Most music festivals are places that transport us into a new reality—a magical environment of music, bright lights, and colorful people dancing into the night as the outside world fades away.
But when the festival takes place in the heart of a city, a whole other kind of adventure awaits. Instead of finding yourself enclosed in a campground or a polo field or a NASCAR raceway, the venue is Amsterdam itself, Austin, or San Francisco.
We call these kinds of festivals that are spread throughout cities, “urban festivals.”
With that said, making the most out of this kind of experience requires some adjustments to your game plan if you’re used to traditional festivals. This is especially true if you’re venturing out of the country.
EDM Maniac’s urban festival connoisseurs share the perks of the urban festival experience and offer insights on how to come prepared to hit the streets running.
Logistics
When catching your favorite set requires navigating a city instead of hopping across a few stages, knowing how to get around can save you precious time and money.
“If you’re going to an urban festival, It’s more complicated to do stuff but you don’t have to settle for much,” explains Harry Levin, speaking from his experience attending Noise Pop in San Francisco and Amsterdam Dance Event. “It offers far more than an enclosed festival if you prepare or familiarize yourself with it, and you especially want to be familiar with the nature of the public transportation.”
This simple advice could have spared me lots of confusion and expensive parking fees before attempting to take on the streets of Amsterdam in a rental car—a move I wouldn’t recommend given the city’s state-of-the-art public transportation system.
By contrast, most US cities don’t hold a candle to Amsterdam in this regard. “It’s really hit or miss with logistics because you have a whole city to figure out and sometimes you just can’t know what that’s going to be like” explains long-time raver Danielle Levy, comparing her experience attending Life Is Beautiful, an annual festival taking place in downtown Las Vegas with CRSSD in San Diego.
If heading to an urban festival in the US, she says it’s a good idea to arrange transportation ahead of time and plan your stay close to the festivities.
Budget
Between Uber, public transportation fees, and planning meals, the price tag that comes with attending an urban festival can vary greatly.
It’s not always possible to know how much a weekend on the town will cost, especially when visiting a new city. Unlike traditional festivals, there’s a wider range of options to choose from when dining out or going for drinks, and the good news is this gives you more control over how much you spend.
On the other hand, traditional festivals often offer free amenities like water, and this is often not the case in most independent venues.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to set aside more money than you might need when budgeting for an urban festival. Opting for cheap meals (every city always has McDonald’s) and staying with locals if possible are always good ways to cut back spending.
Local Culture
One of the highlights of attending an urban festival is getting an opportunity to experience the local culture. Every city has its own distinct personality, and festivals like ADE, Life Is Beautiful, and Noise Pop offer a window into the soul of the community hosting the event.
This is where magic is found. There are countless opportunities for connection with people from all walks of life. I’ve never seen crowds as diverse in culture, age, and nationality as at ADE. People young and old from all corners of the world coming together for the love of dance music. It’s a festival that truly felt welcoming to all.
Crowd Vibes
With a less enclosed format, people come to urban festivals with different intentions. Not everyone shares the same attitudes on crowd etiquette, and the crowd vibe can change quickly depending on your location.
“At Life Is Beautiful, I feel like even though it’s a city event, the people there are pretty used to it so most people know how to behave in crowds,” explains Levy. “But in a lot of city festivals, because it’s so multi-genre with multiple ages, there’s a lot of people who show up just wanting to party and they don’t know how to act.”
It’s worth noting that traditional festivals are not exempt from this, and the benefit of city festivals is that they offer more opportunities to change your setting if the vibe doesn’t feel right.
An Individualized Experience
On top of exploring cities and their local cultures in new ways, urban festivals offer attendees the opportunity to truly take control of their experience.
“At festivals like EDC, you’re limited to what the festival can offer you” explains Harry Levin, “whereas with Noise Pop and ADE, you’re limited to what San Francisco or Amsterdam have to offer you, and in a lot of ways, you can curate a similar experience where you get to also interact with many different personalities of both the environment and the people.”
There’s no better example of this than ADE, where it’s possible to see top-tier artists give legendary performances in unexpected places like restaurants, hole-in-the-wall bars, and even grocery stores as well as world-renowned venues like the Ziggo Dome.
And when it’s time to take a break from the party, there’s still an entire city full of restaurants, museums, historical sites, and beautiful canals to explore. These are experiences you just won’t find on traditional festival grounds.
Whether you’re a first-time attendee or a veteran, the beauty and the challenge of urban festivals is that there’s always something new to discover.
That’s possible because, in addition to a weekend of dancing, urban festivals bring attendees face-to-face with a city’s local culture, and with an entire city to explore, the possibilities of making the experience your own are limitless.
Of course, taking on an entire city is more complicated than simply heading to a festival grounds, and that means sacrificing some convenience.
Nonetheless, with a little forward planning, setting realistic expectations, and keeping an open mindset, there’s no limit on how you can turn the urban festival experience into a successful adventure.
