Identity Festival rages on in Miami

An electronic music tour has been making its way through the United States.

This tour, known as Identity Festival, is hosted by iHome, which is the No. 1 maker of award-winning clock-radios and speaker systems for iPod, iPhone, iPad and more.

On Saturday, August 4^th, Identity Festival took place at the Bayfront Amphitheater in Miami, the same location usually used for Ultra Music Festival. It began at 2 p.m. and continued on past 11 p.m.

Two stages were set up, the main stage and another side one most referred to simply as the dubstep stage. This side stage was surrounded by the downtown buildings of Miami, giving the setting a truly beautiful city feeling.

Identity Festival in Downtown Miami

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I arrived around 5 p.m. just in time for Le Castle Vania who I had never heard of before to be honest. He gave a stellar performance and has only convinced me to look further into his music.

Standing front and center, mosh pits began to appear and as the set went on, the pits only became bigger and more aggressive.

For those of you who don’t know what mosh pits are, they’re usually reserved for metal or rock shows and they are an empty space in the middle of crowds where people aggressively dance around, trashing, flipping,  tumbling and essentially “moshing.”


Anyone who falls down is immediately picked up by fellow moshers, making sure no one is severely or seriously injured.

I once was a part of a mosh pit at a punk show and there was one individual in a wheelchair moshing harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.

He would be slammed and pushed out of his wheelchair to the ground and immediately after, anyone in the near vicinity would stop to help him back into his chair.

Soon as he was back in, he would start thrashing around again and pushing people back just as hard. He was having a blast and everyone around him was as well.

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Mosh pits aren’t too common at electronic music events but this was the dubstep stage, which has been referred to as the heavy metal of electronic music. Fitting.

I stayed at the dubstep stage for Le Castle Vania’s full set, not exactly being able to or even wanting to leave the sweaty and dirty mosh pits that surrounded me.

Doctor P was the next DJ and he had been one of the top reasons I decided to attend Identity Festival in the first place.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t stick around for the entire set but I can definitely say the part that I did stay for blew my mind.

At one point, it was far too hot in the front, which can happen in the middle of a packed crowd, dancing endlessly in the middle of the Miami summer heat.

I went to get water and made my way to the other stage where Madeon was performing. Another excellent performance. Noisia, Showtek and Excision also played on the dubstep stage later in the night.
 
Showtek surprisingly was my favorite set of the entire festival. At one point, he told the crowd to sit down! Everyone eventually listened and he explained he wanted everyone to stand as soon as the bass dropped.

I have never seen a DJ do this but it certainly worked as the crowd waited for that pivotal moment and all rose back to non-stop dancing and thrashing.

No DJ disappointed until the last set of the night when Eric Prydz took to the main stage. Few if any epic drops happened and the music was honestly boring.

At that point, I had miraculously managed to find the people I would be leaving the festival with and they agreed to leave earlier than planned simply because Eric Prydz was not doing it for us.

Overall, one of my favorite festivals so far even though it was only one day. The tour continues through Texas, California and Arizona until August 19th.

Photo Creds Identity Festival

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