The inaugural Freaky Deaky came to a close in Houston, Texas this past weekend and it’s spooky ravers are sure riding that festival high into Halloween. Despite rainy conditions days leading up to the festival, headbangers and shufflers alike saw beautiful temperatures and skies for the two days of partying. It wasn’t without a lot of hard work by the Disco Donnie Presents crew that made the festival grounds bearable for nonstop stomping. The DDP crew was so hands on that we even saw glimpses of the man himself, Disco Donnie, out there in the mud with rain boots and a shovel full of mulch. Now that is dedication.
Credit: Julian Bajsel (@jbajsel)
Here’s a quote from Disco Donnie himself:
“In spite of weeks of bad weather making for an extremely challenging set up, Freaky Deaky Texas was ultimately a success, given the help of our wonderful staff and support from the fans. A lot of blood sweat and tears went in leading up to the show, but the result made the efforts worth it.”
This video will put into perspective just how much extra effort was put into the fest by the DDP team to make sure that the show went on.. Click HERE.
Aside from a few muddy puddles, the festival and it’s promoters managed to sell out and put on a two-day, Texas sized show that surely pleased it’s fans. With four stages and varying genres, every raver came together under one lineup to dance their way into Halloween. Headliners at The Crpyt, unofficially the bass stage, included Adventure Club, Zomboy, and Brillz’s new trippy side project LSDream. This stage stands out for many reasons, one of them being the notorious “Wall of Death” put on by Zomboy in which the crowd splits down the middle and then proceeds to run at one another when the beat drops, causing untold chaos and excitement. Of course, this Wall of Death doesn’t come without at least one ground rule from Zomboy himself: “If you see someone fall, pick them back up again.” Truly in the essence of PLUR, we must watch out for one another in hard times, especially in the Wall of Death. While no one died during the Wall of Death, we definitely saw some hardcore ravers limping to the back of the crowd just a few minutes after the start!
Credit: Jean Velez (@rudovell)
Absent from any Wall of Death was one of our favorite stages, The Rising! Here at this stage we saw acts unveil the funkiest, deepest house, trance and techno beats. What we noticed and took appreciation to was the fact that there were considerably more Trance artists at The Rising on Saturday like Audien and Aplha 9, and more House-centered artists on Sunday like Destructo and Camelphat. This was the infamous stage that plagued the most problems for the DDP team as this is where we see Disco Donnie shoveling mulch for drier dance floor. We can’t give enough respect for that, props go out to Donnie!
The Rising. Credit: Julian Bajsel (@jbajsel)
The third stage, Haunted Hallows, was placed conveniently in the middle of the festival and featured tons of Texas locals and DJ competition winners. Haunted Hallows went head to head with the main stage in terms of diverse genres which is what the real ravers want and respect.
Haunted Hallows Stage. Credit: Julian Bajsel (@jbajsel)
We saved the best stage for last because there is certainly a lot to talk about when it comes to any festival’s main stage. The Freaky Deaky main stage, labeled The Shrine, was home to a fully stacked lineup of headliners that could have had their own festival. One of the unexpected artists we were happy to see perform on the main stage was Chris Lake! Although he played an earlier day-time set at 4pm, Chris Lake threw down an insane performance that left everyone bouncing well after his last track.
Credit: Rukes (@rukes)
It goes without saying that each headliner killed it in their own way from DJ Snake to Kaskade, the production was just on point from every level. The whole team at Disco Donnie truly knows how to put on a festival because they do not stop working for the fans, they are out there each day before the fest making sure that the grounds are dry and that the lines are running as smooth as possible. A lot of other festivals can’t say the same. Not everyone learns from the first day to make changes for the second and the fact that DDP and the whole team did just that, makes us begging for a return of Freaky Deaky in 2019.
Coming next from Disco Donnie and his team is their brand new two-day festival, Ubbi Dubbi in Fort Worth, Texas on April 27th & 28th! You can visit the Facebook event page HERE.
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