Detroit Movement – 2014 Recap

This year at Movement marked my 5^th year of attendance, and oddly the most mature Movement I have yet to see. It’s still the festival that you can walk up the day of the event and purchase tickets, but the crowd has shifted. Gone are the Juggalos and the decaying candy ravers, in with the EDM kids with their Go-Pros and Camelbaks strapped to their bodies. Thankfully a lot of the old guard was still there, and shaking their booties all day long to that dirty bass at the Made in Detroit stage.

The afterparty scene this year also was transformed from something in years past that only the dedicated would attend to an activity that amplifies the overall Movement experience. This year for the Friday night official Movement opening party, hosted by Speedy J and Electric Deluxe, un-prepared partygoers were welcomed with a 2 hour wait in front of The Works with a $40 door cover. Thankfully those of us who pre-purchased tickets were able to breeze right in, but that kind of experience was a first for many veterans of this festival. Once inside though you quickly forgot all of that as you were embraced by the steamy dark room of people mesmerized by the beats.

The festival itself I felt was executed perfectly. Saturday showcased a lot of Dirtybird action on the Beatport Stage and was highlighted with Claude VonStroke closing out the night with an epic set. The Underground Stage was also out of control as the acts associated with the CLR label blew us away when combined with visuals by OKTAform. Black Asteroid was by far my favorite performance from that crew. That evening we headed over to the TV Lounge for the Soul Clap/RBMA party. George Clinton’s collaboration with Soul Clap was unfortunately a novelty at best, and attracted a really weird crowd. We bailed to find that in the alleyway Justin Martin was about to hop onto the decks. Two hours later we were drenched with sweat from dancing so hard, and the crowd was out of control shouting praise to Justin’s mind-blowing set. When the sun started coming up Stacey Pullen hopped on the decks outside and set us up for the rest of the day.

Sunday at the fest there were solid performances from Dixon, Maceo Plex, and an amazing closing set from Mike Huckaby. That evening we found ourselves back at The Words for the classic Interface/Droid Behavior label party. We also had tickets to go to the Seth Troxler headlined party back at the TV Lounge, but we literally burnt those as soon as Oscar Mulero came on stage at 5am to lead an epic 3-hour set. Afterwards we found ourselves celebrating the morning at the annual Visionquest party at Old Miami. Once again we saw waits upwards to two hours long to get into Old Miami all day. This time our media passes let us skip the queue, but I’d recommend for all future participants to bring something to provide shade for all that waiting, but those bloody mary’s were absolutely worth the wait.

For the final day at Movement the stages to not miss were the Red Bull Main Stage, and the Made in Detroit. Loco Dice and Jamie Jones killed it on the main stage, but I found myself completely entranced by Kevin Saunderson presents: Origins. I caught most of Eddie Fowlkes fantastic set, and was rewarded by Kevin doing a set with all classic hits followed by a B2B set with Kevin and Troxler. This was by far the best set I’ve heard Troxler do in ages. There was also something beyond magical about watching one of the legends of Detroit techno spinning right next to the future of Detroit. Experiences like that are the reasons I come back to Movement every year, and why I recommend it as well to all music fans.