This past weekend, I attended Electric Adventure in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I was extremely excited for this event. Mickayla from the Wisconsin EDM Family was to join me providing amazing photos and we were going to enjoy a two day beach festival in my hometown. Unfortunately, that excitement disappeared very quickly. It re-emerged a few times, but I hate to say it that the cons outweighed the pros. The consensus of this festival was that the music was good, but I wasn’t attached to the festival compared to others. No one could put their finger on it, but many people had different griefs.
If you followed my guides, you would have no problem before or after the festival. We pulled up around 2pm as I had to wait for the Wisconsin EDM Family to arrive. They got stuck in Schuylkill traffic so I didn’t necessarily blame them and tried to provide them shortcuts and such. With shore traffic, there really is none besides come early and leave late. We got there and it became apparent after talking to like 5 security guards that we had to split up our group. VIP and General Admission is in one area while artists and press were another. Ok. That’s standard. I just wish the security guards could have known that so we weren’t wandering around. This became a huge pattern through the rest of the festival. We got to check in where they were being bombarded to get in, but no one was going in unless you were a big enough name that the person running it recognized you. Apparently, their computer died and they didn’t have a list. It needed to be printed. It took almost an hour for someone to bring a different computer because the printer didn’t work. Meanwhile, you have many people complaining including us. I went on a small Twitter rant because how are we supposed to cover the event from outside. Not to mention our friends that split up from us were struggling to get their VIP tickets that they won through the Radiate app (official app of Electric Adventure) because they also won another contest that was just General Admission.
We eventually got in and we were bummed that we missed a number of artists we wanted to see. Due to delays, all those artists we thought we missed, were performing when we got there. This included Mike Stud, Figure, and UZ. All whom brought their A Game. Mike Stud even brought local boys, OCD: Moosh and Twist for a song. I am a quite the fan of them as they are always putting out great tracks. Figure was my first real heavy bass artist that I saw live and it was quite amazing. I was astonished and basked in all the bass. UZ was an artist I was looking forward to and he came out spitting fire.
We walked over to A-Trak because I couldn’t miss him as I have missed him quite a number of times. As we walked across the festival, there were extremely long lines. I was confused at first where they were going and what was going on. Turns out the longest one was for the beer garden. After talking to a few people, I found out that people waited two hours for beer. Other long lines were for the food and drink stands as well as the water station which turned out to be two garden hoses to fill up your camelbacks or water bottles. By the way, studies show that drinking out of garden hoses is very bad for you. The festival should have handled it in a more sanitary way. Our friends immediately had a distaste in their mouth after drinking the water. We threw them out.
Day two was some in the same. They managed to figure out a number of issues from the day before, but overall, it was a mess. Tons of miscommunication and inconsistencies.
Here’s the thing. The music was good. How can I complain about amazing artists? My issue is with the festival. I do not want to write this bad review, but the festival was overall bad. Very bad. This is to say that I’ve had a few people from the festival come up to me and apologize as well as explain the situation. I understand, but am disappointed. Look, I got to see Kygo perform on the beach as well as Dillon Francis. Although, there was a major disconnect to this festival. That was the consensus with everyone. Music good. Festival bad. Lemme try to explain everything that I didn’t like and what they should improve on next year as I hope there is a next year.
Pros.
- The artist lineup was quite on point. A little bit of everything. Some amazing artists. They all did amazing.
- Local. I support local. The show in Atlantic City was surreal.
- Bigger than the years past. I never went to shows in years past due to conflicts, but they really went all out.
Cons.
- Beach festivals are good. In theory. Try walking up and down the beach all day for two days. Your calves will feel like straight fire. Mine were dead for a week. I am so happy I didn’t do leg day. They should do Bader Field next year. Leave more room for them.
- The stages were slacking major. The two main stages were left for something to be desired. Something I heard was you can see their legs. The middle “stages” were more like house parties. Lots of noise pollution in the middle stages from the major stages. They weren’t even stages. Lots of people used these areas for shade because it was hot as can be. This is the downside of having limited room on the beach.
- VIP wasn’t really VIP. There was one VIP area on the main stage and that was it. I don’t know how much extra was it or what else they received, but it seemed like that. They did give water at one point from the backstage, but still. I don’t think it is enough.
- Scaling. I know they went big. They brought a TON of people. I don’t think they scaled well. Beer garden was beyond filled and had huge lines. Food, water, etc had huge lines. Bathrooms. Everything. I don’t think they oversold tickets, but didn’t realize the amount of people for the amenities. More and bigger would have sufficed. There was room or at least there seemed like there was room.
- Expensive food and drink. This may or may not be the festival’s fault themselves, but $5 a water? It was 89 degrees. Free water was from a hose. This is ridiculous.
- This is a more personal thing. There are a lot of restaurants and such in Atlantic City. They should have brought local places to provide food and drink. Tony Baloneys and all those other places would have been super clutch.
- Security kept taking sunscreen. I got sunburnt. I don’t like this at all.
- We received “All access passes.” I am very fortunate for that and thankful. We were told we could access every where, backstage, side stage, on stage, artist area. Except, what I was told and how I was treated wasn’t very “all access.” I was tossed out of backstage multiple times. I was berated for grabbing a single water. I was thrown out of the VIP section. We weren’t allowed in the pit. It really seemed like it was determined by the security guard that was in front of us. I walked out of a section, walked back in and wasn’t allowed. This was very frustrating.
There was a lot of cons that outweighed the pros. No one seemed happy and everyone I talked to agreed. I agree. They really went all out and it turned out crazier than they expected. I know they will have a lot to learn from this year for next year, but they should have had the experience from years prior. As much as I didn’t enjoy myself except for every time I was enamored by the artists, I know I’ll help promote next year and share the event next year. I trust they can do some amazing work. They have a lot to learn, but I am confident Electric Adventure will come back bigger and better next year, giving us a hometown festival to be proud of.
