The Best of Beyond Wonderland SoCal 2015

Make no mistake: Beyond Wonderland is a festival ripe for puns. All weekend, we were going beyond raging, beyond set times, beyond backstage snacking and ultimately, beyond sleep deprivation. Perhaps our humor is sophomoric (it is), but the joke never really got old.

Kidding aside, the festival—which went down this past Friday and Saturday at the San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino, California—was special for a lot of reasons. You could even say that it was beyond enjoyable. Here’s the best of what we saw, heard and experienced at Beyond Wonderland SoCal 2015.

Hoop Life

Once relegated to distant desert parties, hooping has made its way to our festivals, and I’m definitely down (and, you know, around and around) with that. Beyond Wonderland SoCal had a healthy share of male and female hoopers who added to the festival’s artistic landscape as performers in their own right. Whether they were showing off their technical skills or picking up a hoop for the first time, Headliners from all walks of the hooping life were representing in abundance. —Anum Khan

Ball Pit

No one in their right mind would turn down the opp to let loose in a ball pit. It was hella fun when you were a kid, so why try to play like you’re too grown-up to dive headfirst into a pool of multicolored amusement? Just beyond Queen’s Domain, Headliners had a field day as they pulled off ballsy cannon balls, busted out synchronized rave routines, and showed us their festival stroke. We saw some gold medal form out there for sure. —Sam Yu

The Campground

What better way to fully immerse yourself in the festival than by simply not leaving all weekend? A strong crew of Headliners from Nevada, Colorado and beyond (see, puns!) made San Manuel home for the weekend by pitching their tents, breaking out their coolers, and hunkering down with their campground rave family. The vibe was strong, and we met some really wonderful people in the temporary tent city. —Katie Bain

The Natural Landscape

One of the best parts of Beyond Wonderland SoCal’s location was the beautiful mountain surroundings. From nearly every vantage point, one could see the gently rolling hills of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains embracing the festival grounds. One of my favorite memories was seeing lasers from Mad Hatter’s Castle hitting the mountains in front of the stage. In this moment, I not only realized how powerful those lasers were, but how special the location we were in truly was. —Anum Khan

GRYN and Grensta Playing Queen’s Domain

A highlight of Beyond SoCal was definitely watching our two newest Discovery artists rock it at Queen’s Domain. Both GRYN and Grensta proved they are ones to watch with their incredible opening sets on both days of the festival. Those who showed up early were lucky enough to catch the fresh talent in action, killing it live. We are stoked to have both these acts added to the family! —Joe Wiseman

This Mama Irene Totem

We are a community built on love and support, and there’s nothing better than seeing Headliners come together to champion a common cause. It’s been a trying time for Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella and his mother, known as Mama Irene, and seeing this ode to her was heartwarming. Here’s to sending more well-wishes and positive vibes her way. —Anum Khan

Z-Trip’s Speech

The legendary Z-Trip closed out the Funk House both nights of the festival with two genre-spanning sets that were fundamentally cool and so much damn fun. During Friday’s set, he cut the music long enough to give a powerful (and F-bomb-laden) rally cry that was more or less the electronic music equivalent of Bill Pullman’s Earth-unifying speech in Independence Day. To quote Z-Trip:

We’re trying to bring back the funk, the hip-hop, the soul, the b-boy shit, the breaks—just to change it up, man. You know what I mean? So you don’t always have to be fucking raging with your fucking hands in the air at every fucking rise and drop and shit. This is your alternative. This is where you can come to fucking cut loose and do some different shit—hear some different music, some eclectic music. How many people love fucking music? Make some noise! That’s what’s up.

I’m not knocking that other music. I love that other music, and in fact, I love playing those other stages; it’s fucking fun. But what we’re doing here right now, we’re going to take you back to the fucking stages that we used to play… before it fucking turned into raves and big shit—when it was in a warehouse, and they threw the fucking hip-hop guys in the basement. Well, we’re not in the basement anymore. We’re here tonight, and we’re going to fucking rock it for you. Are you guys with that special fucking mission tonight? Then let’s do this.

And the crowd goes wild. – Katie Bain

The Funk House and Imagine Nation

The Funk House stage was the product of a fantastic troupe calling itself Imagine Nation. Dripping in disco-tastic bell-bottoms and loads of fringe, this crew had big hair and even bigger hearts, and they were dishing out good vibes all weekend. Whether it was Kim on the roller skates or Sheldon in the gold pants, Imagine Nation embodied the spirit of the funky, fresh stage and made sure the crowd was visually stimulated to the utmost degree.

Thanks to the vision of Pasquale Rotella, festivalgoers were served a healthy dose of funk all weekend long. I was called on to warm up the crowd both days of the festival, and I experienced some truly magical moments as the sun set behind the mountains of San Bernardino. The crowd was receptive and smiling as they grooved in unison to tracks that don’t usually get the love and attention they should; it was beyond (ahem) rad to break tracks like MK’s dub of Jodeci’s “Freek’n You” out of the vault.

The festival experienced a legendary climax when DJ Jazzy Jeff and Z-Trip hit the stage on Saturday night and legitimately brought the (funk) house down. They’re legends of their craft, and it was an honor to share the stage with them. Hopefully this trend spreads, and the Funk House will keep rocking at all Insomniac festivals. —Troy Kurtz

Eau de DJ

I’m just going to go full creep mode and say that it was impossible not to notice how good Tiësto smelled while I was interviewing him Friday night. His scent was strong but not overpowering, musky but not unsophisticated, masculine but not like an Axe body spray commercial. Nicole Moudaber also smelled fabulous, as did Hardwell, whose scent is probably best described as simply the essence of young man. Delightful. —Katie Bain

Silent Disco

Nothing compares to some pre- and post-party capers. On Thursday, the festivities kicked off in the campground at our Not-So-Silent Disco, where attendees got into the swing of things before the gates of Beyond opened. After each day of the event, the headphones went on and the vibes went off as the Discovery Project-hosted stage kept things moving into the early hours of the morning. Highlights included the non-silent sing-alongs, catching up with the Discovery artists, and counting the number of patrons that were humming the beat of their fave tunes over the relatively hushed atmosphere on the dancefloor. People tended to forget there wasn’t a wall of speakers there to mask their vocal accompaniment, or maybe they just DGAF. Props if it was the latter. —Sam Yu

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