North Coast Music Festival took place at Seatgeek Stadium just outside of Chicago, IL over Labor Day weekend and it was the perfect way to celebrate the holiday weekend! The weekend started with a little bit of rain on Friday, but the weather luckily cleared up and it didn’t rain hard enough to ruin anyone’s experience! By Sunday, the weather was just as perfect as the vibes! All weekend long, you could really feel the energy from the crowd, no matter what stage you were at!
The Music
Friday started out with some deep house yoga at the silent disco to prepare for the weird bass at “The Vega” stage, followed by happy and energetic house music at the main stage! Inzo had a great set, where he even threw in some house music “because it’s Chicago”! This was great preparation for Wax Motif at the main stage, where he had the whole crowd up and dancing from start to finish! Whethan and Louis the Child played very energetic and uplifting sets to get the crowd warmed up for the closer! Kaskade closed out night one at the main stage and he did not disappoint! Claude VonStroke closed out the Dirtybird takeover at “The Canopy”, and Liquid Stranger closed out the WAKAAN takeover at “The Vega”! Saturday was also very heavily stacked with sets from Vampa, CharlestheFirst, Dom Dolla, NGHTMRE, Green Velvet, Ganja White Night, and GRiZ. It was the perfect mix of heavy and vibey sets! The energy continued on Sunday with a lot of female artists such as GG Magree, Lucii, Nora En Pure, and Rezz. The weekend was closed out with Zeds Dead at the main stage, Bonobo at “The Canopy”, and Walker & Royce at “The Vega”! This weekend had the perfect combination of house and bass music, there was truly something for everyone to enjoy!
The Experience
Apart from the musical talent over the weekend, there was also plenty of artistic talent to appreciate! There was a large, blank, North Coast sign that had a live painter decorating it throughout the first day. It was really cool to watch their progress every time I passed the sign! Within a few hours, the artist finished their work and plenty of people were admiring the sculpture and taking photos in front of it! Just behind the North Coast sign, there was a large light up structure that also drew a lot of attention! There were more art installations scattered throughout the festival which really added to the experience as a whole! The festival also featured a “Chill Dome” where festival goers could relax in the air conditioning!
Overall, North Coast was an amazing experience with a stacked line up and amazing crowd vibes! The art installations really added to the experience and the food vendors were great! There were a lot of different options, which guaranteed that there was something for everyone! The fact that the main stage was inside of the soccer stadium was a game changer too! No matter where you were, on the floor or in the seats, you could still hear the sets very clearly! This is perfect for if you get tired and want to sit and relax to some music for a bit! North Coast is now one of my favorite festivals that I have attended and I can’t wait to go back in 2022! See ya next year!
