RECAP: Ever After Music Festival

FESTIVALS

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Ever After Music Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary this past weekend with over 32,000 attendees across 3 days, proving to be the largest edition in the festival’s history. The festival saw a plethora of enhancements on all fronts including upgraded sound quality, stage developments, water supply, exclusive VIP benefits, and camping perks. Additionally, exclusive headlining performances from Kill the Snails, Excision & ILLENIUM made the festival the most expansive and immersive edition to date.

Celebrating four days of entertainment for the milestone fifth year, eager attendees flooded the ‘On The Grand’ amphitheater stage for an exclusive pre-party to ignite the weekend’s festivities. Campers at this year’s festival had the advantage of early check in on Thursday, June 6th in order to make their way to the festival’s first ever pre-party which featured performances by ZÍA, Moody Good and Yellow Claw to close out the night.

EVER AFTER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2019

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The festival’s fifth edition featured three different stages including the local Ontario Stage, the On The Grand stage (which hosted three unique takeovers across the weekend), and the Excalibur Stage, which was the largest mainstage in the festival’s history. Friday night provided attendees with unrivaled performance, as Veteran producers Kill the Noise and Snails, who have only joined forces behind the booth a handful of times previously, took the stage. Saturday saw a headlining appearance from Excision who delivered a complete hour and a half of bone-shattering dubstep, bringing out Sullivan King for an adrenaline-fueled cameo. One of electronic dance music’s most sought-after acts concluded Ever After’s 2019 edition as ILLENIUM took command on Sunday evening with his one of a kind live set. The producer performed his highly-anticipated unreleased collaboration with The Chainsmokers as his final track and was joined for an unannounced surprise appearance from his longtime friend and Toronto native, Dabin. The crowd during ILLENIUM’s set rewrote Ever After’s history books as the largest gathering of attendees ever recorded for the Kitchener-based festival. Other notable performances from the stage included Malaa and Feed Me’s house-induced sets, G Jones’ mind-numbing live performance, and high-energy features from Zomboy, Svdden Death, GG Magree, Mastadon, and SKisM b2b Trampa.

For Ever After’s fifth anniversary celebration, the festival maintained their persistent half-decade history of bringing a diversified roster to the mesmerizing Kitchener-based venue. The Dub Arena erupted on Day 1 with an opening performance from Toronto talent HYDEE, and Clouds, NC-17 & Vegas dubstep producer Aweminus setting the stage amidst crystal clear skies. Belgian DJ & longtime Eprom collaborator Alix Perez brought heavy drum & bass, leading directly into a crowd favorite, old school Rusko set. As the sun set on Day 1, rave icon NOISIA took the stage for a riotous head splitting set, closing the Dub Arena with an expertly crafted journey through classic & modern DnB.

To keep a gracious medium alongside their dubstep and trap-leaning talent, Ever After reinstated their UpsideDown House Stage for Day 2. An abundance of notable performers stood behind the decks at the auxiliary Ever After stage, which included the likes of Green Velvet, Chris Lake, Justin Martin, Chocolate Puma, and Wax Motif among others. Attendees flooded atop the amphitheater as they witnessed some of their most beloved artists deliver four-on-the-floor kicks from early afternoon to dusk, as a spectacular sunset backdrop permeated the skyline adjacent the stage.

The bass fueled ChopUp Hill stage takeover featured on Day 3, and was jam-packed with fans eager to witness legendary b2b performances from bass connoisseurs Dirt Monkey b2b SubDocta, Infect b2b Mvrda b2b Oolacile, Riot Ten b2b Sullivan King, and Boogie T b4b SQUNTO b4b Subtronics b4b Al Ross. Attendees reveled in eight hours of music as the finest talents in bass music teamed up to deliver a day of unforgettable performances.

Setting out to make this year’s edition its most colossal yet, Ever After provided enhancements and upgrades on all fronts to keep patrons entertained. The festival saw extended hours of operation commencing from 1pm until 11pm across all three days, in addition to a fourth-day pre-party. Fully integrated production house PK Sound proudly brought 750,000 watts of full-fledged bass, and the festival saw 5x as many taps & water stations, and 3x as many washrooms in comparison to the 2018 event. Ever After’s, Royal Grounds included exclusive VIP amenities with perks like massages, glitter bars, private washrooms, bars, and elevated viewing areas. Additionally, Ever After Music Festival became the first major music festival to allow festival-goers to bring in cannabis legally. Each attendee was allotted ten pre-rolled grams into the venue and campers could carry up to 28 grams total. The policy change had a major impact, with police forces shifting their focus to more pressing matters, and allowing attendees to enjoy a more liberated adventure in Kitchener.

With the close of festivities on Sunday night, Ever After Music Festival wrapped its fifth year in style, with some of its biggest performances to date, and the largest gathering of festival-goers ever. Fans, both new & old can register to receive updates on Ever After 2020 via everafterfest.com.

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