Prepare to Get Weird at ARC Music Festival’s Area 909 Stage

The Area 909 stage returns to ARC Music Festival, and we’ve put together a playlist with a side of history to get you ready for the weekend.

In just over two weeks, Chicago’s premier house and techno gathering, ARC Music Festival, returns to Union Park. Set to return with it are the festival’s four well-known stages: The Grid, Expansions, elrow, and Area 909. Of the four stages, Area 909 is the most unknown, partially because the stories of house and techno are two that have been told time and time again, without much differentiation.

House was born in Chicago. Techno was born in Detroit. Frankie Knuckles was (one of many) house godfathers. The Belleville Three are techno’s godfathers. What’s lesser known about the genres is that while they’re two individual sounds with their own origin stories, they share many resources and synchronicities along their parallel evolution.

The most fascinating synchronicity? The Warehouse was located on Jefferson St. in Chicago, and Jefferson Ave. is a main street in Detroit, frequently referenced by techno’s muse, The Electrifying Mojo. The shared resource between the two cities? One drum machine, the Roland TR-909, from which the Area 909 stage gets its holy moniker.

Released in 1983, the TR-909 saw little commercial success. Early iterations of the drum machine, like the LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX, were still being widely used in the music industry, so the sounds of the TR-909 were just a bit too obscure for the general public. With little demand and an indigestible sonic identity, the 909 would be discontinued just two years later. Only 10,000 units were ever made.

The TR-909’s flop would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Due to its unpopularity, the Roland drum machine retailed for a low ticket price, making it accessible to the artistically ravenous, marginalized youth of post-industrial Chicago and Detroit. The result? The birth of house and techno music.

The TR-909 was the first limitless rhythm composer—for the first time in history, artists could create their own hyper-unique sonic identities using one machine. This artistic freedom is highlighted in the story of Derrick May, of The Belleville Three, selling Frankie Knuckles his first 909. Both men were playing the same instrument, yet they produced vastly different signature sounds, a theme that would echo throughout Chicago and Detroit in the late ’80s and ’90s.

In the forbidden love story of house and techno—and Chicago and Detroit—the TR-909 is the mistress they were both canoodling with. She’s the unsung heroine of both genres’ stories, and ARC Festival is the first to give her her flowers. To get you riled and ready, we’ve put together a playlist of Area 909 artists like Boys Noize b2b VTSS, Interplanetary Criminal b2b Malugi, Skream b2b Hamdi, Eris Drew b2b Octo Octa, Richie Hawtin, Sub Focus, and many more.

Hit play and prepare to park yourself at the Area 909 stage come festival weekend… you’ve been warned. Tickets for ARC Music Festival are available via Front Gate if you want to experience this madness for yourself.

Stream the ARC Music Festival Area 909 Stage Playlist on Spotify:

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