Cowboys, Cowgirls, Dirtybirds, Mellogang, and many more saddled up on November 18-19 to celebrate Relentless Beats’ inaugural Goldrush Music Festival in Chandler, Arizona. Goldrush took place at Rawhide Western Town, Arizona’s largest 1880s western-themed entertainment venue. Festival organizers, Relentless Beats, embraced the already built-in wild west theme of the town and designed their four stages accordingly, with each stage holding its own hidden treasures.
Day one brought us the likes of Camelphat, REZZ, Keys N Krates, A-Trak b2b Baauer, Dillon Francis, Claude VonStroke, and more. Upon entering Goldrush on opening day, we didn’t expect to strike gold so easily, but The Hideout stage, also known as Claude VonStroke’s The Birdhouse, was nestled right by the entrance and the flawlessly curated stage was nothing short of pure 24 karat gold.
Our first introduction to The Birdhouse came from the talented house producer Sonny Fodera. His clean mixing skills and groove-filled tracks, such as “Set Me Free” and “Always Gonna Be,” made it impossible to exit the stage. Some of the acts that followed didn’t help our urge to hide out there (The Hideout-what a fitting name). Fodera’s set was followed by a b2b set from Desert Hearts’ founders Mikey Lion and Lee Reynolds, Shiba San, and last, but certainly not least, the Claude Father himself. Although every artist at The Birdhouse played a phenomenal set, we have to give it to Shiba San for delivering not only our favorite set of the weekend, but also the best Shiba performance we have ever witnessed.
It may sound like we never left The Birdhouse, but have no fear, we attempted to dig up all the treasures of the wild wild west! From the rock climbing wall, mechanical bull, panning for gold, Playstation VR, and every rave girls favorite spot, the glitter booth, we made sure to take in all that we could. The activities were actually a major bonus since the inaugural festival happened to be an all ages event, giving rave parents and their kiddos the opportunity to play in between shuffling to their must-see artists.
We cannot properly review Goldrush without mentioning the Space Queen REZZ and her mass manipulation at main stage, aka Golden Gorge. Her vibrant red hypnotizing visuals and trippy sounds took us on a journey to outer space and back. Check it out for yourself, here is REZZ premiering an unreleased ID during her Goldrush set:
We may have struck gold on day one, but day two marked the discovery of the Wandering Wagon. The Wagon was a mobile stage featuring Goldrush’s hidden gems a.k.a. Arizona’s top-notch local talent. Some of AZ’s finest took over the decks and kept bandits and law-abiding citizens alike moving to their genre-defying beats. Although we weren’t able to catch as many sets as we would’ve liked here, some major standouts include Dark Mark, Frank Terry, Muzhak, Alaska, and Mike Dao.
The Wild West would be incomplete without a showdown and day two was truly reminiscent of one. The acts came out with their talent blazing, blowing us away, with each performance more powerful than the last. Day two welcomed artists such as Oona Dahl, Justin Jay, Barclay Crenshaw, San Holo, Mija, RL Grime, Marshmello, Nicole Moudaber, and more.
One of the highlights of the second and final day of the festival came from the trap king RL Grime at the Golden Gorge. He had the house packed from the rail all the way back, as he played his Miguel collab “Stay For It”, “Tell Me”, and of course his epic Lion King edit of “Core”. After getting our trap fix, it was only appropriate (if not necessary), to attend a sermon at the Pioneer Peak stage, where our favorite mystery man Malaa preached about the importance of house music with “Bylina”.
After much exploration, some of our group headed over to Marshmello’s set, while we surrendered ourselves to The Hideout yet again, this time for the queen of techno, Nicole Moudaber. Nicole delivered the dark techno vibes and put the outlaws of the underground In The Mood. Pair her hauntingly beautiful tunes with the fireworks that coincided with her set and you have a wonderful conclusion to the inaugural Goldrush Music Festival!
Special thanks to Relentless Beats for allowing us to be part of history in the making with their first-ever Goldrush Music Festival. We would also like to thank the true hidden treasures of the festival, the Relentless Beats Rangers, for making sure the attendees were safe and having a great time. You rock!
See you all at Decadence Arizona!
Connect with Goldrush Festival:
https://facebook.com/GoldrushFestAZ
https://twitter.com/goldrushfestaz
https://instagram.com/goldrushfestaz
http://goldrushfestaz.com
Connect with Relentless Beats:
https://facebook.com/relentlessbeats
https://twitter.com/RelentlessBeats
https://soundcloud.com/relentlessbeats
https://instagram.com/relentlessbeats
https://relentlessbeats.com
Photo Credit: © Phoenix Gonzales 2017
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