Skyline Festival commemorated its fifth anniversary this past weekend, marking a new chapter as it moved to Ace*Mission Studios in downtown LA. I was on the scene covering a stacked lineup of dance music artists across the two-day event. Here are the highlights and takeaways from this young festival’s most anticipated year so far.
This year’s move to a new venue was a resounding success. Spread across four stages, Skyline at Ace*Mission Studios had the feel of a massive, groovy block party. Being able to walk the closed-off streets between sets gave this new venue a real sense of character, in stark contrast to the closed-off parking lots that have become the standard for many festivals. Compared to Skyline’s previous home in Grand Park, I loved how this new venue felt like an unique and daring choice that added so much to the overall experience.
The stages themselves were exceptionally designed as well. I spent most of my time Saturday parked at the East Side stage, positioned quite scenically against the 6th Street Bridge. While I was there, I saw a loaded slate of DJs, including an off-the-wall set from Brazilian up-and-comer Beltran and a groovy 90 minutes of house music from Dennis Cruz.
Saturday capped off a highly anticipated joint set between Chris Stussy and Marco Carola. On paper, this collaboration was an unexpected one – they represent different eras, styles and regions of dance music. Carola recently returned from a long production hiatus and scarcely releases original music, whereas Stussy is set to release an entire album later this month. However, despite the marked differences between these two, their set was absolutely the highlight of Saturday – the perfect kind of mind-blowing show that makes you want to find every single song they played. Remixes of Kylie Minogue’s “Love at First Sight” and Joe Rolét’s “No Hesitating” were just two of the many great tunes during their set.
The festival rode this momentum into Sunday, whose lineup allowed me more time to explore the various stages. I spent most of the daytime between the Downtown and Arts District stages – both amazing features to this year’s Skyline. The Arts District, in particular, with its focus on showcasing local LA talent, was a highlight.
Later in the night, I visited the West Side stage for the headliners of the second day. I loved the stage design here – the electronic power lines, the pyrotechnics made to look like sparking transforming – it all added a great sense of drama and character to the sets I saw there. Between sets by Chasewest, Joseph Capriati and Ahmed Spins, day two of Skyline finished just as strong as the first.
Chasewest brought his signature eclectic energy to his set, which featured new original tracks like “Scream!” and wild remixes like his Gwen Stefani flip “SWEETER”. Ahmed Spins’ tech-house infused set was the highlight of the entire weekend according to many festivalgoers I spoke to, while Joseph Capriati closed the night out with a bang, particularly by closing his set with Mark Knight’s classic house tune “Man With the Red Face”.
This year, Skyline felt bigger, better and more immersive than ever. Through a clear attention to stage design and a star-studded, cohesive lineup of DJs, Skyline really has become the preeminent L.A. festival for electronic music lovers of all stripes.