The Mad Hatter released all the craziness from wonderland in San Bernardino. This year’s Beyond Wonderland SoCal gave us everything we wanted and more, from one of Insomniac‘s best lineups to date, to raging afterparties that went until 6am. We shall dig deeper into the rabbit hole and reminisce all the goodies that we found this past weekend. The event shined a light to all genres of EDM across six psychedelic stages. Nevertheless, wonderland was stacked with incredible Techno and Hardstyle acts that gave Alice a crazy trip.
Wonderland
The production value this year felt really appropriate, from crazy characters to beautiful photo ops and amazing visuals. Every stage had its charm. However, The Looking Glass was the knight in shining armor this year, with a stacked lineup of incredibly hard techno that packed every inch of the dancefloor. We now feel that the stage has main character energy and it deserves an expansion in the future. Some stages had their own hookah bars and fun amenities, which justified a VIP upgrade. The Queen’s Domain and the Mad Hatter‘s Castle brought out incredible House and Bass acts that made our knees weak all weekend.
The Music
Beyond showered us with a lot of love, and a lot of amazing artists. We heard epic b2bs such as Bart Skills b2b Joyhauser, Eli Brown b2b Lilly Palmer, Tchami b2b Malaa, and the legendary Afrojack b2b R3HAB. We even got a chance to sit down with R3HAB after his set to chat about this upcoming festival season.
The mixture of talent really defined this festival in a category of its own. Individual sets that had everyone go wild include The Chainsmokers, Max Styler, Anfisa Letyago, I Hate Models, and probably the most packed and insane set of the weekend Sara Landry. Her popularity has exponentially influenced the Techno scene in the US so beautifully. It is just a matter of time until she has her own Hekate Records takeover at different festivals, and get booked in bigger and better venues.
Improvements
We are always happy to know that Insomniac consistently listens to feedback in order to improve the experience they provide year by year. From distributing artists and set times on the different stages, to expanding festival hours to allow a better flow during peak hours. Thus, we feel that the parking situation wasn’t ideal as the lots were filling up way too fast and the streets of San Bernardino were very busy. It is understandable, as the event was sold out. However, we hope for better logistic planning when it comes to parking and we know Insomniac has what it takes to make the event event better and safer for everyone.
Final Thoughts
We had a wonderful time exploring this campy world of imagination. Beyond Wonderland created a bunch more core memories for us. As of now, we will gear up towards Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge and the brand new Chicago edition. Next year’s tickets are already up for sale… see you guys there!
