Electric Zoo reveals new stage designs for Transformed festival
Electric Zoo has had a rough two years. After 2013’s festival canceled its final day after the death of two attendees, the 2014 edition bumped up security and safety measures that included mandatory PSAs, shoe-searches, and drug sniffing dogs. While drug-related hospitalizations were significantly reduced, intense thunderstorms still forced the event to shut down midday on Sunday. To many, it seemed, Electric Zoo was cursed and what was once the Northeast’s premier EDM festival was quickly fading into obscurity.
Acknowledging the uphill battle they faced to regain the faith of a public inundated with other festival options, Made Event partnered with fellow SFX entity ID&T for what has now been dubbed Electric Zoo: Transformed. At the helm is Jeroen Jansen, the Creative Director behind Sensation’s US expansion. “You can’t just put a DJ in front of an LED screen. You need storytelling — from the minute you start your ticketing campaign to the grounds themselves.” Jansen tells Billboard.
Little has been revealed since the partnership was announced and Transformed was added to the masthead, but Made Event and ID&T have finally revealed two concept sketches of the festival’s new stages. The plan is to create an immersive environment — just as ID&T has done with Tomorrowland and TomorrowWorld — that is in line with the “zoo” theme. The concepts include octopus and bird-themed stages for Riverside and Main, but as of writing they are nothing more than sketches of what hopes to be Electric Zoo’s big comeback.
Categories: News