2017 was Euphoria's last year, and definitely the best. As usual, I got there on Friday night, and this time I did NOT forget my wristband! Unlike the last two years, we weren't all set up at one place in the camping area, but were instead spread around. I had one space available where I set my tent up, and then joined the fam inside the fest where a dubstepper named Spag Heddy was playing. Two things memorable about Friday night: first, I discovered there was a craft beer tent, a place I can't stay away from, and second, I had to buy a hoodie from the merch tent because even though the temperature at night was in the high 50s F, I was shivering. Clearly I'd become a little too acclimatized to south Texas' burning hot climate and this was a sign it was time for a change.
Speaking of being acclimatized to something, by this time I was definitely deep enough in festival culture that words like "fam" and "wook" had become part of my vocabulary.
Warming up the main stage on Saturday afternoon was Jamiroqueen, a Jamiroquai tribute band with a woman singer.
Next to this stage was the VIP area, and this time I actually had splurged on a VIP wristband (the last two years I only had GA). The VIP area had a kind of lounge atmosphere, with couches and such underneath a pavilion roof. There was also some kind of video game system which, through a projector, used the ceiling as a screen. What I did there was try to mix up a drink; this was, if memory serves, the one place where there was any real liquor and with that and various spices and mixers you could make your own Bloody Mary. I tried doing this, adding all kinds of spices and tomato juice and maybe a celery stalk. It turned out OK but I definitely shouldn't be working behind any bar.
So anyway after collecting friends from the camping area I was back at the main stage early in the evening for an artist I'd never heard of at that point: Bakermat. This is a Dutch DJ who also plays sax, and also usually dresses like someone in a marching band. That's enough to pull me in because I'll listen to anything with a sax in it. This was my first time hearing tunes like "Vandaag" and "Teach Me" and "Uitzicht."
After the sun went down I broke off from those who I was with before, and inserted myself in the crowd at the Elements stage where Alan Walker was just starting up. This was another artist who I hadn't heard of until recently, and had listened to just a little before the fest in preparation. I still loved it quite a bit, and today can't hear "Fade" or "Alone" without remembering being here. Someone even captured the entire set for us to watch again all this time later.
And after Walker's memorable set, it was back to the main stage for the one-two punch of Oliver Heldens (who mostly played late-80s Chicago house and Detroit techno tracks) and Alesso.
Alesso's Saturday night headlining set.
The headliners have played and the festival grounds are closed for the night. Is it over? Not by a longshot! This was the only year in which they had a silent disco just inside the camping area. I love silent discos. If you've never been to one, when you enter they give you a set of headphones with three (in this case) channels to listen to, and there are that many DJs playing different subgenres. Usually the DJs and their respective channels are color-coded--red, green, and blue in this case. So if you're not actually listening to the earphones, you don't hear the music, hence the term "silent disco." This is great because if you want to talk to anyone, you don't have to shout.
Sunday was great too, though not as amazing at Saturday. After spending most of the daylight hours checking out the art installations and vendors, and reconnecting with the outside world (cell service was spotty), I mostly stuck to the Elements stage at night. I saw most of Lost Kings' set, which didn't really do it for me, followed by Moby, who I enjoyed more.
Sunday afternoon just after the fest area opened.
My attempt at getting a good pic of this electronic elder statesman.
One thing I've consistently liked seeing, and watching, at this and other festivals were people spinning LED hula hoops. There are, of course, hoopers spinning their hoops all day, but when it's finally dark out, the LEDs come out. These are just like any other hula hoop except they're covered with flashing LEDs that can display several different colors. The upshot of this is that the circuitry controlling the LEDs can be programmed so the lights can display all kinds of patterns that can you can only see with your eyes when the hoop is in motion. If it's just sitting on the ground idle, all you'll see is a bunch of random flashing lights, but as soon as someone starts spinning it, WOW...I've seen these hoops display all manner of colorful shapes and pulsating swirls, rows of classic "Pac-Man" ghosts, even the Euphoria logo. I took a few videos but none of them really did them justice; you just have to see it yourself to really appreciate it.
It was during the last Elements stage set, Zeds Dead, that I got to take in this hula hoop light show for the last time. I was there for most of Zeds Dead's set, but by the very end I had gotten distracted by the nearby Dragonfly stage, where an unknown named Grum was playing some great trance.
And that was a wrap for my Euphoria experience; I had a bit of a long drive ahead of me the next morning and so skipped the silent disco.
2017 was the end of Euphoria. No one realized that at the time, though; it wasn't until the beginning of 2018, when weeks and eventually months were passing with no announcements about the next Euphoria's lineup or ticket sales, that it became apparent that all was not well. Then they finally announced that they were going to be doing a series of "scaled-back" events, with the biggest one, called "Finding Euphoria," happening at the usual time in April. Then they lost their spot at Carson Creek Ranch and, at pretty much the last minute, had to move Finding Euphoria to a spot in downtown Austin! Quite a long way to fall in such a short time...
It turns out there had been a bit of a scandal behind the scenes after Euphoria 2017, involving the organizers being unable to pay the artists that played there. Having names like Oliver Heldens, Alesso, Moby, Zeds Dead, Chromeo, and Wiz Khalifa all on the same bill is a bit expensive, and Euphoria's organizers' pockets weren't exactly as deep as, say, Insomniac's (the people behind EDC). I haven't heard a thing from them since the 2018 incident. But for me and my new tribe, we had found bigger and better things by then, like Lightning in a Bottle and Electric Forest.
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