Head Trip: The Communal Act of Listening to Music

3 days ago 7

Calvin Harris, Skrillex, and Swedish House Mafia were Head Trip highlights, but the real draw was rediscovering a long communal tradition.

“Head Trip, this is fucking unbelievable,” FISHER told a crowd of around 90,000 people last Saturday night. An artist shouting the name of the event plus some other declaration has become so commonplace at music festivals that, for me, it’s lost its entire meaning. But that evening, the DJ’s words reverberated with such an intensity that they earned a thunderous roar from the audience.

“Holy shit,” I said to myself as I scanned the massive crowd and watched thousands embrace their friends and jump with joy. “He’s actually right.”

On October 10-11, fans traveled to the city of Indio, California. This time, it wasn’t to experience Goldenvoice’s staple festival, Coachella, which takes place there in April. They made the trek to attend its new dance music event, Head Trip, a two-day, one-time-only production that featured Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, Skrillex, and many other leading voices in electronic music.

Back in March, when Goldenvoice announced Head Trip, the promoter promised that this new concept would be a culture-defining moment. That likened the event to its previous one-off festivals at the Polo Fields. These include the classic rock-focused Desert Trip, which had acts like The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney, and the heavy metal gathering Power Trip, which featured bands like AC/DC and Metallica.

But unlike other marquee EDM events such as EDC Las Vegas or Ultra Music Festival, Head Trip had only one large stage that billed 13 DJs. This meant that ticket holders had the opportunity to catch every name on the lineup. The festival was also home to the North American premiere of Floating Points’ Sunflower Sound System, which showcased a separate bill of artists.

Photo Courtesy of Head Trip

We learned the true meaning behind “Just This Once.”

Taking a closer look at the Head Trip roster, one could recognize that all the artists have been to the Polo Fields at least once before (Skrillex leads the pack with five appearances at Coachella). Many of them make frequent stops in key cities or at major events, so from this standpoint, it’s easy to overlook the event’s official theme of “Just This Once.” However, on Saturday night, when FISHER and Chris Lake played a remix of Robin S.’s “Show Me Love,” I realized that the underlying message: Just this once, we’ll experience music as we used to.

At one point, though, it seemed like the entire weekend was in jeopardy. FISHER and Chris Lake’s set was abruptly cut short just before one of the drops in Lake’s song, “Turn Off The Lights.”

The festival announced that the show was suspended over lightning and severe weather due to Hurricane Rachel. As I walked to the venue’s exit, I overheard disappointed fans saying things like, “I’m actually so pissed” and “Dude, they could have at least waited until that last beat drop.”

Less than an hour after the crowd was told to leave, the festival announced through its app that the remainder of the night was cancelled. That meant Calvin Harris, who was Saturday night’s closer, would not perform.

But as any true raver would expect, the weather didn’t stop everyone from partying. A group of 50 or so people who were camping on site gathered on a hill. Amid the rain and wind, they danced around a person who carried a large speaker over their head that only played music by Harris. It seemed as if they weren’t bothered that the festival’s first day ended early. One reveler said to his friends, “We got Calvin Harris at home.”

Photo Courtesy of Head Trip

The rain helped Head Trip make dance music history.

The next day, after hours of rain and morning news that Harris was rescheduled to play Sunday night, people at the campgrounds appeared to be in high spirits. One fan, named Raufu, told me that Saturday night “happened the way it was supposed to happen” because it meant that Sunday, with Harris now playing after Skrillex and before Swedish House Mafia, is “gonna be the best day of house music.” In my opinion, he was right, but not just because of who was performing.

For any dance music festival, the stage design is as important as the headliners. It not only represents the vision of the event but also determines how the audience connects with the music. For example, this year’s Lost Lands mainstage portrayed mortality and encouraged one to dance with abandon. Others can be a spectacle of wonder and transport you to faraway worlds, like the storybook environments at Tomorrowland.

Instead of having just one large screen behind the stage, Head Trip’s dancefloor was also surrounded by six smaller screens spread out along both sides. The main structure and screens, which were designed by the company High Screen, formed the silhouette of an eye. And throughout the space, pillars held speakers and lighting rigs that fired lasers during key moments of the night.

What was most striking about the stage’s layout was how it flipped the conventional model of the dancefloor, allowing one not to care about their proximity to the stage. Instead, your focus was on connecting with those dancing next to you. With the smaller screens flashing in your peripheral vision, you couldn’t resist taking a look around the site, with smiles, hugs, and high fives throughout your field of vision. Watching the crowd, you felt inspired to reciprocate that energy.

Photo Courtesy of Head Trip

An ember of EDM’s golden era ignited at Head Trip.

“It’s gonna be a wild night. People are so rowdy!” a friend told me as we watched Dom Dolla perform with Kettama. Later on, during Calvin Harris’ set, everyone was equally stunned when the pillars fired laser sequences, covering the sky in saturated rays of light.

When Swedish House Mafia played their classic tracks, the crowd chanted their choruses so loud that, at times, I couldn’t hear my own voice. And Skrillex, a true professional playing through sound issues, got the audience in perfect harmony when he ended his performance with an edit of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Never have I seen a crowd so united.

The most memorable moment of the night was when Calvin Harris played his final track. He didn’t end with one of his own. Instead, he chose to close it out with one of the first anthems of EDM’s golden era: “Levels” by Avicii.

During the early 2010s, there was no way to escape the grip that dance music had on mainstream audiences. SHM’s 2012 hit “Don’t You Worry Child” was practically heard on every radio station, and people felt alarmed when they first encountered a boisterous, new sound that was spearheaded by a kid with long hair and a half-shaved head. And let’s not forget that Harris’ song “Let’s Go” was used in a 2012 Pepsi campaign that featured Lionel Messi.

Long gone are the days when our primary consumption of music was through radio and ads, so when the audience sang Etta James‘s lyrics, “oh, sometimes I get a good feeling,” the energy at the Polo Fields felt palpable. It was a flicker of the collective euphoria that was present in the EDM boom, a reminder of when everyone wanted to be a DJ.

In today‘s music landscape, algorithms and genre-specific playlists are designed to cater to your music needs. Recently, only a scant few albums have pushed listeners to stop everything and listen to them immediately. We have, in some ways, been siloed off from one another as a result. But for two days, the unity at the Polo Fields felt infinite — just like it did once before.