Magical moments at Movement!

Movement Festival, previously known as DEMF, was held in Hart Plaza, on Memorial Day weekend in downtown Detroit. I’ve been to over 30 festivals and I have to say there is nothing like this one! The only other “multi-day city festival” I’ve gone to was EDC Vegas in 2012 and the traffic to the festival grounds was atrocious taking 4 hours to do a 30-minute drive… Being a 7 minute walk to your Hotel where clean sheets, a refrigerator, and shower await just to continue and do it all over again was incredible.

Weekend headliners included Charlotte de Witte, Nina Kraviz, John Digweed, Ellen Allien, Loco Dice, Martinez Brothers, Maceo Plex, Kink, Modeselektor, Fisher, Justin Martin, and so many moree! An excellent Techno lineup, with a range from dark Berlin industrial, acid house, deep prog, tech house, funk house, and even the DirtyBird fam showcasing their kooky sound, made the music at Movement the best I’ve heard at any festival (a BIG statement).

Although this was the hottest year at Movement since 2012, with heat reaching 34C in the day, the Paxahau team did a great job with production, offering free popup parties in the shaded VIP area, where I got to see Ardalan play a nice upbeat day set. Red Bull had stations and there were even festival employees giving away free water at the festival exit at midnight. Also, 3$ water bottles at the festival in the States is a fantastic price.

Ok, now to the musssiiccccc!

On the first day of the Festival, we attended the SLUR boat party, where I was wowed by Detroit’s own Dj Holographic’s set. Her roots shine through her sound and energy when she plays. With inspirations from jazz, disco, and amazing house music, she absolutely stole the show for me.

After the techno boat cruise, we headed to the festival to watch our first set of the festival – Lee Burridge. Seeing him play his ADID sounds with dreamy bits and deep bass had us wanting more. Being my first year, I didn’t know the pyramid stage was changed, having the DJ in front of the river instead of the evil looking GM towers. Once I found this out, all I could think about was WHY?! The only negative point I raise about this weekend was the way the pyramid stage was tainted with the techno bleeding through from other stages. Lee Burridge really has hypnotic melodies that are soft and need utter focus when listening to him and unfortunately, even next to the speaker all I could hear was the other stages.

The other highlight from this night was Maceo Plex. He experimented with some psychedelic sounds and unquestionably gave the crowd what they came for. We traveled with him through time and space and everyone left similing from ear to ear The first day of Movement ended with a big bass bang!

Stay tuned for my DAY TWO experience at Movement.

Might I add that it was worth every sweat drop.

Article by Hellan

Photos by Lola Baraldi