Skyline Los Angeles was a fun weekend for house and techno lovers who danced through the weekend’s wet and muddy conditions.
Insomniac’s Factory 93 and Day Trip joined forces once again for the second edition of Skyline Los Angeles and another unforgettable weekend. Fans flocked to this year’s more spacious venue at DTLA’s Exposition Park on February 25-26 for a weekend short of nothing but fiery house music, heart-pounding techno, and plenty of dancing into the night. Even with projected wind and rain ahead of the weekend, mother nature could not stop shufflers and techno enthusiasts alike from flocking to the festival.
It was a lively weekend for Insomniac, with Basscon Wasteland returning to the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino and EDC Mexico occurring at the same time down south. While I’ve yet to attend these events, I opted for a festival much closer to home, and I set my sights on two of my favorite genres in the scene. Upon making the trek up to Los Angeles from San Diego, anticipation built ahead of my first Skyline experience.
After a quick Uber from the hotel, my group and I braved the rain and made our way toward the festival entrance. I had read on social media that gates were delayed in opening for around an hour or two, causing stress to those waiting in line; luckily, my group arrived around 5pm and didn’t encounter this issue. We maneuvered our way around puddles and streams of water to find the shortest line of the entrance. Through this process, I noticed there was no VIP lane on the first day of the festival, yet this was resolved by the next day. Lines moved fast, though, and my squad soon made our way into the Exposition Park grounds.
Exposition Park was an improvement to the experience of this year’s edition of Skyline Los Angeles.
I had heard that the debut edition of Skyline Los Angeles in Skylight Row DTLA was plagued by large crowds, choke points, and general difficulties in moving freely throughout the venue. Luckily, the change in venue to Exposition Park provided plenty of space to dance, enjoy the event, and swiftly maneuver through it.
The VIP areas at both the West and East stages were also vast and open; I appreciated the selections of food, drinks, photo opportunities, upgraded restrooms, concierge service, and, of course, the espresso martini bar. Outside of VIP, there were also plenty of food trucks to choose from and bars to grab a drink at. I did find the bar lines in both VIP areas to be long most of the time, so there definitely could have been a few more locations at each stage to alleviate this problem.
Unfortunately, the West Side stage was closed until 7pm on the first day, and after entering that area, I soon saw why. The grounds were extremely muddy and slippery; despite the weather, Insomniac kept ravers’ safety in mind by delaying the stage’s opening. They did try their best to provide the best experience possible to attendees through the weekend’s conditions, including offering free ponchos at the festival’s information booth and placing even more pathways over the mud by the second day.
Artists brought their all to Skyline this year, and attendees vibed along to the hypnotizing sounds of house and techno.
Eli & Fur opened up the West stage on Saturday after the delay, enchanting everyone with their melodic tunes and playing their hearts out for artists like Rechulski and Ben Hemsley, whose sets were unfortunately cut due to the delay in opening the stage. The show continued on, though, and fans enjoyed ethereal songs like “Pegasus,” Eli & Fur’s recent collaboration with MEDUZA. Skream and Dennis Ferrer were up next, back to back on the decks for a real house-fueled treat; this was my first time seeing both artists, and their performance really got me in a groove as I warmed up my shuffling feet on the dancefloor.
MEDUZA hyped the crowd up even further as the rain came down again, giving everyone an extra boost of energy, with tracks like Felix Jaehn’s remix of their “Bad Memories” and a load of unreleased IDs bumping through the speakers. The real surprise of the night came for me when Dom Dolla took the stage. It had been a while since I’d caught this house maestro at a show, and it was insane to see the success he was rapidly achieving in the scene. His set landed at the top spot for my favorite experience of the first day of Skyline, and I anxiously awaited to return the following day.
The second day brought loads of techno to the East stage, with heavy hitters like Sara Landry, Ellen Allien, and Charlotte de Witte dominating the decks.
Skyline’s stages were definitely a split between house and techno on day two, with West Side catering to house and East Side bumping techno. I started my day off with the melodic techno sounds of SOHMI, who warmed up the crowd for what was to come. After a quick trip to the West stage to catch rising UK house producer Joshwa, I made my way back to the sounds of techno on the East stage to see what would be my favorite sets of the night.
Sara Landry and Ellen Allien’s back-to-back performance was the highlight of the second day.
These two were clearly having so much fun onstage and played off each other’s energy. The crowd definitely caught on, and it made for an even more exciting set as singles like Alt8’s “NineNineFive” blasted through the sea of techno lovers. I opted to sit down for a bit after this and grab a bite of pizza from the food truck in VIP, which was pretty decent.
Once I got my second wind, I rejoined the crowd for my other favorite set of the night — Charlotte de Witte. She truly brings the heat wherever she goes, and fans bounced along in the rain to her pounding techno beats as the festival came to a close. I left with her and fiancé Enrico Sangiuliano’s remix of “The Age Of Love” still ringing in my ears and my heart full from a remarkable weekend. Skyline surely brought the heat to downtown Los Angeles, and I look forward to seeing how this event progresses in the future.
