Tuesday, May 25, 2010

For those about to DEMF…

Detroit's annual electronic music festival begins this weekend. As usual I'll be attending with a rag tag group of friends from NYC and Chicago aiming to immerse ourselves in everything the festival (and the city!) has to offer during Memorial Day weekend. For those about to DEMF here are some friendly recommendations...

1) Make sure you know which way you're going when jumping in a cab late at night. While most cabbies are extremely friendly in the D, we have been screwed for being idiot techno tourists at times... No need to drive by Wayne State at 3am on a Friday night ;-) Have a map of the city, use GPS on your phone or use your sixth sense but know where you're headed...

2) Eat the festival food with caution. Chicken on a stick + hot sauce may taste delicious for hangover-heavy lunch but the facilities at Hart plaza get seriously rammed and messy later in the day...

3) Focus your time on the Detroit DJs! It’s the reason the festival exists in the first place! The venues you'll hear them spin at (whether stage or after-party) consistently have the best vibes. Satisfy your other music cravings at the Beatport, Red Bull and Torino stages but make sure to spend a few hours every day with the hometown heroes. Pretty much all of them are guaranteed to blow your mind even if you’ve never heard of them!

4) Hit up the labels parked near the festival entrance. You'll often find well-priced and hard to find records. Last year the Mahogani stand was a treasure trove of hot Moodymann records priced to sell at reasonable prices. I picked up this and this for FAR below Discogs value… Matrix also had the goods with new and classic releases from Shawn Rudiman and Convextion. UR has been a bit weaker recently when I've stopped by but maybe they'll have some hot stuff this year? I'm hoping other labels come out to the fest this year too as doing a bit of digging is a nice break from the action.

5) Talk to the locals. I've found people are extremely friendly and cool in Detroit. I realize this is somewhat of a silly recommendation but most of my fondest memories have come from partying and hanging out with random local DJs, promoters and fans. In general I find DEMF is for music lovers eager to meet other cool like-minded people. Get to chatting while bouncing.

I hope the above is a bit helpful.

For those about to DEMF... We salute you!


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