Day one was off to a slow start, no lineups, no crazy crowds, just enough people to colour the park. With House of Boom being the first stage you come across after entry, it was the first area to get filled. Walking into a half point of Ricktoxic’s set, taking in the scene, dropping a couple moves while making our way to the front, soaking in the strobe light and the pretty damn awesome stage set up we quickly nicknamed the area the “Trap Tent”. With many options ahead of us we stayed behind a little longer to watch M|O|D light up the early arrivers on fire. Note to self, this one is a keeper.

“That area is my favourite! I love it! It’s my favourite!” screamed a young girl in cut-off shorts, pointing at the House of Boom just an hour later. This is the tent everyone loves, where the sun don’t shine, the drinks are plenty and the music doesn’t stop (all DJs smoothly replaced each other with an occasional parting hug).

A little later Fake Blood played an early show on the main, Dreams, stage. As soon as the first beat dropped you knew, this was it: tank tops are coming off, bodies are up in the air, Canadian flags are starting to unfold, and everyone’s favourite Nickelodeon characters are prying into the sky (Spongebob was a particularly popular one). People, get ready, now we dance. Following Mr Keating the most memorable act of the night was no other other than Paul Van Dyk. As soon as he graced the stage with his appearance the ground shook and the crowds shifted, the man still knows how to bring it and for that we take the hat of to him.

Day two started at the main stage with DJ’s Dzeko and Torres, it was obvious that Toronto was familiar with the duo and was undoubtedly ready to party…again. The tent and the Echo Beach were nearly empty while the main stage was already a hot mess for Dzeko and Torres’ midday performance. The bar for the rest of the day was set. By the end of their hype set, the grounds had filled to the rim, the fans were on queue, and the rest of the evening was up to the talent.

Moving on to the House of Boom, it was time for some hip-hop sound and hard beats. Taking the crowd by storm, Flosstradamus did what he does best: an intense, loud, and incredibly ratchet show for his fans. Feeling like you were in an intimate club with a full laser show and wicked sound system, he did not fail to make the crowd sweat.

We lingered behind to see Dillon Francis do his thing and watch the evening party starting to blow up one neon t-shirt at a time. As soon as his set was done, the entire venue looked like a carnival for EDM fans everywhere, complete with light shows, lasers, fur, wings, superhero masks, and, of course, a few crazy fans dressed up as Elvis (I mean why not, right?).

By 10 pm, The Flats were packed and the energy was insane. Most of the crowd was moving towards the main stage to see the final set of Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike with a mission to secure a decent dancing square for Wolfgang Gartner and Tiësto. If anything, even only in their second year, Digital Dreams has figured out how to go out with a bang. Getting the highest payed, and one of the most respected DJs in the world to end this two-day festival was a brilliant move. Tiesto seemed to be a joy for everyone that night. He and the crowd went through it, from the past to the present, Tiesto threw out his greatest hits from the ninety’s to his most popular songs of today, all lit up by fireworks and laser beams with bursts of confetti floating off into the jumping crowd.

Even if this isn’t your cup of tea, it is hard to ignore how much effort went into the festival. Even more so, the appreciation of music and the coming together of thousands of people in the city of Toronto are proof that this is certainly not the end of the dream. It just might be a rebirth of rave on this side of the globe.

See more photos on Facebook

The post Digital Dreams keeping Toronto raw at this year’s music festival appeared first on Quip Magazine.

We caught up with this dynamic duo at the EDM festival Digital Dreams this weekend to chat about their recent success. Gaining insight on how hard they actually work, how much sleep they actually get (barely any), and why a little bit of gratitude can go a long way.

Jackie Willson: First of all, congratulations on all of your recent successes. How have the past few months been for you guys?

Dzeko and Torres: We’re excited for everything that’s happening. It’s still hard to believe that some of the stuff that’s happening is really happening. It’s all a little bit surreal. Even small things, like Thursday, we were at local radio station Z 103.5.  As a teenager, ‘Drive at Five’ was the biggest thing, and we just played it on Thursday.

JW: You have a really supportive fan base here in Toronto. Do you think that they have helped you become successful internationally?

D&T: To be completely honest, no. I think the way it is, especially in Toronto, people don’t support you until you get successful internationally. When they see that other guys like Tiesto or Chucky will play your stuff and then they will be like, “oh wow”.

JW: So it is harder to get support from the local fan base in Toronto?

D&T: It is harder. It sort of starts off like you’re just another DJ and nobody really takes you seriously, until you start getting that support. At the same time, now that we do have the Toronto support, it really helps. Now any time we play in Toronto it’s crazy.

JW: Is there any one thing that has significantly helped you break into the music scene?

D&T: Support from specific people right from the beginning. Chucky was playing our stuff and he’s the guy. Once he started supporting our stuff, he took us seriously. Before that we were just doing this for fun, but as soon as he started pushing us, we were like, “ok lets start taking this seriously!” After Chucky, it just followed with Paul Oakenfold, David Guetta, and, of course, Tiesto, they’ve all been playing our stuff. Once you get the first step of one big DJ literally supporting you, not just playing your stuff, but actually trying to push you and giving you releases on their label,  that’s a huge help. For us, it was Chucky.

JW: Have you ever had a tough show?

D&T: We’ve definitely had some times where things went wrong. We played in London Ontario, opening for Sebastian Ingrosso, and the music just cut for like a minute. The whole crowd was like, “you fucked up, you fucked up!” The power just off. You know what’s funny? Those kind of moments actually kind of help the set sometimes because when you come back in, the energy is high because of that break. We have never had anything that is really terrible besides that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKcNb-qeAPU

JW: You have had a chance to work and collaborate with some amazing artists. What kind of advice have they given you?

D&T: How they get the crowd going and hyped up. They can teach you a lot about performing for people. Not only that, but looking at guys like Steve Aoki – that guy never stops working. It doesn’t matter whether he’s on stage; if he’s on a plane, he’s on the phone or answering emails. We were backstage with him once and he was about to play a show and had his headphones on and was working on a track. Any opportunity he has to work, he works. It’s really inspiring. Its like, if you want to be big you have to work.

JW: Success in this industry happens quickly and without warning. Can that be overwhelming?

D&T: The only thing that’s overwhelming is touring. We played last night in New York and we haven’t slept. The day before that we didn’t sleep. That kind of stuff is overwhelming because it looks so amazing when you see these big djs playing, but you realise that these guys are some of the craziest people on earth. They do not stop or sleep for two or three days at a time, and the hours are unbelievable. I mean it is amazing, but there is a lot of work that goes behind it.

JW: Have you guys been able to take the time and appreciate it all?

D&T: When you step off a good set, like today, we stepped off and were like, “wow that was amazing”. That’s the only time you really ever feel it, when you play a great set and have a great reaction. The other times, you don’t really have time to think about it, you just don’t want it to go away so you just keep working.

JW: If you could give one piece of advice to Djs trying to break into the scene, what would it be?

D&T: Don’t be a douchebag. Just kidding.

Don’t give up, and make a lot of music, and don’t think your too cool because that’s the problem. You need to be nice to everybody and be friends. That’s the thing in this industry, everybody is friends. It’s just a small close-knit community that you always see everyone, all of the time. If you have beef with some of these guys it’s not a good look. You need to constantly support each other.

The post Digital Dreaming with Dzeko & Torres appeared first on Quip Magazine.