Its that time of year for all west coast festival goers to make the trek to Tahoe for the fourth year of Snowglobe Music Festival. This festival has always brought some top tier talent even though it is in the dead of winter, the highest temperature I saw while we were there was 20. Snowglobe has occurred every year at the Tahoe Community College, yes the green room is the gymnasium @GJONES, and allows for a nice intimate festival for 15,000 people despite the freezing weather. It may be called SNOWglobe but snow isn’t always in the picture. We were blessed to have it snow at the end of day one and have it stay to bring in the New Year.
Driving up to Snowglobe this year was quite the experience, we had our vehicle confirmed, hotel confirmed, but zero confirmation of passes so we were sweating/shooting emails/praying the entire drive from San Jose. Upon arrival we checked into our hotel, Basecamp, whose name just got us very excited because of how fitting it was. If you ever want an amazing place to stay in Tahoe please check out Basecamp Hotel, the place is amazing with an IPA bar in the lobby and a very nice breakfast every morning. We then trekked over to media check in and just prayed that our passes were there. After playing the waiting game for about an hour the kind people at Snowventures were able to work out our passes, THANK YOU HELEN, and we were joyfully on our way to shuttles.
One of the things I love about Snowglobe is the amount of energy everyone has despite the harsh conditions we were all facing. As soon as you enter the bus line you can just feel it with everyone talking excitedly about who they were planning on seeing that day. I don’t think I have ever heard Skrillex and Disclosure said that many times before. I heard their names more on that bus ride more then my entirety at Hard Summer this year. However that bus ride got all of us even more excited to get outside and freeze our asses off all in the name of Snowglobe and a great time.
Once we got there we headed directly to the Sierra tent to have the mad man G Jones start our Snowglobe experience off right. I have seen Mr. Jones many times this year but he always has a fresh selection of tunes and blows me away everytime. It was safe to say I was not disappointed at all and was rather blown away by how hyped the crowd was at 5 in the afternoon with below freezing temperatures. After seeing a good chunk of G Jones we decided to go venture and see what was different with this years festival.
Like I stated earlier, Snowglobe has been running at Tahoe Community College for four years and has pretty much kept same layout every year. They have had the mainstage on the football field and the two smaller stages tucked in to the left of that. This layout has everything nice and close to each other so the greatest distance one has to walk is across a football to get anywhere. Keeping this layout prevents confusion but is a little repetitive. I never have to wonder where anything is anymore except for where the bars are because they keep on switching locations of those. The main bar this year was styled to be am 80’s mountain lodge and had its own mini stage that was always popping. Bud Lite also offered an express line if you downloaded their app which made things helpful when need a quick brew before you headed to see the next artist on your list. Along with the addition of a sweet bar I noticed that this year there was a confession board that was tucked away near the vendors. There was the typical “not asking the girl of my dreams out” and “not going to enough festivals” but the best one by far was “WE NEED MORE COWBELL”. Thank you to whoever wrote that on there, that was our running joke all week.
After getting comfortable with the minor changes to this year’s Snowglobe we decided to get back to the music. We were able to enjoy most of Disclosure’s set while we were romping about since the mainstage pretty much takes up the entire festival so we headed back to the Sierra tent to catch the last bit of Party Favor and get ready for Bro Safari. I thoroughly enjoyed the last trapped out five minutes of Party Favor but I really excited for Bro Safari. Last time I saw Bro Safari it was festival banger after festival banger, with minimal crowd involvement but this was the first time I have seen him with his hype man, MC Sharpness I think, and it was incredible. Yes he still had a lot of festival bangers but he was playing a festival and that crowd was rocking. I saw a girl who was in nothing but pasties and a bikini bottom on some guys’ shoulders during his set, I just wish I had a picture to prove it to you all.
At the end of his set it seemed like the entirety of the Sierra tent moved over to the main stage to see none other then the legend himself, Skrillex. Skrillex opened up with his and Diplo’s collab project Jack U’s song Take U There and it was the perfect way to get everyone in the crowd bouncing. His set was full of high energy was the great way to end the first night and keep everyone warm since it was a blistering 10 degrees out.
Another one of Snowglobe’s unique qualities is their partnerships with the nearby casinos on the Nevada side of Tahoe. The party stops for some at the end of each festival day but most end up going to Mount Bleu to continue the party into the wee hours of the morning. This year they took it to where Snowglobe after parties have never been before, on the water. Yes that’s right, they had some official after parties ON A BOAT! Unfortunately the one we planned on attending, the unofficial Dirtybird takeover of the MS Dixie II, ended up being moved back to the land due to 10 foot waves on the lake. Throughout the weekend we were able to catch The Floozies, Emancipator, Flux Pavilion, and What So Not all at the after parties along with at the festival. These afterparties help to add appeal to Snowglobe since the music pretty much runs for 12 hours a day if you attend both the festival and the after parties. This year I heard a great metaphor while at What So Not, Tahoe is the Vegas of the mountains, what happens there stays there.
After getting a couple of hours of much needed sleep in a warm bed we woke up and headed off to day two of the festival. I was most excited for the second day simply because of how great the lineup was. It had Snakehips, Djemba Djemba, Phantogram, Branchez, Flux Pavilion, Odesza, J. Phlip, Justin Martin and Porter Robinson all in one day; needless to say I was like an ADHD kid in a candy shop.
Getting in line for the buses the energy was even greater then it was the previous day. The lines were buzzing and thanks to the snow the day before there was a nice layer of the powdery stuff everywhere. Snow at Snowglobe who would of thought that would of happened? I heard reports of some of the farther traveling busses getting stuck due to the snow so I hope everyone made it safe to the festival that day! We got to the festival with just enough time to catch Snakehips but quickly hustled over to the Sierra tent to watch Yung Djemba Djemba do his thing. Djemba Djemba has been on my radar for about a year now. He has some serious talent so if you haven’t heard of him yet get acquainted with his remix of Core:
About this time some rumors were popping up that Anna Lunoe wasn’t going to make her set but I simply brushed these aside since they were merely rumors.
Sadly after getting my funk on at Branchez and Phantogram we headed to the Igloo to find out the rumors were true. She got caught up in flight delays and wasn’t about to make it out in time. Luckily J. Phlip was ready to go and had the crowd rocking with the classic head bob of hers. The thing I love most about the Dirtybird crew is that no matter how many times I have seen them, they always keep it fresh. No two of their sets sound the same. Her and Justin Martin both played amazing sets so thank you for enlightening me again to the Dirtybird sound. Also shout out to the guy in the bunny hat/helmet who was shirtless with his girlfriend during Justin’s set, you both looked like you were having a blast and a half. We ended our night with Odesza. All I really have to say is wow. Odesza brings such a unique and weird sound to a festival but it so beautiful and really causes the feels. I don’t think I have ever seen so many happy faces before singing “I wanna go dancing, I WANNA GO DANCING WITH YOU ALL NIGHT DANCING”. It was a tough call but I only saw about a minute of Porter Robinson pouring his soul out onto the crowd since both he and Odesza shared the same time slot.
With the first two days under our belt we were ready to bring in 2015 with one last hurrah along with 15,000 of our closest friends. The lines for the buses on day three were absurd; it wrapped around half of the casino. After waiting an hour in line we got to the festival just in time to watch Zedd rock the crowd in his typical style. After seeing Zedd for a bit we headed back over to the Sierra tent to see up and coming bass music producer Tincup. Little did we know but Tincup wasn’t playing the festival anymore or got moved? I was disappointed with the lack of communication but that was all made up for when I accidentally saw Steezmonks’ instead. I had never heard of these guys before but I was thoroughly impressed with how they worked the crowd. Plus they had a live sexy sax to go along with their melodic house style. Steezmonks’ a group from Europe and are primarily based out of Spain/France, hearing this remix live made their set my favorite out of everyone at Snowglobe:
After Steezmonks’ rocked the Sierra tent, both Trippy Turtle and What So Not kept the energy going for the rest of the night. RIP to the giant inflatable Snowglobe bears that kept on appearing in the Sierra tent throughout the night. A new one would appear and would be ripped apart in less than a minute. At one point just the head of a bear was being passed around. People were so amped on those bears and the inflatable penguins. We ended up commandeering one penguin for the rest of the night and name him Derrick. Whoever ended up with a penguin with a YourEDM sticker on it, please keep him safe till next Snowglobe!
Snowglobe always has some large none EDM names on the lineup and this year Atmosphere ended up taking the stage before Flume tookover. I was so mesmerized during Atmosphere that I forgot how cold it was. He can take you on such a great lyrical journey it takes you to another place. He was a much-needed change of pace right before the New Years.
Finally the moment we had all be waiting for was here, Flume and the countdown! Flume played through all of his original tracks and remix. All of a sudden the music cuts out, his remix of You and Me starts playing, he asked us if we knew what time it was and the screen behind him flashes 5,4 3, 2, 1. He shouts Happy New Year and fireworks start going off. We bust out the champagne bottles that we carried all day, pop them and spray each other with them, almost instantly turning into ice. If you want to relieve the memory, check out our recap of the live set in its entirety HERE.
Snowglobe, thank you again for the hospitality and the perfect way to bring in the New Year with none other then 15,000 of my closest friends in one of the most beautiful places on this planet. It was a blast! Just please start the countdown from 30 or 15 next year, we all almost missed it. We will be back for Round 5 next year!
Contributing Editor: Bret Jacobson
Photo Credit: Blake Bekken @ FDM.media
