The celebrations to ring in 2016 took place in every city across the globe ranging from lavish elegant parties to firework displays and blowout dance parties. Dallas, TX rung in the new year with its own tw-day major festival, Lights All Night on December 31, 2015 and January 1, 2016, which featured the likes of major artists, Hardwell, Porter Robinson, Kaskade and numerous other talented artists in the realm of electronic dance music.
Day 1
Night 1 started with an unbelievable amount of hype awaiting Hardwell’s set. Even though Tiesto’s prodigy did not take the stage until two hours into the festival, floods arrived to start their night with DJ Magazine’s Number One for 2013 and 2014. After becoming a staple festivals such as Tomorrowland and Ultra, the 27-year-old didn’t just effortlessly transition to the smaller Dallas festival, but also delivered a performance fit for a top euro club. Being so entranced by Hardwell himself, the reminders from security to give the fire cannons a wide berth was much appreciated.
Hardwell may be a tough act to follow, but Jauz made it look easy as it was hard to find a single soul standing still during his set on the Satellite Stage. Jauz’s set was a perfect illustration of his own personal mantra that “music has no boundaries”. His high-powered set criss-crossed through genres with the result of mass crowd appeal. However, instead of playing the same remixes of guaranteed hits like many of his colleagues, Jauz highlighted his originality. Need an example? Everyone losing it when he threw Linkin Park’s “In The End” in the mix.
Thomas Jack mellowed out the mood bringing some tropical house to LAN’s lineup. After professing his own dislike of the genre he is credited with christening, Jack mixed in some more deep house and the crowd did not seem to mind at all. From the messy hair to the drinking on stage, Jack’s DGAF attitude is infectious, making his audience up for whatever.
2015 was definitely Galantis’ year, making the Swedish duo an excellent choice to ring in 2016. Christian Karlsson (previously of Miike Snow) and Linus Elkow are no strangers to producing hits after writing Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and Icona Pop’s “I Love It” respectively, in addition to many more. Their debut album as Galantis, Pharmacy, dropped earlier this year with the wildly popular singles “Runaway (U&I)” and “Peanut Butter Jelly”. Hands down, Galantis stole the show and became many’s highlight for the entire 2 night festival after going heavy on the nostalgia with remixes of “Sandstorm”, “Mr. Saxobeat”, as well as “Everybody (Backstreets Back)”.
Porter Robinson’s sets are nothing short of an experience and his Lights All Night lived up to that expectation. Unique remixes of current hits coupled with some of his own originals filled his set along with a highly pixelated light show with his signature references to Japanese culture. Many loyal Porter fans came equipped with their own version of his likeness and monsoon of confetti cannons closed day 1.
Day 2
For those that were able to make the trek early to Day 2, they weren’t disappointed by a vocal infused, trance set to get the crowd upbeat and going early. Arjuna label fans were certainly happy to have this little gem early before the rest of the day began. Dirty South then kept the upbeat vibe going with another smooth set playing many of his popular tracks. provided a smooth transition into the heart of the second day.
However, Black Tiger Sex Machine really took the night to the next level. The self-professed Canadian superheroes wowed the crowd and drew many comparisons to the legendary Daft Punk. Black Tiger Sex Machine turned out to be an ideal pregame for Snails.
In order to accurately describe Snails’ set, one must have lived through an alien abduction. Just kidding- but the crowd’s reaction was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Head bangers on the rail, loyal fans decked out in black an white, and many more there in the name of “vomitstep” appeared to lose their minds throughout the set, especially when Snails dissolved “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It is still a mystery why the fire marshall paid a visit to Flosstradamus, but never Snails on the Satellite Stage.
Claude VonStroke brought the deep house vibes from Ibiza to Dallas, bringing a nice change of pace from the previous heavier sounds of the night. Starting off, the crowd was mostly full of Dirty Birds, but as VonStroke’s set progressed the crowd multiplied steadily until Big Gigantic.
Big Gigantic came on right away and jumped right into the groovy vibe that has made them famous, consistently mixing bluesy beats with an unrivaled light show. They slowly picked up the energy throughout the set, jumping up and down on their stage fixtures, really giving the crowd an enjoyable time. Make no doubt about it though – Kaskade as usual, stole night 2 with an energy packed set, controlling the crowd as only he does. All in all, it was exactly how you wanted to end the night before being trampled in search of friends and a semi reasonably-priced Uber.
capped off by fireworks. Check out the photo highlights!
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