Recently I was blessed with the opportunity of attending DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival) and needless to say, I had a wonderful time. The lineup, while not necessarily grime music, definitely encompasses everything that I've grown to love about dark, urban, gritty sounds. The festival was started back in 2000 and has grown in immense popularity ever since. You can read more about the history of this festival HERE.
This is clearly the premier techno/house festival in the world and quite frankly, the only thing missing from the lineup was more UK artists. Specifically ones that play 2 step/garage/grime type sounds. Martyn was placed, quite oddly, between two well known tear-out hard as nails dubstep producers DZ and Excision. Somehow he managed quite well and played one of my favorite sets of the entire weekend.
Kyle Hall was the standout Detroit producer that I saw all weekend, followed close by Big Strick who I saw at the first party of the weekend for myself at 10 Critics (Beretta/Omar S party). The Martinez Brothers were also favorites for me because they were perfect for lounging on the lawn at first and I was immediately able to jump into the action at full pace as soon as I saw fit. Great NY housey vibes that seemingly guided the weekend's weather the entire time. Derrick May also surprised me by starting with thick Detroit techno then slowly moving to deeper Skull Disco sounding house. Over all, this was just an amazing weekend with good vibes, good tunes, and great friends. I look forward to attending again next year. Put your hands up for Detroit!
But wait, this post wouldn't be complete without FLY SWATTER GUY!!
And for your own sake, join the FB group Fashion Disasters of DEMF. Too many LOLs to fit into one blog post.
--- Now for my personal favorite story of the festival. It's a story of betrayal and treachery. A tale of mischief and misguided power. A security guard confiscated my hotel towel and my dignity in one fatal swoop:
My towel was confiscated. Yes you read correctly. The hotel towel I brought to be able to sit down on during the day at the festival was in fact, confiscated.
Now I'm not completely up on the policy of what is and isn't allowed into the festival grounds at Hart Plaza, but I had no idea that bringing a towel in would be such a big deal. Walking into the grounds on Saturday the first time around was nothing at all. Some woman (who was obviously hating her job and life at the moment) quickly stuck her head in my bag and waved me through. Nice. Barely any security to deal with at all, I thought. We check out the festival grounds and decided to walk to a bar down the street to eat lunch and grab a few drinks before making our way back.
This is where my story really begins. I walk through the security checkpoint, backpack open and ready to be searched, when I'm stopped by a security guard who looks at my bag a little more intently. He sees my towel and says "you can't bring that in here." I chuckled at him, legitimately thinking he was just fucking with me and started to just zip up my bag and go.
He then says "sir, you are not allowed to bring towels inside."
Me: "You can't be serious. I see about a dozen people in this immediate vicinity with towels wrapped around their heads and waists"
Him: "Can't bring it in"
Me: looking at the woman who had searched my bag earlier in the day "Well she just let me in a couple of hours ago and she said nothing about it" **bitch immediately turns away and acts like she didn’t hear me**
Him: “Doesn’t matter, sir. That’s the policy”
Me: “Can you at least give a logical reason for throwing away this towel? I’m just not following your logic on this. Do you think I’m going to go all Jersey Shore up in here with it?”
Supervisor walks up
Sup: “Is there a problem here?”
Me: “Yes there is. They are telling me that I can’t bring in a towel to be able to sit on when earlier today I’ve seen families of 5 setting up places to sit down with blankets and umbrellas. I do not understand why I’m being told to throw away my hotel towel. Is Paxahau willing to accept a potential fee from my hotel if they decide to charge me for it?”
CAN’T BRING IN A FUCKING TOWEL.
I threw it away in disgust and went to go have fun for the rest of time.
I later tested the theory of whether or not towels were allowed at the festival or not. I brought a wash cloth and a hand towel on Sunday and that went off without a hitch. So Monday I really stepped up my game. I brought in 3 fresh, fluffy , beautifully bleached hotel towels. I made sure to lay them all out prominently and got them dirty as fuck. Thank you Detroit and towel guy.
This is clearly the premier techno/house festival in the world and quite frankly, the only thing missing from the lineup was more UK artists. Specifically ones that play 2 step/garage/grime type sounds. Martyn was placed, quite oddly, between two well known tear-out hard as nails dubstep producers DZ and Excision. Somehow he managed quite well and played one of my favorite sets of the entire weekend.
Kyle Hall was the standout Detroit producer that I saw all weekend, followed close by Big Strick who I saw at the first party of the weekend for myself at 10 Critics (Beretta/Omar S party). The Martinez Brothers were also favorites for me because they were perfect for lounging on the lawn at first and I was immediately able to jump into the action at full pace as soon as I saw fit. Great NY housey vibes that seemingly guided the weekend's weather the entire time. Derrick May also surprised me by starting with thick Detroit techno then slowly moving to deeper Skull Disco sounding house. Over all, this was just an amazing weekend with good vibes, good tunes, and great friends. I look forward to attending again next year. Put your hands up for Detroit!
But wait, this post wouldn't be complete without FLY SWATTER GUY!!
And for your own sake, join the FB group Fashion Disasters of DEMF. Too many LOLs to fit into one blog post.
--- Now for my personal favorite story of the festival. It's a story of betrayal and treachery. A tale of mischief and misguided power. A security guard confiscated my hotel towel and my dignity in one fatal swoop:
My towel was confiscated. Yes you read correctly. The hotel towel I brought to be able to sit down on during the day at the festival was in fact, confiscated.
Now I'm not completely up on the policy of what is and isn't allowed into the festival grounds at Hart Plaza, but I had no idea that bringing a towel in would be such a big deal. Walking into the grounds on Saturday the first time around was nothing at all. Some woman (who was obviously hating her job and life at the moment) quickly stuck her head in my bag and waved me through. Nice. Barely any security to deal with at all, I thought. We check out the festival grounds and decided to walk to a bar down the street to eat lunch and grab a few drinks before making our way back.
This is where my story really begins. I walk through the security checkpoint, backpack open and ready to be searched, when I'm stopped by a security guard who looks at my bag a little more intently. He sees my towel and says "you can't bring that in here." I chuckled at him, legitimately thinking he was just fucking with me and started to just zip up my bag and go.
He then says "sir, you are not allowed to bring towels inside."
Me: "You can't be serious. I see about a dozen people in this immediate vicinity with towels wrapped around their heads and waists"
Him: "Can't bring it in"
Me: looking at the woman who had searched my bag earlier in the day "Well she just let me in a couple of hours ago and she said nothing about it" **bitch immediately turns away and acts like she didn’t hear me**
Him: “Doesn’t matter, sir. That’s the policy”
Me: “Can you at least give a logical reason for throwing away this towel? I’m just not following your logic on this. Do you think I’m going to go all Jersey Shore up in here with it?”
Supervisor walks up
Sup: “Is there a problem here?”
Me: “Yes there is. They are telling me that I can’t bring in a towel to be able to sit on when earlier today I’ve seen families of 5 setting up places to sit down with blankets and umbrellas. I do not understand why I’m being told to throw away my hotel towel. Is Paxahau willing to accept a potential fee from my hotel if they decide to charge me for it?”
CAN’T BRING IN A FUCKING TOWEL.
I threw it away in disgust and went to go have fun for the rest of time.
I later tested the theory of whether or not towels were allowed at the festival or not. I brought a wash cloth and a hand towel on Sunday and that went off without a hitch. So Monday I really stepped up my game. I brought in 3 fresh, fluffy , beautifully bleached hotel towels. I made sure to lay them all out prominently and got them dirty as fuck. Thank you Detroit and towel guy.
No comments:
Post a Comment