Sunday, I attended what was easily the most remarkable memorial I have ever experienced. I was almost unwilling to attend because I personally do not handle events like these well; however, the second I entered the beautiful Hollywood Forever Cemetery and was asked “Will you be drinking today” I knew this was not a traditional memorial.
Arriving an hour into the memorial, I walked through the cemetery and could hear music as I approached the location where the memorial was being held. Immediately I turned the corner and was awestruck by the production. There was the normal “Ice Cold Beer” tents Insomniac has around their festivals, as well as The Lobos and Kogi food trucks. I turned to the field of grass where the memorial was being held and noticed I had arrived while they were viewing Mama Irene’s last message. That alone was a very powerful part of the memorial. It brought a huge smile to my face to see a woman so involved in the culture reflect on her personal life and explain the love she has for not only her family, but us, the Insomniac headliners. After the message they played a video clip made up of pictures of Mama Irene taken from fans of her around Insomniac events, which were accompanied by very relaxed instrumentals of Bob Marley songs. To my astonishment, a group of Insomniac’s performers came out to uplift the crowd as the burial of Mama Irene went onto the screen. I began to wander around a bit, and by that I mean go grab myself some Wachos from the Lobos Truck.
While I was waiting for my Wachos, I heard someone go up and thank everyone for coming to celebrate Mama Irene’s life. They then announced that Kaskade would be playing. That’s right, Kaskade played at Mama Irene’s memorial. If that was not special enough, Kaskade played an absolutely amazing Redux set. Following Kaskade was DJ Chuckie. What really amazed me about his set was that he played all deep house. It caught me quite off guard because of how well his set was in a deep house setting.
As I started to walk around and take photographs of the scenery and production during these sets, I noticed how the whole event was laid out. There were many little characteristics taken from previous Insomniac festivals; such as the Mushrooms at Beyond Wonderland, the colorful bulbs that light up the NOS event center, and Insomniac’s notorious face melting light production. You looked around and felt as if you were in a wonderland, perhaps a wonderland in which Mama Irene would have visualized as her own. In the midst of this beautiful production I could see family members, friends, and fans with the biggest smiles on their faces, dancing to the deep house sounds Kaskade and DJ Chuckie provided us. This mini wonderland was produced all for one purpose, to reflect on what Mama Irene loved the most. I almost cried because of how beautiful the experience was, tears completely opposite of those I thought I would have. To see the amount of people that came out to celebrate the life of the loving Mama Irene, some of them, like me, complete strangers, showed me how much Insomniac and Pasquale alone have created a family of dance music lovers. It was definitely beyond any traditional memorial I have attended. My favorite moment of the night was looking into the crowd and seeing older couples with the biggest smiles on their faces, jammin’ to deep house, and the little boy I saw giving a lightshow to what looked to be his little sister.
The whole memorial was absolutely perfect in celebrating Mama Irene’s life. Without a doubt I did not expect the service unfold as it did. I believe Mama Irene was looking down on it all with such compassion for what her son and the Insomniac team had done to celebrate her life. I can only hope my memorial is as amazing and beautiful as Mama Irene’s was. One of the best experiences of my life, including the many festivals I have attended. I am very happy I chose to step up and attend this incredible memorial.
