For passing tourists, Los Angeles is known more for its VIP Hollywood clubs than its raves. But despite the cancellations cascading with the pandemic, more than 6,000 people danced – in the open air – to celebrate the New Year, last Saturday, to the sound of Belgian DJ Charlotte de Witte. A semi-underground revival that owes a lot to Factory 93. Created in 2016, the subsidiary of Insomniac, the global giant of electro festivals (Electric Daisy Carnival, Beyond Wonderland), bridges the gap between North American and European techno.
A stone’s throw from Skid row, right in Warehouse district, festival-goers gathered at Row DTLA, the usual temple of street food with his weekly meeting Smorgasburg. Proof of vaccination required to enter. On the decks, the Briton Eli Brown, signed on the house label Factory 93 records, raises a temperature that chills at sunset with a big sound fed to the jungle and the Bristol drum’n’bass. The Italian Enrico Sangiuliano succeeds him before the main course: Testpilot, minimalist techno side of DeadMau5, which takes pleasure in exploring its dark side. With saturated and syncopated bass, Charlotte de Witte brings the amps to their knees. The crowd, which for a while, in the open air, forgets the Omicron threat and the “cloud raves” at home from the 2020 containment, asks for more.
Back to basics
In Southern California, far from the Detroit and Chicago stages, electronic music owes a lot to Pasquale Rotella. In 1993, at just 18, he organized his first rave in a hangar in South-Central LA – a neighborhood known more for hip-hop than techno. 300 people are present. At the head of Insomniac, Rotella launched in quick succession the Nocturnal Wonderland festivals in 1995 then the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in 1997.
In 2009-2010, the mainstream electro wave swept everything in its path in the United States. David Guetta collaborates with the Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Rowlands and Rihanna. Afrojack and Calvin Harris get paid $ 100,000 a set in Vegas. Swedish House Mafia conquers the charts then Avicii takes up the torch. EDC welcomed 185,000 people in Los Angeles in 2010 and even 400,000 in Las Vegas in 2016.
In these XXL festivals, part of the rebellious and bubbling energy of the beginnings was lost. Factory 93 was born to recapture it. Pasquale Rotella quickly brought in great European names such as Carl Cox and Eric Prydz, whom the youngest Californians rediscovered in an almost intimate hangar where music and immersive art mingle.
In 2021, Factory 93 sets out to conquer Europe with its first meetings in Belgium and Romania. In Los Angeles, the year will continue with the French Sébastien Léger (January 29) and the duo from Belfast Bicep (March 24 and 25). European sound is doing well.