Beyond Wonderland 2014 Socal
If you didn’t notice by now, I love going to music festivals and raves. An experience that just happened only a week ago was Beyond Wonderland SoCal (Southern California) 2015. I went to Beyond Wonderland NorCal (Northern California) 2014 less than a year ago and the experience was awesome. The one that I went to was a 2 day event (Saturday and Sunday), and unfortunately I only could attend one day and it was the Saturday. I had the opportunity to see the headliner Above&Beyond, however I missed Kaskade because he was on Sunday. Sigh.. my heart is still aching over that.
- Beyond Wonderland 2014
- Beyond Wonderland 2021 Set Times
- Beyond Wonderland Gorge 2021
- Beyond Wonderland 2014 Socal Open
She gives us some kandi. 12:30 pm: The Other Gate. Tina, 22, and Kyle, 25, are first in line at the other entrance. Tina says Beyond Wonderland 2013 was the most fun night of her life (“the vibes were unbelievable”). Right now, she’s stoked to see Krewella and meet people and trade kandi, which she is more or less covered in. Sep 7, 2012 - Image detail for -Beyond Wonderland SoCal 2012. C/o Front Gate Tickets. 1645 E 6th Street. Austin, TX 78702. Email Us: Customer Service. Call Us: 888-512-SHOW. Toggle Main Menu. There are currently no.
Beyond Wonderland is extremely beautiful. The decor is Alice in Wonderland themed and people who attend this event usually make outfits in the wonderland theme as well. Many of the people there were extremely friendly and so nice. There’s a “ritual” whenever attending a rave, the exchanging of kandi. The more raves attended, the more kandi that can be exchanged! A lot of people make very unique kandis and I enjoy collecting them.
Downside? It was outdoors in the HEAT. Let’s just say, I was unnecessarily tanned. Also, it was sweaty. I personally despise sweating. Another downside is that since I was sweating a lot, I was getting dehydrated. Luckily, my friends had Camelbaks (backpack that can be filled with water) or else I am sure I would have died. There were EMTs on standby if anything were to happen. I recommend bringing a water with you if you’re planning on attending. Better safe than sorry.
Overall, I definitely encourage going to a rave. I am excited to attend another Beyond Wonderland event again. Hopefully this fall with Beyond Wonderland Norcal 2015. I hope to see you there!
Beyond Wonderland 2014. If you didn’t notice by now, I love going to music festivals and raves. An experience that just happened only a week ago was Beyond Wonderland SoCal (Southern California) 2015. I went to Beyond Wonderland NorCal (Northern California) 2014 less than a year ago and the experience was awesome. Benny Benassi at Beyond Wonderland SoCal 2015.
-A
12:15 pm: The Main Gate
At the entrance, a group dressed as characters, including Minnie Mouse and Mario (of Mario & Luigi fame), are first in line to get in. The rave family—who refer to themselves as the 626 crew because they all work at Costco store #626—drove down in a minivan from Reno, Nevada, and got to the venue this morning at 11am. “I just started going to festivals this year,” says 626 member Haley, who notes that she also goes by the rave name Curlicue. “Leaving is the hard part,” she says, “because you have to go back into the real world, where people aren’t quite as nice.” She gives us some kandi. Beyond is on.
12:30 pm: The Other Gate
Tina, 22, and Kyle, 25, are first in line at the other entrance. Tina says Beyond Wonderland 2013 was the most fun night of her life (“the vibes were unbelievable”). Right now, she’s stoked to see Krewella and meet people and trade kandi, which she is more or less covered in. “I’ve been making kandi for this since I got back from EDC.”
12:42 pm: Queen’s Domain
Krewella is sound-checking with “If We Go Down.” After they’re done, Jahan and Yasmine tell us that they just flew into the Bay from Detroit and will fly out immediately after tonight’s set to play their residency at Light in Las Vegas. Right now, Jahan says, they’re on their way to eat and do some work. Yasmine is wearing a rad T-shirt she bought from a guy on the street in Berlin. They are tremendously friendly.
12:58 pm: Tentacles Art Installation
A Mountain View police officer patrolling the event tells us that he’s been into electronic music since he was young, and that he was always the designated driver when he and his friends went to parties. He seems stoked to be working this show.
1:16 pm: Backstage at Queen’s Domain
The woman making the floral arrangements for the VIP section (yes, the VIPs have hand-cut flowers on their tables) is arranging tie-dyed roses in teacups. She says she first saw these very Wonderland-style flowers in Barcelona and tracked them down. The growers won’t reveal how they get the flowers to turn those colors, because, you know, mystery.
1:40 pm: Production Catering
This is where everyone working the event eats and mingles. All varieties of staff—including people dressed as clowns, flowers and lambs—are currently eating Philly cheesesteaks. The stage of Shoreline Amphitheatre, where legends like the Grateful Dead and Neil Young have played, is directly behind where we eat. We stroll around onstage for a few minutes to soak in the cosmic vibes.
2:05 pm: Artist Area
We pop in on Donald Glaude and present him with one of the limited-edition cassette tapes we’ve made for Beyond Wonderland Bay Area, featuring his exclusive mix on Side A. He is legitimately stoked. More on this later.
2:15 pm: Out in the Crowd
Kathy Medina became a superfan three years ago and drove up from L.A. for Beyond. “It catches me,” Medina says of the group’s music. “The words just touch me. There’s not a lot of music like that. Plus, I love it here. Everyone we met is so cool.” She is conceivably the most enthusiastic person we have met so far today.
3:00 pm: Concession Area
This guy is pretty psyched, too. Obviously.
3:24 pm: Concession Area
Martin Hardee, an older gentleman sporting a rather festive top hat and smile, is one of the more interesting characters we run into this year. Spotted in the food concession area, we get to talking about Beyond and electronic music and family and how he wound up at this year’s festival. Martin, his wife, son and daughter are all about the live music experience. “I saw Rob Zombie on Tuesday. I went to see Linkin Park last night with my daughter. We’re going to Katy Perry on Monday, and Diana Ross on Thursday, and Patti LaBelle on Friday,” Martin tells us. That’s a pretty eclectic roundup of artists, which makes sense after sharing who he’s looking forward to seeing this weekend: “Kaskade, Crizzly and Paul Oakenfold.”
4:37 pm: Consciousness Group Tent
We swing through the Consciousness Group Tent, a sober sanctuary for Headliners who are straight-edge or recovering or simply want to take a break from the party. There are 12 core members who provide the service at Insomniac events. One of them is Pat Ochoa, who tells us the story of an EDC attendee whose 12-step sponsor told him he couldn’t go to the party for fear he was going to get wasted. “He loves music so much that he was like, ‘I’m going anyway,’” Ochoa says, “and then he found us and hung out the whole weekend.”
5:15 pm: Artist Area
The artist area is a maze of trailers. Carnage comes out of his and jumps on a golf cart with his crew to head to his set at Queen’s Domain. “Come to my set,” he yells in our general direction as they drive away.
6:30 pm: Backstage at Queen’s Domain
We run into 12th Planet who tells us he just played shows in Austin, Texas, and Madison, Wisconsin, as part of his current Tailgate tour. We talk about football for a while before he departs to throw down a massively heavy set.
6:59 pm: Cheshire Woods
A bedazzled Headliner with pink braids comes up to us and points to our radio mic. “Are you working?” she asks. When we reply “yes,” she gives us a huge bear hug. “Thanks for working so hard so we can all party.” The feels, the feels!
7:15 pm: Production Catering
GTA is hanging out with their crew, and the Beyond staff is sitting down to a dinner of steak and potatoes (there’s spinach pie for the vegetarians and soft-serve ice cream for everyone who wants it). John Beaver, who played a set earlier in the day—and who also works at the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo—gives us his CD on our way out. He’s super friendly, smiles a lot, and seems legitimately thrilled to have played the event.
7:56 pm: Queen’s Domain
We stand next to a security guard in front of the stage as Mat Zo plays quite the eclectic set. Cannons shoot pounds and pounds of confetti into the air as the crowd of thousands fist-pump in unison. There are many, as they say, feels. People love confetti. Even the security guard is smiling, even though he tells us he really only likes country music.
9:05 pm: Cheshire Woods
The throng of Headliners at Cheshire Woods get what they were looking for; Crizzly throws down an amazingly fun set packed with a bunch of his own edits and remixes and a proper helping of some bass-heavy music. We run into the crunkstep champion backstage after his set—right after being offered a second slot at Mad Hatter’s Castle. Snake was tapped to play the final set of the night (9:30–11:00 pm) but canceled last minute, so Crizzly and homies 12th Planet and ETC!ETC! take things over. Before disappearing into the night, we ask what he has in store for round two. “For the second set, I want to turn it into a house party!” And off he goes.
9:09 pm: Mad Hatter’s Castle
GTA, currently on their Death 2 Genres tour, is playing an ultra aggressive set that incorporates loads of hip-hop, a brand new Diplo remix and the fresh-as-f*ck Jack U track “Take You There.” GTA’s manager tells us that the duo has roughly four days off between now and Christmas. Dedication.
9:45 pm: Queen’s Domain
Above & Beyond mom Kathy Medina is standing in the first row of a giant crowd, leaning against the gate with her daughter and holding her sign. The show starts in a few minutes, and while she doesn’t know it right now, in less than an hour Medina will be pulled out of the crowd and brought onstage to participate in the group’s famous “push the button” moment.
11:05 pm: Mad Hatter’s Castle
Crizzly on round two after closing things out: “The best part about it was that John (12th Planet) and Jose (ETC!ETC!) and I hopped on the decks and went back-to-back and vibed off each other the whole time. It was dope!” Tunes include remixes of “I Got 5 on It” and “Let Me Clear My Throat,” further proving that you can create a trap remix of pretty much anything, and it will get the crowd going.
The first night in Wonderland is over…
SUNDAY
1:01 pm: Production Area
This is not an Insomniac decoration. The Shoreline Amphitheatre apparently has a history with giant mushrooms all its own, mostly due to famous rock promoter (and Shoreline designer) Bill Graham.
1:15 pm: The Main Gate
Three men stand outside the venue holding signs that imply Jesus would think that Beyond is some sort of sin. A security guard tells us that these religious protesters show up for just about every event at Shoreline; although, perhaps sensing that Jesus would actually appreciate the PLUR vibe happening here, they don’t stick around for too long.
1:43 pm: Mad Hatter’s Castle
Wonsik plays a monster set that we think is especially awesome because he works in the marketing department at Insomniac. Many of his office-mates are front and center in the crowd with their hands in the air. Feels.
2:37 pm: Production Area
We chat with a bearded stagehand named John, who tells us he hitchhiked from Cleveland to California 27 years ago and has worked at Shoreline pretty much ever since. He’s seen the Grateful Dead more times than he can remember, is responsible for putting C02 in the cannons that shoot confetti into the air, and tells us he hopes we win the Powerball and find a guy who treats us right. Bless this man.
3:15 pm: Concession Area
This is Plurnardo. As you can see, he had a major decision to make this weekend, and it wasn’t “Do I dress like a turkey or nah?” Needless to say, his mom isn’t very happy with him, but he assures us his brother will get over it.
4:15 pm: Boombox Art Car
This stage, which has been outfitted by San Francisco group The Jenkstars to look like an urban block party, is the final destination in a scavenger hunt around the festival. Headliners filter in to collect their prize: an old-school cassette tape with a set by Donald Glaude on Side A and Baggi Begovic on Side B. Only 200 of these tapes have been made. These tapes are collectors’ items. The recipients are stoked.
4:45 pm: Queen’s Domain
Alvaro commands everyone in the crowd to throw some of their kandi into the air for what may be one of the largest mass kandi trades ever executed. There is much cheering and a momentary flurry of airborne beads.
Beyond Wonderland 2014
5:30 pm: Backstage at Mad Hatter’s Castle
Bro Safari’s set is so freaking loud that the bass is rattling the porta-potties behind the stage. We know because we’re currently in one.
5:47 pm: The Ball Pit
Casey and Adam, college students at UC Santa Cruz, do backflips into the ball pit. “This festival is like a playground for adults,” Casey says as she wades around in a pool of thousands of plastic balls. She drops her phone in there, but we dig around and eventually find it.
6:00 pm: Boombox Art Car
While Moonboots performs, an impromptu tea party featuring a host of Insomniac performers pops up in the crowd. It is quite the spectacle.
6:19 pm: Queen’s Domain VIP Area
The primary difference between the ornately decorated VIP section and the regular section is that there are more bottles of alcohol in the VIP section and also a bit more space to dance. Showtek is throwing down a super cohesive, ultra-hyphy set, and the crowd is going wild as the sun sets in the distance behind them. In front of us, a man dressed as a banana dances with a woman dressed as a bottle of champagne. A woman dressed as a bee dances with a man dressed as Pikachu. A unicorn dances with a Ninja Turtle! A duck dances with a lamb! The diversity is unprecedented!
Beyond Wonderland 2021 Set Times
6:30 pm: Artist Area
Beyond Wonderland Gorge 2021
A blonde woman who confesses to us that she has a huge crush on Cedric Gervais hangs around outside his trailer, but Cedric is nowhere to be found. She eventually gives up and goes to eat some ice cream.
9:15 pm: Queen’s Domain VIP Cabana
Kaskade plays in the distance while the blonde woman from before sits next to Cedric Gervais on a couch. She looks legitimately thrilled. After the music ends and the main-stage crowd begins to thin out, Headliners spot Dada Life’s Stefan Engblom on the VIP deck and proceed to toss up everything from inflatable bananas to headbands for him to sign, which he does.
Late. Very late.: Production Headquarters
The Insomniac after-party that has been happening for hours in the backstage production area comes to a successful and fairly rowdy close, featuring a special DJ set by Brick Tamland. Goodnight Beyond, and thank you.