Since its WaMu debut in 2012, Seattle’s Lucky festival has hosted anyone and everyone, from Calvin Harris to Steve Aoki to the Chainsmokers to Diplo B2B DJ Snake. With the announcement of their 2017 lineup, potential attendees across the board were going nuts. Trance fans were pleasantly surprised to find out Aly & Fila would be hosting a Future Sound of Egypt stage, while house fans got a slew of colossal names like Borgeous, Dr. Fresch and Nicky Romero.
However, Lucky’s main pull this year was unquestionably their lineup of bass music DJs spanning across the main stage and the Leprechaun’s Lair. This included the likes of Datsik, NGHTMRE, Figure B2B Midnight Tyrannosaurus and UZ, with a headlining performance by Gareth McGrillen of Knife Party & Pendulum.
As a basshead myself, this lineup was an absolute dream come true. This particular setup allowed fans to get a taste of every avenue of bass music, from brostep to D&B to future bass to hardcore to hip-hop and trap. 
Lucky’s lineup wasn’t the only thing that was improved this year, however. All three stages saw immense change from 2016, and most definitely for the better. The Leprechaun’s Lair went from a pretty bland small-scale stage to an epic castle-like setup, making the room feel much less one-dimensional. The Lucky Arena was also completely revamped, appearing both wider and taller, with a decent increase in LEDs, slightly reminiscent of an Ultra Music Festival stage. Though the End of the Rainbow was easily my favorite stage of 2016, I even thought that stage made some improvements too.
The setup made moving stage to stage easy, so I was luckily able to catch 12 out of the 24 acts that played. Out of those, my undeniable favorite of the night was Audien, followed closely by ReOrder and Lookas. Audien’s set was a lot different than I had anticipated, with the melodic mastermind dipping heavily into trap and hardcore music, making for the most diverse, cleanly mixed set of the night. ReOrder and Lookas generally stayed in their respective genres, but retained high energy and were huge crowdpleasers.
More than anything, I think USC Events showed us that they can put on one heck of a festival. Their next big event is the sold out Bass Academy featuring Excision + friends, which is sure to be one of 2017’s best. If you missed out on this year’s Saint Patty’s Day madness though, Lucky 2018 is practically right around the corner.
