On Saturday, April 20, the inaugural Magnetic Music Festival was held at Fifth-Third Bank Stadium at Kennesaw State University. Two names that have blown up in the EDM production world, Liquified and Disco Donnie, helped make the day and night quite a success. Doors and music began at 1:00 p.m. and despite the windy weather, electronic music fans from around the region gathered to indulge in their not-so-guilty pleasure.

Magnetic Music Festival

By mid-afternoon, crowds of excited friends were already swarming the stadium. Sequins, neon, totems and spirit hoods flooded the area. There were three state-of-the-art stages, with the main stage being appropriately named Force Field. The two smaller stages, Digital Distortion and Enchanted Village, were located to the side of the stadium.

DJ Midnite Panda was one of the earlier acts of the day, but he didn’t let his mid-afternoon set prevent him from getting the early audiences warmed up. Panda, Seje Omieno, is an up-and-coming star in the electronic Atlanta scene, playing a blend of trap, house, hip-hop and dubstep all into one unique EDM form. Next up, I caught some of Tommie Sunshine’s show with some of my friends at the Force Field before l decided to wander around and see what else the festival had to offer.

The arena had your typical food carts, specializing in all the delicious munchies fest-heads love, along with a number of vendors unique to the area. Red Hare Brewing Company, a Marietta-based company, held an obvious presence, selling their locally-brewed IPA and Lager. Margarita yards and buttery popcorn were also hot sales among the festival attendees.

After grabbing an ice-cold IPA, it was time to catch Flosstradamus at Digital Distortion. The crowd was wild and this energy was definitely reciprocated from the Chicago-based DJ duo. Funtcase was up next at the same stage, but I decided to slow things down to recharge for the evening ahead.

After socializing a bit, I decided it was time for more music. So, I headed back to Enchanted Village to see my friend (and another Atlanta name) Trey Phillips, known by his stage name Satoru, play a poignant set that had everyone in the vicinity dancing. Although he was playing at the same time as Adventure Club, I’m glad I did not miss out on his last hometown set (and probably my favorite set).

On the way back to Digital Distortion, I stopped at a few vendors and art installations. One artist, Leslie Murphy, had a very interesting piece she was painting in order to compete in the contest. After wandering some more, I made it to see Zeds Dead and Flux Pavilion. I thoroughly enjoyed Zeds Dead’s set, as did most of Atlanta, since one of their last set’s in the area was at Counterpoint last year.

Kid Cudi

The main conflict for many Magnetic attendees was how to close out the night – Flux or Kid Cudi, since their set times overlapped. I decided to join my original group and catch the first half of Flux and the second half of Kid Cudi. Once we walked to Force Field, Cudi began performing “Soundtrack 2 My Life”. Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, gave a couple short speeches in between his last few songs, which consisted of him mostly being so excited to be in Atlanta again. The crowd went wild as he started performing “Marijuana,” but the song was cut short right at 11:00 p.m. due to sound and curfew ordinances. Cudi and the crowd were not happy with this, but overall Magnetic Music Festival was a success in both the big-name EDM world and the local Atlanta scene.

Magnetic Music Festival has already secured their 2014 festival dates – with plans to extend the event into the premier two-day EDM event in the South East. Go ahead and mark your calendar for April 18th – 19th, 2014. We’ll see you there. – Photos & Words: Lauren Stanaitis

Flosstradamus