Ever After Music Festival Day 1: Zeds Dead, DJ Snake, Grandtheft

Photographs by Lilly House.

Ever After Music Festival held its inaugural electronic music festival in Kitchener May 30^th and 31^st, a weekend filled with rain, raves, and ruthless bass drops that shook the Bingaman’s center and surrounding areas.  Although the festival experienced a lot of downpour, the patrons of the event showed everyone that  die-hard electronic music lovers could not be slowed down by a little moisture.

As eager music enthusiasts waited in line to see some of their favourite artists take the control of the decks, I took time to scope out the beautiful stage, a massive structure with three screens displaying the televised performance, the excitable crowd and rain covered scenery. All around the park was elements of a Wonderland reminiscent of the Tommorowland Events in Belgium; there were colorful giant mushrooms, beautiful grassy fields and “shape cutting” dancers stamping their feet to bass of each song. I made my way to the main stage in time to catch the opening acts, Rezz and Manzone and strong played through the rain with their uniquely distorted bass techno, prompting a lot of professional looking dancers, to impress us with their improvised shuffle dancing. 

Mija then took us on a journey with her bouncy dance trap style sound. I had heard of Mija before, but seeing her perform at Ever After showed everybody that she is no ordinary up and comer. She brought the crowd in with her unusual taste, then hit them hard with her original tracks like “Crank it” and her Diplo remix of “Biggie Bounce” at which point I could not help but throw my hands up and dance along with her. Her energy towards the crowd just increased when she dropped Smookie Illson’s unreal vocal sample remix of “Club Action.” I was incredibly disappointed when she thanked the crowd for an incredible set and left the stage…but was thrilled when I saw her walking straight towards me in the media tent! I had a chance to ask her how she started her journey into electronic music production, and she told me about how she used to promote for clubs around her hometown, and eventually became comfortable enough with the decks and software to give it a shot herself. We’re glad you did, Mija.

When Toronto-born artist Grandtheft took the decks on the main stage I quickly prepared myself for some hip-hop influenced electro. He started his set with his trap remixes of popular rap legends, such as Big Sean and Drake, however he also incorporated more melodic tracks such as his remix of Dillon Francis’ “When we were young.” Of all the first day’s opening acts, Grandtheft’s visuals were by far the most versatile, utilizing primarily cool toned digital abstract colours transitioning beautifully to the beat. He was incredibly interactive with his audience, letting them know he was having just as much fun as they were in his home country.

I was very excited to witness Tchami hit the stage, and pump out his heavy future house tracks in the pouring rain. Being fairly new on the scene, releasing his first single in 2013, the French born DJ has undoubtedly been the most fun to watch grow as an artist, and the anticipation the audience and I felt waiting for his set was unmatchable.  It was interesting how he maintained a silent demeanor during his set, however what he lacked in speech he certainly made up for with his musical direction. He launched deep house track after deep house track, including many of his hits such as his Alunageorge remix of “You know you like it” and his original track “After life.” As far as his visuals were concerned he kept it simple, mostly displaying his name in greyscale, occasionally with purple undertones. He ended his set with his hit “Untrue” which inspired mass amounts of dancers to start cutting shapes in puddles all around the main stage.

DJ Snake is a French DJ who first came to prominence in 2013 with his hit “Turn down for what,” and when he got his hands on the decks the first thing I noticed is what a phenomenal hype man he was. Every song he played he involved himself in the excitement of the crowd, at one point even getting the whole venue to crouch as low as they could, stopping his set and insisting everyone get as low as they can, just before he played his hit “Get low”  and as soon as the beat dropped everyone jumped as high as they could to match the DJ’s unreal energy. His visuals were incredible, blowing fog out into the crowd and shooting a light show that mesmerized the audience. He ended that encounter by screaming “Fuck Dillon Francis!” in his thickest French accent. Needless to say he put on one of the most memorable shows of the night.

Of course, there were two legends I could not wait to dominate Ever After; Hooks and DC, otherwise known as Zeds Dead. The performance these two artists put on was nothing like I expected. To start, they open with their namesake; the audio from the scene in pulp fiction between Bruce Willis and Maria de Medeiros:

“Whose chopper is this?”

“It’s Zed’s.”

“Who’s Zed?”

“Zed’s dead, baby…Zed’s dead.”

They immediately jump into one of the most intense, heart pounding floor shaking sets I have ever experienced. Elements of deep house, future tech, and dubstep told me Zed’s had one goal in mind – to blow minds and melt some fucking faces. The visuals were absolutely stunning, the remaining fog from DJ snake’s set allowed for Zed’s light show to be that much more impressive. Originating from an artistic background, both producers have a way of displaying their inner graffiti artists through intricate visualizations displayed on all three screens. They spent an hour playing a lot of famous tracks, a lot of them from their “Dead of winter” mix via early 2015. They ended their set in the most beautiful way – they asked everyone to hold up their lighters, cell phone and cigarettes in a sea of orange and yellow light. Then they screamed, “KILL THE LIGHTS!” and all you saw was a bright orange square where the audience was. In a seamless transition played one of their first hits…their “eyes on fire” remix, which an older track that I figured was too much to hope for.

So even though we started the day in fear of rain destroying our chances of enjoying some of our favourite artist’s sets, we quickly realized luck was in our favour and we were not in the slightest phased by inclement weather. We were ready for day 2!