Situated at the Milton Keynes Bowl, the main stage kineticFIELD took pride of place in the bowl area, accompanied by fullsize carnival rides. The surrounding banking offered a more chilled area to watch the world-famous DJs, which was made even better due to the brilliant weather for the festival this year. Three smaller stages were just behind the trees, along with an array of reasonably priced refreshment outlets and more theme park-like rides.
Dutch DJ Hardwell took to the kineticFIELD stage at a surprisingly early time for someone of his calibre, but definitely didn’t disappoint. He took the festival atmosphere to another level with a high quality, fast-paced hour long set featuring a host of songs from his recent album United We Are, justifying his crown as the No. 1 DJ on the planet.
Dutch DJ Hardwell performing on the kineticFIELD stage
The other tents offered different vibes to the main stage, with the cosmicMEADOW arena particularly standing out during the early evening, with the likes of Cosmic Gate and Markus Schulz on show. Due to the sheer size of the festival grounds there was always the ability to go in any of the tents without it feeling overcrowded, an understated quality for this type of event.
EDC’s impressive collection of DJs continued with crowd-favourite Steve Aoki, featuring the odd 90s classic (Wonderwall remix anyone?) and the now recurring theme of him playing his song ‘Cake Face’ accompanied by throwing cake into the crowd.
Aoki provided a very memorable set, of which was then followed up by the eccentric duo of Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. This was my long-awaited first time of seeing the duo live and they didn’t fail to deliver – their on-stage charisma and interaction with the 35,000 strong crowd set them apart from others. This was shown most during their anthemic track ‘Tremor’, creating a divide down the middle of the MK Bowl for the biggest mosh pit I’ve ever been involved in!
Tiesto, the evening’s main event, had the crowd in the palms of his hands, with chants aplenty for the EDM legend. His set featured the perfect blend of modern electronic dance music with his old trance style that made him the famous DJ he is today. Highlights included favourites ‘Adiago For Strings’ and ‘Secrets’, with a remix of Snow Patrol’s ‘Chasing Cars’ being particularly memorable for its trance-like reworking. The most recognised man in dance music always delivers and the EDC was no exception; one of the best live acts around.
