Spring Awakening festival extends Chicago's EDM surge – USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Following last month’s debut of Electric Daisy Carnival Chicago at the Chicagoland Speedway, the Windy City’s electronic dance music upsurge continued in full force with Spring Awakening, held at Soldier Field, home of the Bears. While the weekend marked the music festival’s second year at the stadium, Spring Awakening in fact started several years before as a one-day event at Congress Theater, pulling in big-name acts such as Benny Benassi and Paul Oakenfold.
Festival publicist Zach Parin, who works with React Presents, cites the city’s “deep roots in the genre” as part of the draw. “The fact that we produce the show here is what makes the festival truly one-of-a-kind.”
Trapped? Carnage, the Maryland native who burst onto the scene earlier this year with his first fest set (at Ultra, no less), has become one of the hottest acts in EDM — but don’t call him just a “festival trap” DJ, despite what he’s become known for. “You know, I’ve stopped making trap music,” he says. “I’ve been working on a lot of house music. Before EDM trap, or festival trap, or anything, I’m just about music. I kind of said, ‘Yo, I’m not going to stop doing (trap), but I’m going to do this now.’ ” His collaboration with fellow DJ Borgore, Incredible, topped the Beatport chart for four weeks.
So what exactly is festival trap? “It’s just way more climactic and there’s more elements than regular EDM trap. There’s a climax, there’s a build. It’s just like big-room house. It brings you up and down.”
Lucky night: “My set at Spring Awakening was absolutely insane!” recalls DJ Jordan Atkins-Loria, aka Lucky Date, of the crowd at his Saturday night performance. The 22-year-old made a surprise appearance onstage at R3hab’s Friday night show. “It was great to play in front of an energy-crazed crowd. I’ve spent the last four years of my life here, and I’ll always consider it home.”
Lucky Date, who attended college in the area, has an as-yet-untitled collaboration in the works with DJ/producer/songwriter Moby, who headlined the main stage Friday night a mere hour before his set at an official after-party at The Mid. With an upcoming collaboration with R3hab, a sixth installment of his Who’s Lucky mix series and a summer touring schedule that will bring him through China, Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia, Lucky Date shows no sign of stopping, even upon his homecoming to Las Vegas, where he’ll return to his residency at Hard Rock Hotel’s Body English club.
Hometown heroes: “It was such a special moment for us, being in our home city, with our parents and the closest people in our lives there,” said Jahan, the elder of the sisters Yousaf, who comprise two-thirds of the trio Krewella, along with producer Kris “Rain Man” Trindl. The group played the main stage Sunday. “The whole main level of the stadium was packed!” Krewella, who rose to radio prominence with hit Alive, which peaked at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, plans a cross-country bus tour beginning in September, with support from openers Seven Lions and Candyland.
After a little more than five months of airplay, what’s it like to hear Alive on the radio? “Yasmine and I screamed the first time we heard it,” she says. “It was on Hollywood Boulevard and we were coming back from a recording studio in Los Angeles. It’s still shocking every time!”

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