Electric Zoo and Made in America: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

For Labor Day weekend I decided to kick my 2013 festival schedule into overdrive by attending not one, but two festivals over the course of the weekend.

On Friday I hopped on the ferry over to Randall's Island for the first day of Electric Zoo. If you don't know what EZoo is but feel like it sounds sort of familiar, you've probably read about the fact that the festival was canceled on Sunday after 2 people died on Saturday due to possible drug overdose. This blog post is not about that, and while the deaths are certainly tragic and my heart goes out to those individuals' friends and family, I'm going to risk being a little insensitive by talking about how much fun I had on Friday.

I was a little apprehensive about going to EZoo because while I was originally supposed to go with a friend, some circumstances changed and I ended up going alone. I had briefly contemplated selling my ticket and then realized that I would much rather experience the party by myself than recoup my money. So I got out my panda hat, my neon flip sunglasses, and off I went.

Let me tell you something about Electric Zoo, my friends. Listen closely.

This festival is AWESOME. Other. Level. Awesome.

- The music is amazing. It is one big day-long high energy dance party. Wear sneakers.
- The people are fun and friendly. I may have gone alone, but it certainly didn't feel that way.
- The stations where you could refill your water bottle for free had so many spouts that there was never a line (and I would know, because the dancing and the panda hat and the sun led me to be so hot that I refilled my water about 7 times).
- I never had to wait for a bathroom.
- The actual festival grounds are so tiny you could walk from one end to the other in probably 5 minutes yet they still fit in 2 main stages and 3 tents. And those 5 stages? Had music CONSTANTLY. Later in the day I think they started putting 10 or 20 minutes between sets, but every other festival I went to this summer had an hour in between acts on any individual stage. Not having to wait around for more music makes everyone very, very happy.

In short, aside from the fact that it's sort of a pain to get to, EZoo is EVERYTHING. A+, would buy again.

On Saturday morning I went down to Made in America. MIA is a 2 day festival spanning multiple genres that takes place smack in the middle of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, causing road closures that are probably really annoying to locals.

If EZoo was the good, Made in America was certainly the bad (we'll get to the ugly in a minute). Here are my complaints:

- They sold way too many tickets. The overcrowding was absurd and there was never a moment when you were able to walk comfortably, even when you weren't trying to get to a stage. The crowds from the stages backed up right into the food vendors and the walkways. At one point the crowds were so bad I couldn't even get close enough to the stage to be able to hear one of the DJs I wanted to see. The beer lines were a madhouse, they had run out of food when my friends tried to get some chicken fingers, and I read one review that said they ran out of water at one point. Oh, and the lines for the free water refills? Longer than the cronut line.

- The main stage has a STATUE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VIEWING AREA. My friends and I left during Beyonce's performance because we got so tired of watching her from only a screen. If you had told me I would ever leave a Beyonce show early I wouldn't have believed you. Because...BEYONCE.

- The lineup. Let's say you spent an hour dancing and jumping and otherwise going crazy to Calvin Harris. Do you want to go see Nine Inch Nails after that? Nope! Buzzkill. So for the second night in a row, we left during the headliner.

- The scheduling was only loosely adhered to. Lots of people started early. Lots of people ended early. Macklemore ended 15 whole minutes early which is a whole bunch of BS when it's the artist your posse is most excited about and he only had a 45 minute set to begin with (he was great though, so, still a W).

All of this being said, I will fully admit to The Ugly. Which was that I missed a few of the artists I wanted to see on Saturday because I was taking an involuntary champagne and Fireball-induced nap on the grass. Oops. So that part is on me.

All in all, still a fun weekend. If EZoo comes back next year, I'd definitely consider going again. And next time I'll buy a 3 day pass instead of spending those other 2 days at Made in America.