Wavefront: Chicago’s beachside EDM festival is around the corner

by Rose Blanton

Last year Chicago hosted Wavefront’s inaugural weekend. We went, we saw, we stood in line for the beer. We may or may not have had a radical experience.

With Chicago being appropriately enough the mothership of the EDM movement (House of Chi anyone?) Wavefront brings together world-class line up of DJs, epic sounds, hot hot performers, blow up animals, neon tank tops, chicks rolling in the sand, and just generally thousands of people loosing their minds. 

First year made so much of an impact that this year AXS TV will be broadcasting the whole weekend live on national television. But nothing beats experiencing Wavefront live.

Having seen the last set of LCD Sound System at Madison Square Garden in 2011 I could not be more excited for James Murphy and Nancy Whang’s DJ sets on Friday night. While Murphy has established himself as a solid gold type of EDM DJ across the fifty states Whang’s stellar keyboard beats are one of the best known trademarks of LCD. All around there are many comebacks that hardcore EMD kiddos are stoked for including Bad Boy Bill, Fat Boy Slim, and Russia’s own Proxy spinning on Saturday at one of the newly curated stages. This is also worth a mention: The Wave stage is a 50-foot-tall tidal wave and a 3D game of Tetris dropping shapes all weekend long.

Saturday night also features the Chicago Heritage stage with a performance by no one other but Frankie Knuckles joined by Derrick Carter, Jamie Principle, and a handful of other home grown Chicago talent.

Sunday night brings to you the pop world’s DJ celebrities such as Diplo and Justice. With Fehrplay sandwiched right in-between the two something tells me this will be a popular corner of the beach. Nicolas Jaar, a recent graduate from Brown, is hitting up the Spybar Stage on Sunday as well, a perfect come down before the next round of hard core beats by the Martinez Brothers.

We could keep going through the line up one by one all day but you really should check out the line up for yourself. To each their own, but without a doubt, everyone will find a handful of appearances they cannot wait to see.

So get your fancy shades out, stock up on glow-sticks, and watch the youth of Chicago fry it’s brains under the sun to the nasty EDM beats on the lakeshore. Now who said LA has all the fun?

See the full photo collection and meet the people of Wavefront on Facebook