Imagine Music Festival 2015 Recap
Imagine Music Festival 2015 Recap: Imagine Music Festival may be relatively new to the scene (being only 2 years old), but don’t let that fool you – it’s a festival to be reckoned with.
Having just wrapped up our coverage of the 2nd Annual Imagine Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia there are a few thoughts that come to mind, but we’re going to stick with the ones that we feel are more germane to the general public that may be interested in attending rather than press. For starters, being it’s only in its second year, we expected a mishmash of chaos and disorganization. What did we find? The opposite. It should go without saying that we obviously cannot be in every place of the festival at the same time, so there’s the possibilty that we may have missed something, but we cannot write about something we didn’t experience first hand.
Upon arriving there was no doubt whether or not attendees were in the right place. The media check-in booths as well as the entrance for the general public were right along the street, so there was no mistaking whether or not you were in the right place or not. We arrived a little on the early side so check in for us was a breeze. Once the gates opened and attendees were allowed into the festival, the mood, as best I could describe it, was calm excitement rather than a scene from your local Best Buy on Black Friday, which is always a positive. No one wants to be somewhere that is unsafe.
3 of the 4 stages were close to one another, so if you wanted to jump from stage to stage it was relatively easy (although if you had a good spot, you probably wouldn’t want to give that up!). Once you were granted access, you were welcomed by some of the beautiful IRIS Girls which transitioned into a row of vendors ranging from hats and LED accessories people could wear to Ben & Jerry’s and Heineken booths. The main stage, as one would expect, had the largest area for people to kick back on and enjoy the good vibes.
Although the festival wasn’t chock full of mainstream DJ’s like Aoki, Tiesto and Hardwell don’t let that fool you – there wasn’t a DJ that we saw perform that didn’t play like they were in front of a crowd of 50,000+. That is what you can expect at Imagine Music Festival. The performances that stood out the most to us were Midnite Panda, Kubz n’ Kookz, Leah Culver (formerly known as MK Ultra) and 12th Planet. And of course we couldn’t leave out the amazing performances by veterans Dada Life, The Glitch Mob, Datsik, Morgan Page and Chromeo.
Food was aplenty at Imagine Music Festival. Between the main stage and one of the other stages was a long line of food vendors with amazing looking food. Full disclosure, we didn’t have any of their food, but it looked incredible. We ended up hanging out with the owner and team behind the famous Atlanta Burger Truck located in the VIP area of the festival, so we ended up chowing down on their burgers, which we give an A+ on for taste. So if you’re an Atlanta native, check them out! However, there definitely could’ve been more refreshment stands available, but event security staff at the main stage was periodically handing out bottled waters to festival-goers in the front rows, which was nice to see.
Overall we give Imagine Music Festival a solid B+ which is quite astonishing considering it is such a new festival. As I mentioned earlier in the article, we had what I like to call “managed expectations” when we first arrived. The fact that we didn’t encounter major issues and didn’t see any major issues arise was extremely pleasant, so kudos to the organizers and staff at Imagine Music Festival for being on their game. According to some literature Imagine sent us after the festival, it certainly sounds like they’ll be back for 2016, just in a different location due to how rapid the festival has grown. Regardless, you can expect to see The Local Miami back at Imagine Music Festival for 2016!
Join in on the conversation! Comment below and let us know what you think about this article. And while you’re at it, connect with us on Twitter, Google+ and Instagram!