lil Uzi Vert got things started, playing music from his new mixtape like “Money Longer”. NGHTMRE then took us on a sixty minute ride that started heavy and ended heavy with selection spanning from the chill-step vibes of “Gud Vibrations” to his new dirty moombah collaboration with Dillon Francis. This was my first time seeing NGHTMRE and I will admit, he lives up to the hype. He kept it heavy and weird even though he was playing to a college party atmosphere which I really appreciated.
It set the stage perfectly for Big Gigantic to come out and rock it. This was the best set I’ve seen by them in a long time. They played a little of everything from classics like “Sky High” and the popular Big G cover of Knife Party’s “Bonfire” to their high energy collaboration with Snails. One of my favorite moments of the night was their newest track “The Little Things” (feat. Angela McCluskey). It features a jazz melody over a trap beat and sounds like the electronic version of old big band music. It is one of my favorite tracks musically from Big Gigantic and hearing them play it live really gave me a new level of appreciation for that song. Over at the Prime Stage, DJ Ace and friends threw down into the late night to bring day one to a close.
Day two was like walking into a different world. No longer was #14FEST the intimate, almost private festival in the mountains of Ohio; it was the largest collegiate music festival in the country. The second gate, which had no line the first night, was wrapped around the surrounding field. Once through the gate, you could see just how many people were there. General Admission on the first day wasn’t close to touching the soundboard. On the second day, you were lucky to find a comfortable spot anywhere in front of the soundboard. I was taken aback by the sheer mass of people there; all there to have a good time and celebrate good music. It was clear that for a lot of these attendees, this was their first festival. However, even the festival “noobs” held their own as far as bringing good vibes and not causing problems. Any negative connotations brought about by the tagline “the largest collegiate music festival” should be dropped because they hold no weight.
Positive energy flowed throughout the whole crowd all day. Pierce Fulton got the crowd hyped early with a great progressive and house set before a chilled out R&B set from the gorgeous Niykee Heaton. Then it was time to really get the party started with current festival circuit superstars: Slander. They put it all out there playing a high energy set that was perfect for the afternoon. Highlighted by original tracks like “You”, “Gud Vibrations” and remixes like “Take Ü There” , Slander surprised me with their DJing ability and live edits. The transition from “The Lion King” theme into the Alvaro and Mercer’s “Welcome to the Jungle” tagline is always a crowd favorite.
I was also impressed with their diverse selection. Slander played a lot more Dubstep than I anticipated and even threw in some heavy Feed Me-like techno that threw off the crowd so much that people thought there was a technical difficulty. Overall, Slander had one of the best sets of the weekend and I needed a water break after their set was over. Lil Dicky unfortunately had to follow Slander, but took it as a challenge and delivered an always entertaining set. Lil Dicky is probably one of the best showmen in the rap game today with his antics such as performing a strange on-stage strip tease to a lucky crowd member. Closing with this crowd interaction during the appropriately named song “Lemme Freak” brought his show to a close with a bang (no pun intended) and had the crowd properly primed up for Fetty Wap.
Personally, I’m not into Fetty Wap, or popular “radio” rap for that matter. If there is someone else playing at the same time as Fetty, I will probably check them out. At #14Fest I’m sure glad I went to the Prime Stage because it was one of my personal highlights of the weekend. DJ Duo Vice Versa was throwing down a trap and dubstep set in a tent of maybe 20 people. I parked myself next to the front right speaker and proceeded to have my face melted by unbelievable tracks and transitions. Even better, all 20 or so kids that were on the rail/in the tent were going as hard as they were on stage which made for a special moment for all the bass fans in attendance.
Then came the headliners of #14FEST: The Chainsmokers. I came into this festival having never seen them before and not knowing what to expect. I was blown away. The Chainsmokers had such a diverse set that catered to everyone’s needs. There was bass music, progressive house, and future bass highlighted by their most famous track “Roses”. The #14FEST crowd also got a treat with the playing of an unreleased track titled “We Ain’t Never Getting Older” a day before they premiered it at Coachella. Another one of my favorite parts of the weekend was when they dropped Botnek’s edit of “#Selfie” and, over the mic, asked the crowd to “put up a middle finger if you fucking hate this song”. That move earned my respect because it showed me they are not just the producers who made “#Selfie” but rather The Chainsmokers. They are their own act capable of shutting down the largest college party in the country.
Music went until two each night which meant once the main stage shut down, everyone was headed to the Prime Stage tent. After the incredible set by The Chainsmokers, the tent was set ablaze by Columbus resident DJ Corrupt playing all sorts of electronic from trap and bass to deep house. Then Mr. Fijiwiji slowed things down with a fantastic minimal bass intro that led into some old school deep house that had people moving. I was pleasantly surprised by Mr. Fijiwiji’s talents and look forward to seeing him on other lineups. When the music finally ended, we had an incredible weekend to look back on and remember as finals finish up and people officially start their summer.
#14FEST is something every Midwest student should have on their college to-do list. There is nothing quite like partying with 15,000 of your friends in a field in the middle of Ohio to give you the motivation to make it through finals. I highly recommend you check it out next year because it willl keep getting better and better. Huge thanks to Prime Social Group for having us out for a great weekend and for bringing the best Electronic music to the Midwest. We’ll see you next year at #15FEST!
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