The Kids Turn Up for Wiz Khalifa, Lil Pump and More at the Bicentennial Mall

When touring millennial smorgasbord Breakaway Festival announced its inaugural Nashville event, some locals might have wondered if they should be warning organizers of a curse on music festivals at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park. Though the city’s New Year’s Eve festivities relocated there from Lower Broadway a couple years back, other fests have had a rough go in the park: In 2015, there was the ill-fated Ink-N-Iron, and earlier this year, the Sam Hunt-curated The Nashional was canceled a month before it was set to take place. However, once The Spin set foot on the grounds Friday night, it was clear that there was no substance behind any superstition. Music City’s fun-loving youth turned up in droves to collectively, um, “turn up,” and as far as we could tell, everything seemed to go off without a hitch.

Props to anyone with the stamina to party through even one of Breakaway’s two eight-hour-plus days and 22-act lineup. Sets from local luminaries Mike Floss and Kaby — not to mention one from basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal as DJ Diesel — were tempting, but too early for us to make. On top of that, Breakaway’s security was some of the most thorough we’ve seen this side of TSA.

We could hear Floridian wunderkind Lil Pump’s set get underway as we waited for our credentials to surface at will-call. Since Pump’s discography is made up of short, minimalist bangers, most of which barely crack the two-minute mark, time was of the essence. We sprinted across the grounds in time to catch the last few numbers from the chart-storming dark horse. While we didn’t get to hear his Kanye West collab “I Love It,” which is currently No. 18 on Billboard’s Hot 100 (down from the No. 9 spot the week before, which followed the pair's outlandish appearance on SNL), there was still plenty of apeshit energy to soak in, which peaked for Pump’s breakthrough “Gucci Gang.” He also made homages to recently deceased rappers Mac Miller and XXXtentacion, which became a recurring theme throughout the weekend. Just after a false start into what would have been his last song, the rapper threw his mic into the crowd and that was the end of that.

Feathers were reportedly ruffled in 2013 when we described GRiZ as a “a wedding DJ for young EDM fans in love,” but after Detroit producer’s set Friday night, we can upgrade that to “world’s most epic wedding DJ” for pretty much anyone in love. His set started off with a predictably bombastic series of womps, skronks and drops accompanied by rapid-fire psychedelic visuals projected through the screens encasing him. Occasionally, he chimed in on saxophone. However, by mid-set, things softened considerably, simmering into a crowd-pleasing set of classic funk and soul cuts that brought back the heavy wedding vibes. Mind you, there’s nothing wrong with an entertainer pleasing a crowd that is clearly responding, but if you’re trying to get your parents into EDM, we’ll recommend a GRiZ show as the most logical first step.

Closing out the first night, cannabis poster boy and veteran MC Wiz Khalifa plowed through a hype-inducing set of his most popular material. Going heavy on fan and radio faves like 2015’s Furious 7 contribution “See You Again” and 2011 fave “Black and Yellow,” the Pittsburgh-raised rapper puffed a blunt, hyped the crowd and spit through his best known jams. His energy was high, but it didn't seem like the considerable effort was causing him to break a sweat. 

On Saturday, we made it in a little earlier, with time to explore this corporate-sponsored millennial playground. We scored a free personalized vape pen from Blu, played a bit of the new Spiderman video game courtesy of Sony, strolling passed a packed silent disco and bevy of food trucks and vendors, and resisted the urge to get a glittery paint job on our faces.

With a crowd seemingly centered on the 18-25 age demographic, anyone wondering what the kids are up to these days needn’t look any further. That said, it’s not much different than what the kids were doing 10 years ago, save for all the phone screens and LED bandanas. The festival crowd was plenty diverse, which led us to wonder: Why weren't there any women on the bill? Sure, a dream-team lineup like, say, Yaeji, Clozee Lizzo, Rezz and Dessa might not be possible, but they're just the first five top-shelf up-and-coming women that we could think of in the fields this fest primarily covers. An effort to make the bill more inclusive couldn't do anything but make this show even better.

While we strolled and perused, DJ and producer NGHTMRE was blasting through a set of EDM’s greatest hits with remixes of remixes by well-known names like Diplo, Flume and other festival-fave contemporaries. It was a fine mix and a fun time, but a treat best suited for bass-thirsty festival die-hards. We regretted missing out on the more sonically adventurous hip-hop newcomer Sheck Wes, whose Mudboy was has been blowing fans and critics away since its release on Friday.

Our restlessness dissipated once the sun had set and 20-year-old Pennsylvania rapper Lil Skies took the stage. Much like his “Lil” colleague the night before, Skies’ dreadlocks, tattooed face and DIY approach to short ’n’ sweet melodic bangers came with arguable proof that perhaps punk is upgrading from tape decks to Soundcloud, and today’s “Lil ____” is the new “The ____s.” This new breed of reckless, emotional young artists lives in the moment, neither plagued by nostalgia (not a bad thing) nor concerned about the future (which differs from a lot of punks we've seen in these parts). Skies’ best-known tracks all seem to be collaborations with other artists like Yung Pinch, Landon Cube and Rich the Kid. While bigger, older artists tend to perform with truncated versions of others' features on their tracks, Skies let his collaborators have their pre-recorded moment on stage with him, and the crowd sang along.

Illenium’s set was bolstered with hyper-melodic, ultra-saccharine pop tracks with a thick and heavy synth attack, front-loaded with original material and accompanied by tranquil, dreamy visuals. As he ramped up his candy-coated, steroid-injected pop bangers into a full breakneck mix of lavish synths and pounding beats, we were feeling as worn-out as the mountain of rental scooters piling up at the entrance. So we hightailed it on out.

If anyone needs to be reassured, the kids are still partying the best they know how. And the Bicentennial Mall has way more party potential than we’ve been giving it credit for.

In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.