Beachglow Music Festival 2016 was definitely one for the books. It has been a music festival that I’ve wanted to attend for two years now! With it back in Wildwood, I was excited and full of glee. The lineup had me pumped and continuous information about the event really made me happy. The atmosphere was great, the people were nice, and the acts absolutely blew me away. I can not have had a better time at the festival. When it was all said-and-done, I could definitely attest Beachglow Music Festival to be one of the best events I have ever attended. Now this may come as a shocker, as we’ve covered some of the biggest and best festivals around the world. Although, there was a different atmosphere that Beachglow provided which was under an obscene amount of scrutiny going into the festival.
You see, Beachglow and Wildwood has had a rough history. The local businesses gave them grief which followed by the city. The issues that have arrived from 2014’s festival as well as other festivals outside of Beachglow were that there was foul language as well as drug and alcohol abuse. That’s understandable. Wildwood, New Jersey is a vacation destination for families. Not my favorite shore town, but an undeniable good time. By the end, even the Mayor was welcoming the festival back. That said, let’s breakdown the festival with what I liked, what I disliked, and my criticisms.
I am not a local of Wildwood, I wasn’t sure where to go or where to park. I had read about the festival and had a rough idea. Thankfully, the location of the festival was right next to the convention center where the main road travels in and out of Wildwood. That was extremely convenient. I didn’t really want to figure out the parking situation, so I just went with the event parking right in front. It was $10 the first day and $15 the second. Not bad. That’s about standard in other shore towns without any events going on. Plus, convenience was worth the $25. I had arrived and waited for Brock of Oklahoma as he was on his way despite getting there before me. We walked in together and staff was extremely understanding of my situation.
Brock was always intended on attending the event, but I was supposed to have another writer with me. No worries for them; they hooked myself up with a pass and Brock as well. That worked out the next day as we used his ticket for my girlfriend as she attended day 2 with me. Now one thing that I noticed immediately when I walked on the boardwalk and into the venue was the amount of security. This event wasn’t huge. It was perhaps one of the smallest, if not the smallest festival I have attended. It was extremely intimate and I loved it. The amount of security I saw was outstanding. Getting into the event was a breeze despite the high numbers. Our friends’ tickets had an issue scanning, but they handled the situation well.
Fun side story. I went in with Brock of Oklahoma EDM Family and his friends. Oklahoma is not near New Jersey. They travelled quite a far distance. We found out at the end of Day 2 that they were the farthest attendees. It was the sweetest thing when a lot of the higher up staff recognized that fact and thanked them for attending. They even hugged us. I found this to be so humbling and they did this. I got included in all the nice warm feelings despite living only 45 minutes away. Anyway, what made it funny was all the security guards were looking out for fake IDs and I commend them for being strict. Although, the flipside of that was Brock and company were heavily scrutinized on their ID’s. Wasn’t an issue at all except when walking into the beer garden, a group of kids in front of us tried using their fakes.
Security was great regardless. Well, except the one time where I was given a stern warning about not drinking while on the job as I entered the beer garden. You see, the layout of the festival was real interesting. The stage area was split into two. On the right side was the general admission area. Anyone could go there. Everyone over there was going wild. In the middle was the production chute which doubled for the “under 21 buffer.” On the left side was the beer garden. The left side was also the easiest way to go from the front to backstage. That means I entered and left the beer garden way too many times. I guess that one security member thought I was getting hammered. Unbeknownst to her, I had two drinks the whole festival. One with Elephante and one with Brock. Oh well. She was doing her job. 
The music at this festival was top notch. The quality of the sound was so good no matter where you were located at the event. This year’s festival proclaimed that they were going with multiple genres. Although, there really wasn’t much varied genres. I guess you could say subgenres of Electronic Dance Music. Nico & Vinz performed which wasn’t electronic dance music. The artists on day one absolutely killed it. I fell in love with Elephante’s set as well as Jay Cosmic’s. Elephante played some new stuff as well as some of his classics. Jay Cosmic performed a set that was absolutely worthy of what you would get (from him) at Tomorrowland. I never got a chance to see Robert Delong live before and that was a pure treat visually and auditory. Dane did a fantastic job. I have said this in the past about Beachglow. I don’t know how Dane does it. Seeing him around the festival making sure everything was perfect was exhausting. Seeing him DJ as well really blows my mind. CAWS was the winner of the DJ competition and let me tell you, I am now a fan!
Day two really took the cake for me. I got to see the boys from Synchronice and Two Friends finally perform. They performed great sets that really made me want more. I even tried to get 1/2 of Synchronice to give me a USB drive full of tracks. Didn’t work out. Fareoh really took the cake for my girlfriend. His set really struck a chord with her emotionally and she was vibing. Now, I was excited for all the artists, but Gazzo was one artist that was a must for me. I’ve been following Gazzo for sometime and I’ve been trying to see him live. Unfortunately, timing and such was hard. Seeing him perform at Beachglow was incredible and was the star of the lineup. While artists have been going live for sometime, Gazzo did something different. He was killing on the decks and at the end of the set, he whipped out this big surprise. Sugarwhisky had performed live on their track, Daylight with Gazzo. Then, they took it one step further when Gazzo let the track play out and he hopped on the guitar and they were all jamming out for a short time. In my interview with Gazzo that will come out later, I talked with Gazzo about this and he explained how they’re all friends and he wants to do live shows only and compliment them with a DJ set after party type set. Gazzo stole my heart with those words.
Nico & Vinz was an artist I wasn’t too familiar with, but they did a great job. Finally, Slander and Audien came on and the party was taken to the next level with their music. Slander’s bass rocked the green rooms as well as my soul. It was my first time seeing them live and they did not disappoint what-so-ever. I can see the appeal of breaking your neck, but I still find that to be a bit silly. I’ve loved Audien and seeing him play some of the tracks that I have on repeat just ended my night and festival experience perfectly. I couldn’t ask more. As for the lineup as a whole, I am glad that Beachglow brought back the majority of last year’s performers as I was robbed due to weather.
Speaking of weather, I know that wasn’t necessarily a factor of moving back to Wildwood, but I am so glad that they did. When I got home from day 1, I noticed that Atlantic City had flooded. It apparently downpoured miserably and would have ruined the event had they stayed at Atlantic City. So glad that didn’t happen! The weather was solid the whole weekend up until midway through Slander’s set where I saw lightning and a bit of rain. Not a big deal in my opinion.
The prices at the festival were really reasonable. Water was only $3 whereas soda was $4, Redbull was $5, and a beer was $8. That’s about standard anywhere so I couldn’t have any complaints about it. The food and vendors were solid. I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t see any local food trucks show up. I would have loved to see the Mustache mobile in Wildwood, but the food was good either way. I wasn’t thrilled with the choices, but I found a hot dog to be a great choice. I wish I got pizza, but I have had a pizza cone at another festival and didn’t enjoy it too much. No worries. The volleyball and cornhole was awesome. It made the festival feel like a get-together with like minded friends and acquaintances. There weren’t as many vendors in comparison to what I recall from the year prior. This isn’t a big deal as I don’t really buy anything except an official shirt.
The prices for everything else were extremely reasonable. No price gouging here! My weekend was relatively cheap and I made the most of everything. The staff was plenty. They were all volunteers. I talked to many of them as if I had known them for years They were so nice. They were extremely hospitable. Press got a press bag which included an actual drawstring bag, some information, sunglasses, and a waterproof bag for my phone. I never had this before. This came in hand for both days. Thank you Beachglow for that!
My only true gripe about the whole festival was the lack of water fill ups. I acknowledge the security reason of dumping out a camelback. I am in agreeance. Although, there was no where to fill it up. You had to purchase a $3 water bottle. Sure, it was cheap to buy one but you could have bought at least 10 throughout the day and that could get frustrating. It seems like the norm to have water fill ups especially with how hot it was on the beach. Normally, I complain about lack of signs. Although, due to the fact that this festival was very small, the lack of signage wasn’t an issue.
My girlfriend had one gripe regarding the festival that really surprised me because I didn’t necessarily notice it until she pointed it out. The MC between sets was a bit obnoxious (I don’t mean it in a mean way per-say). The constant yelling in the microphone was a bit aggressive as he could have achieved the same notion without yelling on the top of his lungs, but rather just raise his voice. When the crowd was chanting USA, he would chant Beachglow. It didn’t seem to really connect with the crowd as much as possible. It was like the idea was there, but it missed it’s mark. Also, there were moments when nothing would play and maybe an advertisement from T-Mobile will show. They were a big sponsor so that’s reasonable, but there could have been a opening DJ per-say to play between sets so the vibes could continue. Nothing major. Like I said, I didn’t recognize as I used this time to do interviews or grab some food.
One thing that I had noticed that wasn’t necessarily an issue, but rather something I found peculiar was how the beer garden worked. I understand the ton of security. I understand the reasons behind this for the most part. To buy a beer, you needed to show your ID to one member of security. From there, you walk up to a table where they ID you again, but this time get a wristband stating your 21+. After that, you follow the gates to get into the beer garden where you’ll be ID’ed for a third time. Finally, when you go to purchase a beer, you’re ID’ed for a fourth time. I understand redundancy, but it seemed a bit overdone. I didn’t see the point of the wristband after all of that. It seems like it should have been one or another. Although, I respect what they did especially to honor Wildwood’s complaints.
Besides that, I was upset that the festival wasn’t really long on day one. It isn’t necessarily a gripe, but I enjoyed myself so much that I wanted it to be longer. One personal issue I had was the name tag. Last year, I received a press pass that I wore around my neck. This year, it was a sticker. The issue was that I lost both of them because I was sweating through my clothes so much that it just lost its stickiness. Also, my wristband kept falling off because it managed to get unattached from my dancing. I chalk that up to my big wrist and sweaty body.
Overall, I absolutely loved Beachglow. It felt like I belonged. I really felt at home and everyone made it feel that way. I loved catching up with the artists. The staff really were the best people. The music played just fit together so well. I had such a good time and really can’t get worked up that I missed this for the past two years. As stated, the intimate nature and the hospitality truly made this one of the best festivals I have attended. With there being so many festivals out there, this was very refreshing. There is a lot to take out of this and the major one is that this is all for charity. All of this was to raise money for Little Kids Rock. Everyone that worked at the festival were volunteers. They weren’t making anything. I really hope that they have more than proved to the city, Mayor, City Commission, local businesses, and especially those at Morey’s Pier that they can throw a safe event that appeals to everyone is just as amazing in their eyes as our eyes. Bravo, Beachglow! I loved the event. You outdid yourself. Congrats to Dane and the Kunkel family for this event!
