In the face of unfortunate weather circumstances, Project GLOW lived up to its promise that 2025 would be its biggest and best year yet.
Insomniac and Club Glow‘s Project GLOW returned to Washington, DC for its fourth year in a row, once again transforming RFK Festival Grounds into a weekend-long dance party. As one of the few major city festivals on the east coast, it has cemented itself as a go-to gathering for ravers looking to kick off the summer festival season on a high note.
While it previously took place in the last weekend of April, this year saw organizers push the festival back to May 31 and June 1 in hopes of better weather. But despite the date changes, Project GLOW is seemingly unable to shake its curse of having one of its days plagued with heavy rain. The gates opened on day one with dark thunderclouds overhead and torrential downpour flooding parts of the VIP areas and transforming the grassy paths to the bathrooms into mud pits.
Still, no amount of rain can dampen the parade that is GLOW. Once the grew more manageable, my group and I slipped on our hydropacks and pashminas and headed for the metro.
Anticipation grew as more ravers donning festival attire hopped onto our metro car with each stop. By the time we pulled into Stadium-Armory Metro Station shortly after 3pm, the storm had subsided into a light drizzle.
The storm clouds cleared as we entered the festival, and the atmosphere was set for a great day of music.
After a long walk from the metro accompanied by heavy bass thumping in the distance, my group was greeted by a welcome absence of lines at the entrance. Getting through security was a breeze. We traversed the festival grounds and made our way over to the Eternal Stage for our first set of the day by MC4D, one of my most highly anticipated performances of the weekend.
As someone who listens to indie and folk music just as much as EDM, I was particularly excited to hear MC4D’s unique “folktronica” sound. Their set was exactly what I hoped it would be. It perfectly fused singalong anthems with fun house drops that had the crowd jumping and swaying with their arms in the air.
Towards the end of their set, the first rays of sunlight started to peek through the disappearing clouds. We were blessed with perfect weather for the rest of the day.
After receiving widespread criticism for how last year’s layout contributed to major sound bleed between stages, Project GLOW reverted back to its 2023 setup. This time, the Pulse and Eternal stages were across from each other rather than side by side. This was a major improvement as I didn’t notice any sound bleed on day one.
But while the sound quality was clean and crisp at both stages, festival-goers were faced with a different sound issue this year: quietness. As someone who generally prefers hanging out in the back because I find concerts to be too loud, I was struck by how easy it was to hear the conversations of those around me over the music. We had attributed the quietness to it being early in the day, but the stages had barely gotten any louder by the time the headliners came on.
In addition to the improved layout, Project GLOW followed through on its promises for better infrastructure.
After MC4D’s set wrapped, we set off to explore the rest of the festival. There were noticeable improvements to the festival grounds this year, with significantly more shaded areas and places to sit than in previous editions. The shaded astroturf section in the front-right of Eternal Stage offered a comfortable place to listen to the music while taking a break. Meanwhile, there were several picnic tables placed conveniently between the vendor village and food stalls for people to enjoy their meals without having to sit on the ground.
Overall, the festival felt a lot more intentionally executed this year. There were art installations that doubled as shaded seating nooks, with thoughtfully placed bathrooms, water stations, and food and drink vendors only a short walk to these essential fixtures from anywhere in the festival.
While GLOW’s organizers listened to previous criticism and enhanced the festival’s infrastructure to create a more enjoyable experience for headliners, the rain brought some unexpected challenges and less-than-desirable conditions.
The bathroom areas turned into a swamp, making trips to the restroom a mission that inevitably ended with my shoes getting soiled by the end of the night. The VIP section at Eternal Stage also took a hit, and there was a noticeable gap between the barricade and where most of the crowd stood because of flooding from the rain.
The palpable energy of the crowd and countless genuine PLUR interactions helped create the positive and welcoming atmosphere that set the tone for day one.
A concern among ravers since time immemorial is the influx of newer attendees who don’t practice PLUR and disrupt the culture that makes the scene so special. It’s an especially prevalent issue at city festivals like Project GLOW, where the convenient location and more mainstream lineup attracts a wide range of people who aren’t familiar with or invested in rave etiquette.
While this was a concern of mine entering the festival, I was quickly proven by my fellow headliners that PLUR is still more alive than ever.
As I was exploring the vendor village and art installations, I had several strangers approach me to compliment my capybara keychain. In just a few short hours, I had traded all my capybara stickers for various other trinkets like animal figurines and stickers. That same energy followed me into the crowd, where I spent the rest of the night catching sets from ALLEYCVT b2b LEVEL UP, Crankdat, Loud Luxury, and SLANDER b2b NGHTMRE.
The debut back-to-back set between female powerhouses ALLEYCVT and LEVEL UP was an iconic moment for dubstep, and the crowd rose to the occasion. The audience was buzzing with energy as everyone headbanged together. My enjoyment was enhanced by the friendliness of the those around me. Several ravers who asked to trade kandi or freely stuck “ur hot” stickers on my face.
Around 8:20, I left the Pulse Stage early to find a spot in the crowd for Loud Luxury. They’re one of my favorite acts, and I had gone into the weekend especially excited for their set. But I ended up missing half of it because I was locked in conversation about drum and bass of all topics with a girl I had befriended in the crowd. The connection I made with a fellow raver more than made up for it. That interaction reminded me that one of the beauties of raving comes from going with the flow and embracing the unexpected.
Once Loud Luxury ended, I reunited with my group at Pulse Stage for SLANDER b2b NGHTMRE. After a day of sidequesting, there is nothing like the feeling of reuniting with all your friends at the end of a night for a set you’ve all been excited for since the lineup first dropped.
SLANDER’s 2022 Project GLOW set was my first introduction to raving, so seeing them close out Pulse Stage three years later was such a full-circle moment for me. It was made even more special getting to experience it with all my friends and boyfriend, all of whom I had met through EDM.
Alternating between breaking our necks to some heavy dubstep and singing our hearts out to SLANDER classics like “Back to You” and “Love is Gone” was pure bliss. The series of fireworks during the last drop was truly the perfect way to finish day one.
While Levity and Wooli were absolutely incredible on day two, several negative crowd interactions hampered my ability to fully immerse myself in the music.
After a wildly successful first day of GLOW, I was excited to see what day two had to offer. Since Levity was the first artist we wanted to see and they weren’t on until 5:30, we arrived at a later time than the day before. Even though we showed up during peak hours, we encountered little lines getting in, making for a quick and easy entry once again.
With zero lines at the water stations, we quickly filled up our hydropacks and headed over to Eternal Stage during the tail end of Twinsick. Although we didn’t venture too deep into the crowd for Levity, it filled up quickly and we were soon packed in. While Levity was throwing down an absolutely incredible set, the vibes were completely off because no one around us was dancing and trains of ravers were continuously pushing past us without so much as saying “excuse me.” The most jarring moment came when a white man casually drop the N-word with a hard R while passing by, something not even remotely tolerated in this scene.
Growing tired of the suffocating energy of the crowd, my group moved to the very back to make space for ourselves to head bang during Wooli‘s set. Though the stages were louder than they were the previous day, I immediately noticed the music from Secret Garden spilling into our spot in the crowd. The sound bleed drowned out once Wooli’s drops pierced through the air, although it would reappear during softer moments of his set.
With heavy-hitting dubstep beckoning us to headbang, my group set our bags down in a compact pile and huddled around our belongings in a tight circle. Despite there being plenty of room around us and our group taking up very little space, there were several occasions of people barging through our circle and stepping on our belongings without apologizing. While I’ve noticed that discussions about newer ravers pushing through crowds unapologetically have become more prevalent in my circles in recent months, this is the first time I witnessed for myself just how much of a problem it can be.
Although my second day of Project GLOW was off to a rocky start, as the sun set and night took hold, Subtronics and Tiësto became the highlight of my weekend and ended the festival on a high note.
Absolutely exhausted from day one and disillusioned by one negative crowd experience after the other earlier in the day, I was ready to take a seat and soak up the music from the comfort of the ground. But as Subtronics graced the Eternal Stage, it was as if his first drop breathed life back into both myself and the crowd.
That was when the true party started. I looked up and everyone around me was headbanging and dancing harder than I had seen all weekend. Thousands of voices screamed the lyrics to his hits like “Gassed Up,” “Amnesia,” and his remix of Chase & Status‘ 2024 anthem “Backbone” in unison.
Although I loved every second of his set, I split off halfway through to go catch the end of Tiësto, excited to hear some of my favorite hits of his. While he didn’t play any of these songs while I was there, his set was absolutely incredible in the most surprising way ever.
Tiësto masterfully and seamlessly blended house, dubstep, trance, bass house, and many other subgenres together, invigorating a dance floor that unexpectedly had the most energy out of any crowd that whole weekend. There was so much room to dance, and I danced the hardest when he wove the lyrics of “Hollaback Girl” through a pulsating hard techno drop, the true highlight of his set for me.
Despite the festival’s growing pains and the tribulations of day two, Project GLOW delivered a high-quality and unforgettable festival experience in its fourth year that reminded me what raving is all about.
Even with how the aftermath of Saturday’s weather and a crowd made it hard to feel connected at times on Sunday, this year stands out as my favorite edition yet. Project GLOW will always have a special place in my heart as it was my first rave, my introduction to EDM, and the reason why I fell in love with the scene in the first place.
While there are bad apples at any event, the core of the scene is still PLUR. This year of GLOW reminded me that raving is truly about: music, dancing, community, and positivity in the face of negative circumstances.
Of course, Project GLOW is not perfect. It is a smaller festival, and hiccups are bound to happen. But it’s still one of the most accessible and reliable options for dance music fans looking to kick off their summer, and I plan to keep attending for years to come.
Most of the issues I encountered this weekend were — for the most part — beyond GLOW’s control. But if GLOW keeps building on what it does well and continues to listen to its community, then it will only keep getting better.
