Skyline Festival brought both the fire and the rain to Los Angeles in late February. Following an unexpected storm with torrential downpour and muddy grounds, Insomniac Events worked long hours to provide a memorable experience for festival attendees. Only in its second year, Skyline moved to the historic Exposition Park outside the Los Angeles Coliseum. A massive space for music events in the city, Skyline was a successful test run for future Insomniac festivals, and hopefully the return of EDC Los Angeles.

Day 1 began on precarious footing. A handful of sets were cancelled, including the talented trance and techno DJ Ben Hemsley. Because of the ground conditions, Insomniac labored to put down plastic flooring to cover as much of the dance floor as possible. With the grass covered on the East Stage, Skyline was ready to begin and Layla Benitez took over the decks. Spinning a mixture of melodic techno and tech-house, the entire festival crowd attended her performance. Definitely a name to watch for the future, Benitez only has a handful of releases to her name but has already seen support from Michael Bibi, CamelPhat, and Damian Lazarus.

Heading over to the West Side stage, two of the hottest artists in dance music would close out Day 1 for Skyline Festival. First up and playing their new edit of GENESI’s “Everything You Have Done,” MEDUZA set a lively tone for the rest of their performance. A heavily inspired tech-house set for MEDUZA—it was refreshing to see jumping, frenetic remixes of their hit singles “Paradise,” “Lose Control,” and “Piece of Your Heart.” A notably disparate performance to their 2022 Escape set for Factory93, MEDUZA still gave the crowd a handful of their melodic-techno inspired tracks including their remix of SUPERMODE’s “Tell Me Why” and “Pegasus” with Eli and Fur.

At last, closing out the festival was Dom Dolla. Kicking off his set with the unreleased Kill Script ID “Afterparty.” The crowd roared with excitement for the Australian DJ. His first festival appearance since the long-awaited release of “Rhyme Dust,” Dolla saw Los Angeles exclaim in unison the iconic lyrics “Rhyme dust / I get my rhyme on dust.” Not to be outdone by his latest hit with MK, Dom Dolla did not disappoint with his other smashers: “Take It,” “San Frandisco,” and “Pump the Brakes.” One of the most surprising moments of the night was Dom Dolla closing with a drum n’ bass remix of “Miracle Maker,” sending the crowd into a frenzy at midnight.

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Day 2 provided better weather and only temporary sprinkles of rain. Spending the entire night at the East Side stage for techno, the highlight of Factory93’s techno stage was the keen representation of women DJs. Sohmi, Stella Bossi, Ellen Allien, Sara Landry, and Charlotte de Witte all on one stage was a spectacular sight. All deserving of their bookings, these women have built massive platforms in Europe and elsewhere, still getting their introduction on a larger scale to the American audience.

One of the most exhilarating moments of the weekend came from the back-to-back performance from Allien and Landry. While Allien comes from the techno hot spot, Berlin, Landry is a self-taught producer and DJ from the United States. A unique mixture of styles, the non-stop jumpy set included 130bpm techno infused with psy-trance—proving to be one of the most unique sets of the weekend. Even throwing in some pop vocals over the hard-techno drums, she engaged the American crowd that’s overall still unfamiliar with European-driven techno.

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Closing out the festival at Factory93 was the queen of techno, Charlotte de Witte. A massive crowd to end the weekend, Charlotte’s energy was unmatched and the crowd responded with fervent enthusiasm. Opening up her set with one of her popular techno anthems, “Satori,” Charlotte de Witte hooked the attendees in with room-filling, deep drum kicks. What felt like the loudest set of the weekend was well-deserved, as de Witte’s dark take on acid-techno ignited Los Angeles. When Dancing Astronaut last saw Charlotte de Witte at Tomorrowland 2022, she brought out a handful of psy-trance weapons to diversify her tracklist. While the crowd was expecting and received Charlotte’s “Age of Love” remix, she ended the festival with her next viral remix of “Push It.”

Through the thick and the storm, Insomniac pushed through and created an energetic, lurid experience for all. Skyline Festival has been more than successful and the brand continues to push new and upcoming artists in house and techno.

Featured image: Kristina Bakrevski

Tags: ben hemsley, CamelPhat, Charlotte De Witte, Damian Lazarus, dom dolla, EDC, Ellen Allien, factory93, house, insomniac, layla benitez, MEDUZA, michael bibi, sara landry, skyline festival, techno

Categories: Features