Photographs by Joshua Chia
Although the day started off with a weather warning, adding a little gloominess to the festivities, the sun would shine through the Sunday’s grey clouds tarnishing all speculation of a rained out festival day. After some much needed rest from going a little to hard on the first day, I was eagerly excited to see what day two had in store and with names like The Chainsmokers, Kygo and Martin Garrix, I knew the day would not disappoint!
After a quicker pass through the front gates, I passed by the main stage to see New World Punx duo Markus Schultz and Ferry Corsten dish out their brand of hard trance. With the main stage field being more spacious, there was plenty of room for to dance, which there was plenty of. While only passing through, I only caught a glimpse of what New World Punx had to offer as I headed to the Terra stage to see another legendary incognito duo preform.
The duo of Datsik and Bais Haus, collaboratively known as Ephwurd bring the hardest bass music to the Terra stage. They mixed the familiar with the face melting with tracks like Black Eyed Peas’ Pump It, Febreeze by Jack U and the legendary 8-bit music of tetris into some of the hardest bass heavy dubstep and trap drops my ears could comprehend. The crowd was loving every second of Ephword’s heavy performance as everyone was two stepping, head banging and going just all sorts of crazy for ground shaking sounds.
When counting down the minutes to one of the festival’s most anticipated acts, little by little, groups of people migrated to crowd the main stage so see one of this summer’s hottest hit makers, The Chainsmokers take to the decks. The melodic swelling of piano hyped up the crowd as Andrew Taggart and Alex Paul took to the stage as the opening chords of “Roses” rang out into the field. After the duo’s introductory crescendo, they dropped Ephwurd’s hard and dance infectious remix of Don’t Let Me Down before transitioning into hype anthem Never Scared by Bone Crusher with an added dubstep flair. Throughout their set, The Chainsmokers blended nostalgic rock songs of the early 2000s like Modest Mouse’s Float On, Taking Back Sunday’s MakeDamnSure & Clodplay’s Stars with the high energy EDM sounds of trap, house and dubstep that The Chainsmokers are known for. Their combination of unique sound selection and high energy dance tunes, the crowd couldn’t keep up with the energy that The Chainsmokers were throwing down.
By the time Kygo took to the main stage, the sky’s fading sunset glow complimented Kygo’s warm and relaxing tropical house sounds. The Norwegian DJ opened up his smooth sound session with Stole the Show and would keep constant with his unmissable brand of chill house music going with original songs like Stay, I’m in Love, & Raging and remixes of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing, Seinabo Sey’s Younger and Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop this Feeling. Kygo provided a relaxing breath of fresh air to the main stage’s banger centric performances.
Closing out day two was Dutch DJ Martin Garrix. After Kygo’s refreshing tropical house set, Garrix turned the energy up to a hundred and ten with his big room progressive house and kept it playful by incorporating a few different renditions from the chords of his infamous festival hit Animals; including a classical introductory rendition, and a mash up with The Weekend’s I Can’t Feel My Face. Garrix had also got the crowd singing as well as dancing to tunes like Bastille’s Pompeii and Third Party collaboration Lions in The Wild. Veld’s final act went out with a bang as fireworks exploded from the stage, leaving festival goers in excitement and awe.
The open air of Downsview Park and the fantastic acts sights and moments of Veld served up one hell of an unforgettable experience.
