Review: Seattle’s Freaknight Festival

November 12, 2012 By 774 Comments

On October 26th 22,000 freaks invaded Seattle, Washington. USC Events held their sixteenth annual Freaknight Festival at Wamu Theater, a sold out event that was the largest of its kind to ever be held in the Emerald City. The Halloween themed rave attracted music fans of all genres beneath the umbrella of Electronic Dance Music. Freaknight featured three stages, each of which had a unique theme. The main stage, referred to as the Twisted Big Top hosted massive performances from Morgan Page, Bingo Players, Dada Life, Chuckie, and Sander van Doorn and more. If that line up isn’t enough to leave you speechless, the number one DJ in the world himself Armin Van Buuren closed the night with a spectacular trance set. For those seeking heavier womps, The Caldron of Bass delighted dubsteppers with sets from Netsky, Nosia, Borgore, Loadstar & Armanni Reign, and Flux Pavillion. The third stage was devoted to Laidback Luke’s brainchild Super You and Me. Performers here included Oliver Twizt, Switch, Sandro Silva, Nicky Romero, Caspa, and of course Laidback Luke.

My night began with a raging set that can only be defined as obeying the “Rules of Dada”. Dada Life, the Swedish electrohouse duo attracted the largest amount of dancing banana suits I have ever encountered. Unlike Freaknight of 2011 where anyone in a banana suit was invited onstage, Dada switched things up by taking only one banana clad rager onstage to be covered in champagne showers. After Doing the Dada I ventured to the Super You and Me stage in time to catch the end of Nicky Romero’s set. Nicky was followed by my favorite performance of the night: a phenomenal set by Laidback Luke which was close to two hours in length. Though I left a few times to see other DJs I kept coming back to the Super You and Me stage for LL’s electrohouse genius. Laidback Luke kept everyone in a state of suspense with triple builds of mashups and drops that came as total surprises. Dirty Dutch was next on the list and I ran to witness the final songs of Chuckie’s excellent house set. Immediately after Sander van Doorn took over the decks for a trance/house performance. After a short rage sesh with SVD, I made my first appearance at the Cauldron of Bass to have my face melted by Flux Pavillion. “Jah No Partial” literally blasted my head away with huge bass womps that I could not resist stomping my heart out to. At the end of the night I made my way back to the Twisted Big Top to be graced by the world’s best DJ. Armin Van Buuren performed ninety minutes of joyful music that radiated vibes of love to every person in the crowd. Though technical malfunctions cut the sound system twice during his set, the audience maintained and stayed with Armin until the final minutes of Freaknight were over.

USC Events has been leading the charge of the electronic music scene in the Pacific Northwest for over fifteen years. Every event they put on is more massive than their last, and they have secured a die-hard following of EDM fans, myself included. It goes without saying that I will attend every festival this company puts on. Freaknight Festival, just over two weeks ago was an experience that will stay with me forever. Not only did USC Events bring some of the biggest and best DJs on the planet to Seattle, but they also crafted an event in harmony with the spirit of Halloween and electronic music. USC Events’ next giant party, Resolution will be held on New Year’s Eve this December. Hopefully all the freaks can wait until then for another amazing massive to take over the city of Seattle.

Photos by Tessa Irvin Photography


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