North Coast Music Festival (Photoset)

It was such an incredible pleasure to spend August of 2012 back up in my home city of Chicago. Aside from the fact that Chicago is simply the best place on the face of the world to be in the summer months, the city hosts 2 major music festivals in August that are both special in their own right. Lollapalooza was absolutely incredible (you can read about my Lolla experience here) but when late August/early September rolls around, all eyes and ears are on Union Park on the West Side for Lollapalooza’s dance-focused cousin: North Coast Music Festival. In my Lollapalooza post I outlined a few criteria that usually have a strong bearing on my level of enjoyment at any festival and will apply those to NCMF below!

The Setting: NCMF takes place in Union Park on the near west-side of Chicago. The park itself is pretty, but nothing too special to write home about. There are numerous benefits to this particular spot, however… For one, it is literally directly next to a CTA commuter train stop; this means incredible accessibility from the whole city via public transportation. I love this aspect of the location, it is (somewhat)safe and easy to get to and from the festival. Another awesome thing about Union Park is its size… It seems to lie perfectly on the line of not-too-small not-too big. It is really easy to find/run into people at the fest, but at the same time it never feels to cramped. The time of year that NCMF takes place also has a big effect on the setting of the festival. Late August/early September usually means AWESOME weather in Chicago… The sun is still plenty hot but the air and breeze are teasing at that cool fall weather. Hurricane Isaac’s aftermath brought us some light sprinkles but much to the delight of myself and fellow photographers on site, it never rained too hard. All-in-all the setting of this festival is a great asset to the experience!

The Lineup: The lineup for NCMF is usually focused on EDM and hip-hop. This year certainly fit that mold, as you can see here. Within this cross-section of genres, the lineup certainly had enough variation to please the different kinds of atendees that would be attracted to this kind of fest. Personal highlights included Atmosphere, YACHT, Digitalism, Two Fresh and Dan Deacon. It was my first time seeing Digitalism and Dan Deason and they were both great surprises. Digitalism opened up with a Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs track, which hooked me right off the bat. Dan Deacon and his live band were awesome in the way that they got the crowd involved in the show, constantly yelling out different moves and dances for the crowd to follow along with. It was kind of like simon-says mixed with a rave (in a good way). Other than my personal faves, I was present for Girl Talk’s whole set, which was a goddamn party if I’ve ever seen one. I also watched Pretty Lights in his entirety, which was definitely not the best PL show I’ve ever seen. I also must give kudos to NCMF for bringing up Rebirth Brass Band from down ion the bayou. My forever infused New Orleans roots always make me happy to see some brass in this swarthy mix of EDM and Rap.

The Crowd: If I can say one thing about the NCMF crowd it is that they like to party! What an awesome group of people ready to have a great time. I would say the largest part of the demographic is college-aged Raver kids (there was plenty of neon, candy bracelets and other dumb-as-hell party attire like those f***ing hats that say “Rage” or “Wasted” or some other dumb shit. I can look past that stuff though and see mostly good-hearted people that just want to have a great time and be a noticeable piece of the event as a whole. There were also plenty of travelling festival regulars present which isn’t any huge surprise. I saw a few kids and more family-minded individuals having a great time too which is always a plus in my book. You can’t really go wrong with a Chicago festival crowd, although I may not be the most reputable source having been raised in that fine city myself 🙂

The Production, Admin: Not too much to report here. The festival went very smooth and I did not notice any hiccups at all. I definitely do want to give them props for the way they treat press though. Thanks for the drinks!