HARD Summer Festival has been my favorite music festival since the beginning of my raving days as a baby freshman in college.
Photo from Facebook Hard FestI have attended the amazing festival in downtown LA every August for 3 years running, and it breaks my heart that I will not be able to attend this year given the epically stacked lineup. Only the extreme distance of two continents can separate me from my favorite event of the summer.
HARD and its events are often overshadowed by the production company Insomniac and more well-known electronic festivals such as EDC. Similar to Insomniac, HARD puts on music events largely consisting of electronic dance music. The difference is that HARD events deal less with world-famous European house DJs like Armin van Buren or Hardwell, bringing to the forefront more local American producers with less mainstream electronica styles such as dub step, trap and nu-disco. HARD heavyweights who make welcoming appearances almost annually include A-Trak, Dillon Francis, Jack Beats, Nero and many more. The lineups for HARD Summer Festival are always incredibly eclectic with the likes of funk, chill wave, hip hop, indie, electro, making for the amazing live performances. You can jam with Little Dragon, bust a move with Chromeo, watch amazing A-Trak scratch live and get dirty with Skrillex all in one festival as was my experience at HARD Summer 2012. Or you can sing along with Empire of the Sun, get down with Disclosure, dance your ass off to Zedd and lose your mind to Baauer, as I did last year in 2013. Watching Breakbot sing live on a sunny hill was one of the best, happiest music experiences of my life. For their most anticipated event of the summer, HARD presents distinct, timeless artists as well as the best of the up and coming, and they always deliver.
Photo from Facebook Hard FestWhile Insomniac is all glitter and flowery flourish and love, HARD is lots of grunge, soul-crushing sounds and a good time. Despite the overarching EDM theme, the atmosphere at HARD festivals are not as emotionally charged with the superficial undertones of euphoria that come to mind when imagining today’s rave culture. There seem to be a lot more people that come to HARD events simply to enjoy the music they know and like rather than to get hyped up on drugs and frolic in rainbow tutus.
Although you won’t see as many flashy and colorful installations placed around the festival grounds as in Insomniac events, HARD brings in top quality facilities and production. There are installed mats covering most of the grass where dancing takes place and the sweeping main stage and its projection screen seem to get bigger each year. The Discotheque tent, my favorite feature of the festival, boasts an all white interior decked out with disco balls and swanky pastel lighting that tops any old nightclub in LA. And of course the beloved, staple view of the festival is the crisp skyline of Downtown Los Angeles visible from the hills of LA Historic Park, beautiful in the gloaming light of dusk or in the twinkling lights after the sun goes down. Unfortunately HARD has moved the festival to Whittier Narrow’s Recreation Area this year so we have yet to see how the new location will compare with the old one.
Photo from Facebook Hard FestThe lineup this upcoming August looks incredibly promising with cool hip hop acts from all of ASAP Mob and Pusha T. Miraculously, HARD got Swedish House Mafia’s Axwell and Tiesto to headline this year with currently trending world acts such as Martin Garrix and Chainsmokers. A few of my personal picks of artists to look out for include Shiba San, M Machine, Lunice, and Kastle.
When it comes to music festivals, HARD Summer gets my most positive recommendation. It’s fun, it’s chill, it’s eclectic and best of all, it’s in L.A. (because who honestly wants to go all the way to Las Vegas for a festival anyway?) Get your tickets now in the next few weeks while you still can and go insane at one of the best summer events California has to offer.
Photo from Facebook Hard Fest