ARC Music Festival delivered some of the best music in its five-year tenure, but saw Auris Presents face a few hurdles and target fans with greater purchasing power.
ARC Music Festival and the team at Auris Presents came back home to Chicago over Labor Day Weekend. The three-day festival, pre-parties, and after-parties remain a “standing appointment” for many dance music fans. This year, the festival celebrated its fifth year with another killer lineup, bigger production, and expanded VIP packages.
This was my third consecutive year attending one of the most popular house and techno festivals in the United States. Admirably, the music, production, and overall experience have noticeably progressed year after year. In some ways, this year was no different. Performances were tight, polished, and energized. The main stage received a major re-vamp. Crowds at each stage were respectful, courteous, and having a great time.
I rarely attend a festival with specific expectations, outside of improving or attempting to improve upon previous issues. However, ARC’s milestone installment was an obvious departure from its previously music-centered iterations. As dance music culture steadily evolves alongside modern festival trends—like the compulsion of social media sharing, video documentation, and the growing influence of curated VIP experiences—this shift wasn’t inherently bad. But it wasn’t great either.
When the first day gets off to a rough start, it can be an uphill battle for the vibes and energy to fully recover.
With four stages, tons of music equipment, restrooms, and vendors, the opportunities for mistakes are abundant. And while it’s naive to expect any large-scale event to go off without issue, it is reasonable to expect some type of communication from festival organizers when there is a significant delay, especially on opening day.
For almost 90 minutes after the scheduled opening time, lines became increasingly restless as attendees passed along overheard communications versus the receipt of an announcement through social media or email. After some digging, a staffer later communicated to me that one of the line array speaker systems fell at the Expansions stage, and The Grid was only receiving audio on one side.
Creatively, we don’t have a guiding mantra, but we do have a set of simple tenants. Create unique, intimate environments at each stage, allowing maximum audience immersion. Have impeccable audio quality. We hate lines. People should wait in line for as little time as possible. Have impeccable audio quality. Yes, we say this twice because it’s that important.
Stuart Hackley, Founding Partner of Auris Presents
The unfortunate situation does explain the extended amount of time we waited, but the lack of communication from festival organizers soured the first day for many fans. Sadly, festival entry didn’t improve much throughout the weekend either.
In previous years, entering the festival was seamless, organized, and surprisingly calm. This year’s festival gates were a crowded pool of people pushing or shoving through any empty space they could find. Approaching the entrance, however, I heard security making a gender-inclusive announcement, calling out, “Men, trans men, and non-binary people, please come to this side. Women and trans women, please come to this side.” For me, a trans man, this was incredibly appreciated as navigating gender-specific security lines can be a mentally daunting experience.
Inside Union Park, festival goers marched rhythmically between stages as they sought out their favorite artists.
The layout was familiar, yet everything felt more open. The four stages remained in their usual spots, but had been expanded or condensed for various reasons, none of which seemed to improve audio quality or visibility.
Not much changed at elrow because not much needed to. The bright, confetti-filled aesthetic paired perfectly with lively sets from Shermanology, Claude VonStroke, and Duck Sauce. The tented house music haven bustled with shufflers and entertainers as Hot Since 82 played an extended set to fill in for a last-minute lineup change.
But the modified speaker replacement missed the marked and diminished audio quality. After twenty minutes, I found myself bailing towards the back exit to get away from the overwhelming bass, even with high-end earplugs.
For better or worse, a bigger festival requires more space.
A few of the staple art installations—such as the beloved “ARC Portal” and “Silver Lady“—were removed to create additional space for navigating festival grounds. Though the statues were missed, the extra space was beneficial, especially behind Area 909.
The changes to the Area 909 stage weren’t noticed immediately. But after failed attempts to trek towards the “sweet spot” for sound, I discovered that the elevated stands atop the trailers facing the stage—a saving grace for ravers of shorter stature—were removed and questionably replaced with poorly positioned bars.
Already the smallest of the fest’s four stages, the 909 dancefloor was further compacted, and throughout the weekend, fans struggled to find room to dance. Specifically, during Sub Focus‘ massive drum and bass set, a first in ARC’s history, the crowd spilled well onto the main walkway. Boyz Noize B2B VTSS was an intoxicating dose of chaos that gave me chills. These two high-energy sets were arguably the best of the festival, if you could hear them.
The Grid, ARC’s main stage, received the most obvious upgrades.
A slew of bars capped the edges of the VIP area and surrounded the festival’s central dancefloor, providing all tiers of ticket holders easy access to quick drinks between sets. The additional bars were a welcome upgrade. But the requirement to purchase higher-tiered packages in order to consume proper cocktails is not so much.
More fire and CO2 cannons were strategically placed around and above the stage, joining in on the biggest moments. Laser beams and hybrid moving lights were perfectly positioned, emitting a summoning glow seen from almost anywhere on festival grounds.
As a shorter raver, I was most excited to see the installation of massive, stacked LED screens at the corners of the stage, similar to what you’d spot at a major sporting event. Behind the DJ were even more vertical LED displays! I would finally be able to actually see the emotion on the DJ’s face as they played to a packed crowd, without having to stressfully worm myself to the front of the pack.
The Grid’s production team deserves a standing ovation for the quality visuals through the weekend. But, the only times the live DJ booth feed was projected to the LED screens were for John Summit and FISHER. This was a letdown and seemed like a missed opportunity. Max Styler and BLOND:ISH smashed their time slots. It would’ve been awesome to look over my left or right shoulder and see their facial expressions during peak moments.
The Expansions stage still reigns supreme for music aficionados.
During festivals, I’m pretty locked in to the DJ’s set programming and technique. This year, the artists’ energy and engagement with the crowd led to some of the most fun I’ve ever had on festival grounds, especially at the Expansions stage.
From the absolute plethora of IDs heard to the comforting embraces shared between old and new friends, this year’s Labor Day reunion at my favorite stage created some truly memorable moments. Nicole Moudaber leading into Amelie Lens was a prime scheduling by organizers. And, while I thoroughly oppose frivolously composed B2B sets, HAAi B2B Hiroko Yamamura, Green Velvet B2B Skepta Màs Tempo, and Honey Dijon B2B Derrick Carter should be used as a baseline for what B2B sets should be. The artists fed off of one another, tightened up mistakes, and let the audience control the direction of the set.
Expansions remains a consistently bright spot for ARC. The lineup curation never disappoints. Every year, fans can discover rising stars and legends of underground genres. This year’s stage was more streamlined, with LED pillars replacing the VIP viewing areas. The flashing lights and lowered visibility through Chicago’s midday summer haze made Cirez D‘s psychedelic performance even more surreal.
Towards the back of the crowd, however, I couldn’t help but notice that the ADA viewing area was no longer elevated. It was now positioned at ground level. Even though Expansions is the absolutely perfect stage for fans that came for the music, I hope this adjustment still allows attendees to have a clear view of their favorite DJs.
We need to stop comparing ARC to that other festival…
Even as the challenges with audio initially created a barrier to fully connecting with performances, most stages steadily improved the sound quality, achieving well-balanced audio by the peak hour sets of the second day. This progression proved that ARC is dedicated to delivering an audience experience similar to larger, global festivals. ARC wants to be the best in the US and the world. In order to do that, Auris Presents will have to take risks that may seem like cutting corners to fans who attend the festival for the music.
Last year, Stuart Hackley, Founding Partner of Auris Presents, told Roland, “We intend to keep the festival intimate but refine the audience experience to get better each year. We intend to always book tasteful lineups that are true to the proper sounds of house and techno, with just enough cutting-edge and eclectic selections to have fun.” It’s understandable for seasoned ravers to be frustrated with the rising ticket costs and diminishing amenities. House and techno veterans may perceive ARC’s shift in focus on aesthetics as hypocritical.
This is the era of our culture, though. These changes should be viewed as opportunities to teach the incoming generation of ravers how to maintain the PLUR vibes and why they are important. Call out the cultural shifts in a way that encourages improvement, without classifying things as “all negative” or “all positive.”
Of course, music should always be at the forefront of our scene. And, there are plenty of festivals which offer that desired experience. However, the lines between culture and marketing are naturally becoming increasingly blurred at many festivals, whether we like it or not. But, we remain in complete control of how we choose to spend our various types of personal currencies—time, money, and energy.
