Imagine Music Festival has come to a close for its fifth year anniversary. It was hard to leave the Atlanta Motor Speedway after another powerful weekend that will forever be in our hearts and minds. The festival was just as beautiful as we remembered it, with the Disco Inferno drawing us in with a huge, mirror ball that opened with an enticing flame. Everyone flooded down the stadium stairs, ready to be totally enveloped in the vision of creators Glenn and Maddy Goodhand.
Soaring over to Oceania, Imagine had taken a page from underwater coral reefs and created a show stopping view. Attendees could compete in a game of beer pong or drift in the wade pool, with unicorn floaties and fountains springing up for fans to enjoy. Of course, between switching stages, Imaginers could stop by for local DJ’s throwing down at the secret Shipwreck Stage where artists performed on an actual pirate ship, or at the Six Feathers Stage for incredible local talent, where the video panels formed a unique cubic design.
Moving to the other side of the Speedway, we could stop by for some delicious food and pick up some new merch down Main Street. Imaginers feasted on Fire Island noodles, a new hat pin, or catch the Imagine fashion show that presented all the beautiful performers as they walked their own runway.
When we finally disciplined ourselves enough to stop buying awesome rave staples, we popped over to the opened up Aeria Stage for some killer drum and bass or heartfelt trance. The set up was simplistic, allowing us to dance around openly in the grass and focus on the music. On day two and three, we got to experience the exotic Amazonia stage that totally stepped its production up in lasers and overall design. We could sit under the large tapestries, slink back into the grass or sit inside the side art structure full of psychedelic colors perfect for a photo op.
Now that we have set the scene of the oceanic wonderland of Imagine Music Festival, let’s get into our favorite sets and discoveries of the weekend.
Friday
After being dazzled by the spectrum of colors and lights, we stopped by Aeria to check out the opener, HEYZ. The Mau5trap producer definitely got us in the our rhythms for the night with his dark house beats and ominous, melodic drops. HEYZ had us gearing up for our shuffle circles with bass-thumping tracks like “Schedule 4” and “Odyssey”. He reminded us just how much we love getting a chance to discover new artists to add to our playlists.
We then headed out for our first set experience at Oceania with our favorite electronica trio, Glitch Mob. They commanded everyone’s attention immediately as the first few notes reverberated over us. It has been three years since their last release, so fans weren’t sure what to expect. Their latest project, See Without Eyes, dropped back in June and as their set went on, mixing the old with the new, they reminded fans what an incredible collage of artists that the Glitch Mob truly is. Outside playing notable song favorites, they took the opportunity to freestyle across the boards, giving us something so much more special than others may have after returning from an extended absence. We were encapsulated by their thundering bass with “Disintegrate Slowly”, powerhouse melodies of “How Could This Be Wrong” and of course all the throw back feels with their chart toppers “Fortune Days” and “We Make the World Stop”. Imagine was their midway point of their 79 stop tour, and they put on one hell of a show.
© Fabeaux
After we met up with UK house master, Weiss, we quickly popped over to Aeria to catch his set. It was a beautiful mix of old school house foundations intertwined with his interpretations of progressive, tech, and deep house. He threw out some love to the Dirtybird Fam with Volkoder’s “I Talked” and Catz and Dogz’ “Factory Settings.” Weiss finally blessed us with his summer takeover track “Feel My Needs” that has been on everyone’s playlist this season.
Galantis turned Oceania into a feel good dance party. They started us off with a heartfelt tribute to Avicii with his track, “Levels” before building up into a fun, enticing opening for their famous, “Runaway.” They kept us going up with inspiring “Firebird” that paired perfectly with a burst of fireworks. Before closing out, they had a little fun by creating a killer mix of the Blur’s “Song 2” and Sigala’s “Sweet Lovin’” with a sick trap drop for good measure.
We quickly moved in for the last act of the night. Armin Van Buuren epically closed out Friday at the main stage and he left us wondering how in the hell anyone was going to top that. He brought us into his enchanting world of A State of Trance. The laser displays alone had our jaws dropped while he took us through layers of uplifting, psy, and hardstyle with tracks like his dark, psy trance remix of The Cranberries’, “Zombie” and his own “Blah Blah Blah”. We turned to see the rest of the crowd going as hard as us and caught the lights dancing across the stadium steps like rainbow confetti. Somehow it came to an end and Armin successfully left the crowd in a buzzing suspension of energy. He set the tone of our expectations for the weekend and of course Imagine stood up to the plate.
Saturday
Those in search of grooving flows, sun, and ten minute long jam solos, attendees could look no further when checking out Space Kadet. The Atlanta based group opened up the Amazonia stage, where fans were enveloped in smoke, funk, and exotic goodness. They jammed out to their remix of “Return of the Mac” that recently dropped earlier this summer, and “French Elevator” from their Ultra Funkular EP. Lead guitarist, Thomas Garret, gave us all the shreds we could ask for and the whole band took us on a grooving odyssey into their spectrum of soul. Looking at Space Kadet, they were all smiles and were in love with the pocket of the beat. Jason Hann of the String Cheese Incident made a guest appearance for an explosion of rhythm, heart, and electricity. Lastly, Space Kadet had one more song for us, a new track set to be released later this year. This one took on a slower tempo, with a darkness that infiltrated the melody. Orchestral voices built us up before flying into a kicking drum and bass drop, giving us an excellent send off.
Space Kadet definitely sent us to Aeria to get more of that drum and bass. DaddyDough slammed us with quick, classic UK styles with his own traditional MC to filter in slick rhymes. He brought his 20 years of being in the scene to the decks. Based in Atlanta, DaddyDough aka Doughboy has created a signature sound that many have a hard time to master when it comes to this genre. The second the drop hit, we immediately knew that we had to catch his set. We hope to see more from this artist in lineups to come.
Disco Inferno was our home for most of the night with Green Velvet hosting his La La Land Showcase. First up was Dirtybird’s Walker & Royce, who really got the party started. The duo has perfected bringing people into their world of deep vocals, off kilter bass, and warm harmonies. “Can You Pass That” and “Dance with Me” had us all in a Dirtybird ruckus backed by the flaming disco ball.
Montreal-born Tiga brought something totally new to our ears as he took over Disco Inferno. He brought his Indian club scene influences into the world of techno and we were just left in awe. It was a combination of left field synth climbers like “Bugatti” and sinister bass like “Planet E”. It’s easy to get lost in the hundreds of thousands of tech house artists but Tiga’s set has stuck in our mind since that Saturday. It was almost like the mesmerizing calm before the storm.
With the smoothest of transitions, our favorite tech house phenomenon came to the decks. Green Velvet brought all the techno, all the vibes, and all the love. He even drew in some of Imagine’s Jellyfish performers to join us. But that’s what Green Velvet does best, he magnetizes you to the stage and makes you want to dance harder, holding onto every last note he blasts through the speaker. The man behind the moniker, Curtis Alan Jones, kicked us off with his latest collab track with Chris Lake, “Deceiver” before smoothing that into Marco Lys’ sax and funk filled “The Story Continues.” Jones threw out more Dirtybird love with Chris Lake and Walker & Royce’s “Close Your Eyes” before taking us back into his skillfully layered rhythms of “Shake and Pop” and “Flash”. When it was time to say goodbye, he threw out what inspired the name behind the showcase, “La La Land.” The vocals slowly echoed out and the crowd cheered until that little green mohawk left the stage for good.
As we filtered out, melodic dub started to float across the wavelengths and drew us back over to Oceania to watch the end of Bassnectar. The combination of Lorin Ashton’s flowing hair, dazzling lights, and resonating bass kept everyone reeled in. We caught him just in time to be taken onto his “Mothership” before he radiated us with so much vibration from his “Heavyweight Sound” and “Into the Sun.” The visuals alone were enchanting but paired with smooth, well-polished melodic bass, it was just another divine experience with the bass god.
We came to a close with our Saturday with the last set of the night at Amazonia with Zhu. The multi talented singer danced atop a large, brightly lit pyramid as he started to serenade us. We even got to hear the young producer show off his skills on guitar and saxophone with intoxicating solos as well as his beloved tracks like “Numb” and “The One.” His beautiful vocals carried out across the crowd as he sang fan favorites like “In The Morning” and “Faded”. He closed us out with one of his latest releases from his new album Ringos Desert, “Love That Hurts,” a track filled with provcative, smooth bass.
Sunday
We walked into the gates and descended the stadium stairs for our last day, our hearts full of bittersweet excitement. Getter quickly drew a crowd as he opened up Oceania with his signature dubstep, trap, and future bass mix. Recently, the L.A. based producer has teamed up with Mau5trap to release his new album Visceral, and we got a chance to hear “Bleed” and “Solo” from the album before it dropped. Getter was sure to throw in some throwback tracks for the bass centric producer like his remix of Kill The Noises’ “Mine” and “Rip N Dip.”
With our fill of dubby bass goodness, we headed over to see one of our Atlanta’s favorite rising talents. Halogen represented the local house scene well with a killer performance filled with shuffle inspiring beats and grooving melodies to kick off our last night at Disco Inferno. We got all kinds of goodies like MK’s “17” to Deadmau5’s “Ghosts and Stuff” as well as a skillful blend of Fisher’s “Losing It” into Childish Gambino’s “This is America”. The crowd was drawn in immediately as they flooded down the stairs. They threw some love to Born Dirty’s most recent “Get Up, Get Out” and their mix of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Be With Somebody”. We also got a taste of their own discography with their latest deep house single release, “Here Before”.
Sunday was definitely the day to stop by Aeria to get our fill of all forms of trance. Gabriel & Dresden took us all the way there with beautiful, uplifting vocals with their inspiring “Only Road” and “You.” Armin left us hungry for more of the genre and the San Fran based duo delivered. Trance lovers, from young to veterans, filled out the field and held their hands in the sky. At one time everyone made a heart and we could feel the energy that only trance music seems to create between us all.
It was time to sink into the depths of what can only be described as Shpongle at Amazonia. Simon Posford drifted us away into what felt like the most amazing musical experience we had had all weekend. We could feel ourselves slip between the notes comfortably, listening to all the worldly music that Posford had mastered, ranging from entrancing latin influenced “Dorset Perception” and “Levitation Nation” to that classic deep, dark psychedelic trance “I Am You.” When his set unfortunately came to a close, we felt ourselves almost break away from a spell. It’s been a long time since we have experienced something so hypnotizing, soothing, and just good for the soul. So our theory is correct, Simon Posford and the members of Shpongle are magic beings and we can’t wait to fall under their spell one last time at Red Rocks next year.
Thundering across the Speedway was Kaskade. The energy really came alive amongst all the Imaginers as he threw down on the decks. With tracks like “Us” and “Fun,” everyone couldn’t stop singing along and become totally absorbed in the moment. He closed out with everyone’s favorite heartstring puller “Disarm You”. The stage exploded with an incredible array of a fireworks display and Kaskade threw out loads of hand hearts before ending his set. We felt ourselves stuck in a daze after the emotional roller coaster that we didn’t know we needed.
Paul Oakenfold called us back to Aeria one last time for a trip down the rabbit hole of mystifying, hard trance. If anyone was in the need for a psychedelic, deep experience, then they got it at this set. We let ourselves fall inside his mix, with his ever popular “Dark Machine” and Pantheon and Horotwitz remix of “Free Your Mind” from his most recent Mount Everest: The Base Camp Mix. We lost ourselves amongst the notes and the hypnotizing visuals. It took us a while to snap to after his last chords faded to silence and Aeria successfully closed down.
We finished out the last hour we had within the Speedway with our fellow Imaginers with one last fiery dance party at Disco Inferno with Oliver Heldens. Finishing out his HelDeep showcase, we got a playful blend of remixes from Sofi Tukker’s “Best Friend” to Hi Lo’s “Renegade Master” that really set the ground ablaze. He threw out some of our electro house favorites of his that took us for one final ride. He took us to another dimension with “Overdrive (Gecko)” and brought us right back to the party with “What the Funk.” As the disco ball slowed to a stop and the fire jets shot their last breath, the crowd took the party to the campgrounds so they could make the night last forever at the Silent Disco.
It was hard to say goodbye, many of us realizing that Sunday was the end. Imagine Music Festival pulled out all the stops to really bring improvements to not only the experience but for the artists and fans to really connect throughout the weekend. All in all, their fifth year anniversary was one for the books and we wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. They are a young festival but there is plenty of potential to be had and we can’t wait to see what they come up for next year. Be sure to keep an eye out for the recap video of this 2018 so you can relive the weekend with us. Imagine is already offering their Customer Appreciation sale with crazy low prices for 2019, you can check out those options here.
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Imagine Music Festival
Drew Dinwiddie
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