On the first day, many festivalgoers seemed to arrive as soon as work allowed them. Clocking out and rushing to the beach felt like you were trying to catch the last wave of the day. Once inside the festival grounds and grabbing a quick beverage, fans immediately headed towards the High Tide stage to see Grouplove. It was the perfect scene to let the sun set after a long day. They featured some new tracks, giving us a glimpse of what to expect from the upcoming album.

Once Grouplove finished, everyone ran to the Low Tide stage to find a good spot in the sand for The Chainsmokers. Crammed like sardines, people pushed forward, some even climbed on a statue trying to get the best view. This set certainly catered to the younger crowd, and boy, did The Chainsmokers deliver. The energy was immaculate.

The electronic duo, Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall, wasted no time getting the crowd hyped. They started with dancehall classic Fuzzy Jones “Dust A Sound Boy” to match the oceanic scene before blending into Basement’s “Where’s Your Head At” to keep the intensity high. Their setlist featured Disco Lines’ “No Broke Boys,” Kelis’ “Milkshake,” and the mashup of Mac Miller and Empire of the Sun’s “The Spins”. The Chainsmokers’ entire set had everyone dancing. They had to flex by playing their new collaboration track with John Summit, “ALL THE TIME,” before playing “Paris“.

Saturday started with easy-going vibes. At this point, seeing Sugar Ray at BeachLife feels like a tradition. It’s not a bad thing because fans always love seeing them live to witness them perform “Someday,” “Fly,” and “Every Morning”. Poolside continued the good times by playing a cover of Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”. Poolside kept things groovy with “Around The Sun” and being on the High Tide stage played “High Season”.

There was a huge ovation when punk icon Joan Jett and The Blackhearts arrived. Rocking all black with a leather jacket and shades to match, Jett took control of the crowd with her stage presence. Fans of all genres can appreciate Joan Jett and The Blackhearts as they played songs off the revolutionary album I Love Rock ’N’ Roll, including the album’s title track. Jetts songs have been sung in karaoke bars for decades, encouraging the audience to sing along with “Cherry Bomb” and “Do You Wanna Touch Me,” before finishing her set with “Bad Reputation.”

The Offspring had the honour of closing out day two. The California natives felt the love from the locals cheering them on. They wasted little time with an introduction as they started off with “Self Esteem”. An inflatable skeleton and psychedelic sugar skulls displayed on the LED screen matched The Offspring’s cover for their album Smash. The Offspring got a little mosh pit going for “Bad Habit” and “All I Want”. The band celebrated their set with “Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)” for which they brought out the actor from the music video, Guy Cohen, who still looks, they say, as when the video debuted on MTV.

The best was definitely saved for last, as many fans flocked to BeachLife to see Sheryl Crow. The area was absolutely packed, making it hard to squeeze through the fans that camped out. There’s something simple in her tunes that audiences of all ages could appreciate. Her fun-loving, laid-back tunes can be somewhat cheesy, but there’s nothing wrong with it. With her signature guitar strapped over her shoulder and amazing harmonica skills, Crow performed fan favourites like “If It Makes You Happy” and “All I Wanna Do” before ending with “Soak Up the Sun,” putting a cap on the perfect weekend. 

BeachLife continues to bring out the best acts to Redondo Beach. However, this year was extremely crowded compared to past years. While there were some pop-up shops to check out, it was difficult to navigate through the swarm of people pushing in opposite directions. Still, BeachLife hits the main essentials that make us want to come back: scenic atmosphere and, of course, the best music in the last few decades.

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As teenagers in flower crowns (yes, that’s still happening) and neon tanks flooded the streets of Toronto, unloading trains and buses, the Flats of Ontario Place began to fill with energised crowds.

In its third year, this was the biggest festival in Toronto yet, an estimated 80,000 people came out, or at least tried to, some of them didn’t get past the security due to…being tired let’s just say, early on in the day. Electronic Nation, in collaboration with Uniq, Capture and a few other partners, made the festival bigger and brighter than ever before. The main addition was the fourth stage, Fantasy Land, located in the back of the island on the bank of Lake Ontario, occasionally gracing the audience with a sailboat or a pirate ship.

While small groups of people wandered the flats eating raw bell peppers, sleeping under trees, or chilling out in Muskoka chairs, crowds were gathering in front of stages in scattered dance circles. Fantasy Land proved to be just the right place for trance on a bright Saturday afternoon. With Saad Ayub and Alex M.O.R.P.H. people went into deep euphoria while the bigger beach was graced by Sébastien Léger, forming mosh pits on the sand.

The highlights of day one were mid-day/early-evening performances at the House of Boom: Hydee, Thugli, Keys N Krates and Crystal Method delivering serious hard-hitting trap and drum ‘n’ bass beats. Keys N Krates, known for their versatility, dropped a solid variety shredding tracks you may have already known off by heart to bits, while Crystal Method came here to show he’s not going anywhere, nor do his narrow retro shades.

On the second day of the festival, the vibe around the flats was a little more relaxed and a little less busy at first. People slowly trailed in for the first few hours just hoping to get some food, struggle with a warm $10.00 beer, and sway to some music until they got their energy back from the day before. The skies were clear, the sun was out, there was no shortage of bacon-wrapped hot dogs or deep-fried Mac ‘n’ Cheese, and the music was quickly taking over.

In the true festive fashion, Canadian DJ Jelo lit up the Dream Stage early on in the day. Known for his intense performances, Jelo came out in full force with some hard-hitting progressive techno and rock-and-roll-inspired mixes. A little heavy for some in the middle of the day, but his true fans and lovers of all things music kept the energy up, crowd-surfing deflating dolphins and lifting girlfriends in bikini tops closer to the sun.

The Chainsmokers hit the stage right after. This being their first year at the festival was eased by every self-obsessed teen’s favourite single, “Selfie” released earlier in 2013. The crowd was pleased and properly warmed up for Fedde Le Grand. While confusion began to spread across the crowd about set times and locations of things, Fedde started almost on time, causing crowds of sweating people to flock to the main stage across a shaking, floating bridge. Fedde brought a solid set playing a mix between his old and new hits like “Twisted,” but leaving out his infamous “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit,” and his new track “Love Never Felt So Good.”

For day two to everyone’s confusion, the new stage got renamed to No. 19 Social Experiment. This sunny and windy side of the Flats was where the festival came alive (and got wet). When long-time DJ Green Velvet (real name Curtis Alan Jones) hit the stage, the areas quickly became the busiest it had been all weekend. With a perfect view of lake, and a choice between dancing your heart out or chilling out on a hill with your posse, this was definitely the best part of the day. Green Velvet killed it as always even when Mother Nature decided to spring a rainstorm on everyone in the middle of his set, Jones kept on spinning. Most of the crowd ran for shelter, but his true fans could not be bothered by a little bit of water (ok, a lot). A few tiny technical glitches, a few thousand damp festival-goers, and about half an hour later, the skies cleared, and everyone was ready to take on the night to the last few notes of “La La Land.”

At this point, most of the festivalgoers made their way to the main stage to reserve a decent spot for Tiësto. Eric Prydz got the crowd alive and warmed up after the storm and before you knew it, Tiësto was taking the stage. “How are you doing Toronto!” came Verwest’s excited Dutch accent spilling through the speakers.

Hosting Tiësto is a pretty big deal since he doesn’t tour much, so Toronto welcomed him back with open arms, fireworks (really, really sad fireworks), and a lot of fist pumping. Being an older DJ playing for a (mostly) younger crowd can be tricky, so it wasn’t too surprising that Tiësto played most of his recent club hits, but it was somewhat of a shocker that his set was nearly identical to the one he played last year on the same stage.

Looking up at the fireworks trying to make their way into the sky with no real climax, lighting up the city skyline, surrounded by thousands of people coming together for the love of music (drugs, drinks, and dancing), it was a good weekend to be Canadian and a great way to kick off the summer.

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