Global Dance Festival is a pioneer among festivals.
It takes one of the most incredible venues in the world, one that is typically just used for concerts, and turns it into a festival. The festival featured three stages, a section filled with festival vendors, the classic tail gating filled Red Rocks parking lot, a diverse lineup that truly made it a “Global” Dance Festival, and some of the most energetic and lively festival goers that I have ever seen.
How did Global Dance Festival pull off one of the most epic festivals of the year?
1) Creating an Intimate Rave
Red Rocks is a venue that packs in around 10,000 people, but when you are in the crowd it feels as if you are in the front row. Compared to the likes of some of the summer’s massive EDM festivals, Global Dance Festival provided an intimate setting, while maintaining big name artists.
Red Rocks maximized its space with three different stages throughout the festival. The main stage, the NRG stage, and the Global dance music stage. The NRG stage was at the top of the Red Rocks steps where you can get one of the prettiest views in all of Colorado. I felt that the space between the stages was perfect. It allowed festival goers to explore the entire venue and compared to larger festivals the walk between the stages was a breeze.
2) The Up & Comers
This year Global Dance Festival hosted a couple of “up and comers” that really brought it.
Goldfish – Calling these guys “up and comers” is a little bit of a stretch, as they have exploded onto the festival scene in 2015, and continue to release good music (click here for a recent release). The South African duo fit in perfectly to the Colorado electronic music scene. The group played on the top stage and people went nuts for their funky music and live use of the flute and saxophone.
Aviva – This female DJ came to get the crowd amped up. Her set included a crazy mix of blending G-house with Drum & Bass, Melbourne bounce with trap, and metal with future house. She also played a couple of new and original tracks that seemed to pump up the dancing crowd.
3) The Veterans
The three Global Dance Festival headliners all put on shows to remember. Above & Beyond, Kaskade and Tiesto all brought their own style of music and their own set of loyal fans along with them. Each night one of these artists headlined, and each day of the festival was sold out. It was refreshing to see three DJs that are known for their massive shows at EDC, Ultra and Vegas Clubs play a venue like Red Rocks. Above & Beyond provided its usual emotional connection with the Red Rocks crowd. Kaskade laid down some of his newest creations. Tiesto pleased the crowd by incorporating quite the wide range of genres in his set.
4) The Wild Cards
Kill The Noise turned it up a notch and made the Sunday crowd go wild. His mix of glitch-hop, drum and bass, and dub-step was a perfect set for the Red Rocks party. What was really great was to see the excitement of this artist’s face as he played away at the epic venue.
Doctor P played a fantastic dub-step filled set that set the bar for the rest of the night. He played a great mix of his classic tracks, and threw in a couple of new songs as well. In an interview with the UK dub-step master he said he was thrilled to see the crowds posotive reaction to his new music.
5) The Crowd
The festival crowd never stopped moving, never stopped bouncing, and came out to party for three days straight. The tailgating scene was filled with a special pre party exuberance that ignited all three days of the festival. The energy in the amphitheater during Global Dance Festival was some of the best I’ve seen at any festival. It was a true celebration of music and dance.
Global Dance Festival sets the bar high for Red Rocks’ Festivals. I won’t be surprised to see more “festivals” take place at this special venue. Enough said. Global Dance Festival, I’ll see you again in 2016.
