PHOENIX, ARIZONA — This past weekend, Relentless Beats hosted their second annual Goldrush Festival at Rawhide Western Town and Event Center. Last year was a huge success and the same could be said about this year. Goldrush Festival is a huge move for the fast growing Arizona rave scene, as many people drove and flew in from neighboring states for this two day festival. The unique Western town is done up for the event, complete with vendors and art installations making for great Instagram posts and a ferris wheel, which provides an amazing view of all the stages and productions during your climb to the top. And even through the Sunday rain, the event went on strong with attendees in high spirits.
The stage setup stayed consistent with the year before, with each stage being a different genre of music. This seemed to be quite the hit with festival goers and minimized set time conflicts. The Hideout stage was right in the front, drawing in all the househeads. They played a variety of house and techno artists and it attracted a lot of glovers and shufflers. Up-and-coming local talents from all around the Valley were showcased at the Wandering Wagon stage, which was located on the way to the main stage.
Grooving along to the main stage, you find yourself catching snippets of the local sounds. The Pioneer Peak stage was mainly bass and trap music. The main stage, Golden Gorge, hosted all the headliners: Deadmau5, Illenium, Slander, and Steve Aoki.
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Relentless Beats was able to book some awesome artists this year, including Louis the Child. I spoke to festival goer Cecilia, who was beyond herself about seeing them for the first time.“ I finally made it to the rail for my favorite song, ‘Better Not,’ which they closed with! It took me the whole Slander set to make it there but the lights and production was breathtaking. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience.” Cecilia said the combination of light drizzle and the lasers made their set even more ethereal. She heard similar remarks about the rain from other attendees, especially after Saturday’s heat, it was much needed.
Among the vendors and activities that were spewed around the Western Town was the Flow Shop, a galaxy dipped bar, and the ferris wheel. When asked about the ferris wheel after getting off, festival goer Serenity said “it was absolutely awesome to see the festival from a different perspective, it was almost like the whole thing was just for you and the other person with you to see, it was so intimate.”
Overall it is safe to say that Goldrush Festival was a success for everyone involved. Especially for Jay Ruiz. This is what he had to say when I talked to him: “I have seen Troyboi once before but it was at the Pressroom and it was great but I wanted to see what his festival sets are like! I was already excited for my girlfriend to come to town all the way from Maryland (2,200 miles away) and then I got to share this experience with her and it was so much more amazing than I ever could have imagined. Dancing to my favorite artist with my other half, I can’t think of anything better!”
Goldrush Festival attracted lots of rave fans from all over the country and it definitely puts Arizona on the map. In the end, we all had a great time and we hope we can all make it back to Rawhide again soon.
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Written by: Electric Feels Staff
