Easily the most surreal moment of my 2012 thus far was Skrillex's performance on Which Stage during Bonnaroo. Not long after
I watched The Skrilly One take off in his silver, morphing, psychedelic DJ-pod spaceship, an in-the-know local informed me that the asymmetrically coiffed 24-year-old would be playing and co-curating a riverfront festival in Nashville with Pretty Lights. A two-day EDM festival on the shores of the Cumberland, in the heart of Music City? Surely it was bunk. Surely it was just rumors.
Not so. Word comes today — via Rolling Stone, among others — that the Skrill- and Lights-curated event, dubbed With Your Friends Fest, will indeed take place on the Nashville riverfront on Oct. 26 and 27. Also performing will be longtime hip-hop heavyweight Nas (reportedly with a nine-piece band), electronica darling Santigold, dubstepper 12th Planet and fellow DJs Dillon Francis, Michal Menert and TOKiMONSTA. Two-day passes — both general-admission and VIP — will be available here as soon as Wednesday, Aug. 29, at noon Central. By the way, RS claims "an after-party on an adjacent riverboat is also promised." *
So. Hip-hop, dubstep, electronica and a number of EDM sub-genres ringing through Lower Broad on the weekend preceding Halloween. How do you think the squares, honky-tonkers and tourists will receive this one? I'm not sure they have much of a choice. This thing is going to be enormous.
* Folks behind the fest tell us that the riverboat bit is not yet confirmed.
