WHEN A FIRE STARTS TO BURN at COUNTDOWN NYE

Please listen to Cry x Alison Wonderland Buddy (Sunny Norway Remix) while reading.

Congratulationz hoez! You made it to 2019.

I have a feeling 2019 is going to be a festival-filled year for me. I have never celebrated New Years Eve in some obnoxious, crazy, way lol. But this year, my best friend and future dentist, Alyssa and I decided to attend an Insomniac event called Countdown NYE.

Countdown was held at the famous NOS center in San Bernardino. The NOS center is where multiple raves are held every year like Beyond Wonderland, Escape: Psycho Circus, etc. My first “rave” festival experience was Hard Summer back in August of 2015. I was going into my sophomore year of college and really did not know much about the EDM music scene or festivals to begin with. The two girls I went with, Molly and Rebecca, were two of my best friendz in college and had attended HSMF previously. We packed our bags, stayed in some cheapo hotel like 20 minutes away, and made some great memoriez. As I look back, I really did not embrace the rave culture that I was surrounded by at the time-people shuffling, wearing kandi bracelets up to their shoulders, sucking on binkies, sniffing vicks, furry boots and pasties everywhere...while little Madz over here wore some spanks and a bralette. And that was also the first time I was surrounded by people rolling and candy flipping and doing drugs in a somewhat controlled environment. The Weeknd even performed with a bunch of other rappers which is why I did not feel the rave vibez at the time and then I closed out the festival with Major Lazer and Jack U. Crazy because I love Major Lazers music now and I always see them in Vegas and to look back I really had no idea what the fuck I was listening too!! And Jack U??? Pretty sure they became irrelevant right after that last album release the year before with hits like “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber and “Take U There”. Diplo’s got a lot going on but Skrillex who knows.

Therefore, I would say Countdown NYE was my actual first rave I attended because I knew it was a rave and because duh it was an Insomniac Event. SO IT WAS GOING TO BE CRAZY!!! We took an Insomniac bus from USC Frat Row (shoutout GPHi) where I DJ’d for the first 30 minutes. I started with the basic songs at the time that everyone was loving like Astroworld and then slowly transitioned to songs from the DJs and producers playing and people were NOT stoked. Me and Alyssa looked at each other in confusion like WTF are these people listening too then. Like why are these people going to this event????????

This year’s theme was alien invasion. From the social media posts to the space decorations, and the extra-terrestrial dancers, the theme was played out perfectly. The stages were space themed: Mothership (Zedd, Tiesto, Loud Luxury, Afrojack, Dillon Francis...very Vegas-y), Nebula (Alison wonderland when the clock struck midnight!!, RL Grime, Party Favor..more festival vibez), Area 51 (hosted by Bassrush SO ALL THEM headbangerz WERE THERE), and of course my favorite stage the Twilight Zone (Shiba San, Camelphat, Justin Martin, Solardo...the HOUSE HEAD STAGEEE). They had UFO crash decorations, space themed makeup stations, light everywhere, and even moving UFOs!!!

Let me tell you something. It was so fuckin cold. I luckily had a large fur coat on but these bitchez basically had no fucking clothes on. The wind was insane. I was cold even at the front railing for the first set we attended. Alyssa and I made our way towards the mothership stage to see our boyz Loud Luxury. Obviously their music is not THE best but catchy songs like Body and Fill Me IN have us dancing and singing all night. Yultron was playing before LL. Yultron’s music incorporates heavy bass which brings out all the hardcore head bangerz and raverz. We slowly made our way up to the front railing and to turn around and see everyone head banging and going crazy all at the same time..wild. Alyssa and I definitely felt out of place but if we had to endure a little bass music to hear the boyz then that’s what we were going to do. We had a good time. Loud Luxury eventually came on and played an hour set 6:30-7:30pm. We sang and danced and hoped they’d see some of their biggest fanz in the crowd singing every lyric. They mixed a bunch of songs together, sounded very Vegasy. They ended of course with Body. Confetti went off, they both jumped off the stage to show the crowd some love. That honestly was the beginning of our relationship with LL they just really did not know it yet!

We saw a little bit of Afrojack, some Party Favor because come on he is hottttt, checked out Solardo at the Twilight Zone. The TZ was my favorite stage not just because of the house music but because of the set and stage design. Solardo and Camelphat also did a surprise B2B!!!!!! Fuckin sick and so VIBEYY!!! The crowd was huge!

We rang in the new year with Alison Wonderland of course, because she is AMAZING. My favorite song of the night was when she dropped When a Fire Starts To Burn x Disclosure. This got me so hyped!!!! I wish Disclosure still produced songs like this one. This is THE house track from their album Settle back in 2013 and now all they do is produce some bullshit R&B, pop club songs.

Overall, the Countdown NYE lineup was fire and I heard some great fucking music. I closed out with Shiba San at the TZ because I had to hear the song OKAY and 8 Bit x Will Clarke. 8 Bit had just been released and I knew he was going to play it because they are homiezzz. Shiba San also is a dirtybirdy artist and I LOVE DB!!

I loved how we were able to take a bus from certain parts of LA to get to the show and back, I loved the line up, I loved all of the set designs and how well the theme was carried out, and overall the NOS is a cool place to be. What I did not like was how fucking cold and windy it was, and how the tents were smaller than I expected, and how dark it was!! If you weren’t in a tent and just walking around to try and figure out where you were going it was so fucking dark which made it difficult to navigate around the huge venue. There were definitely enough bathrooms, water and stations where I really never waited in line. I expect high quality events from Insomniac and this was definitely one for the books! Would I go back again, YES!!!!

**DISCLAIMER*** I do not consider myself a raver.