HARD Day of the Dead electrifies fans

Over Halloween weekend, more than 90,000 people stormed the Pomona Fairplex for the annual HARD Day of the Dead music festival. With a massive lineup curated by HARD founder and CEO Gary Richards, better known by his stage name Destructo, the festival this year promised acts from big names like Knife Party, Diplo and Zedd, along with noteworthy emerging artists.

 

The Fairplex was the perfect venue for the weekend. Located in Pomona, it is conveniently reachable from all locations in Southern California and is large enough to cater to the size of HARD’s crowd. Entering the festival, attendees had the option of riding a zip line into the arena, flying over thousands of screaming fans before landing in the center of the Fairplex.

Out of the five stages, the HARD stage was always the most crowded, teeming with festival goers at all hours of the day. Located in the center of the venue, it hosted Knife Party, Pretty Lights, GTA and Seven Lions and others on the first day.

At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Salva took to the stage, energizing fans with an extensive amount of mainstream trap, as well as some new original mix tapes. His most popular song, “Drop that B-tch,” showcased hip-hop influences with heavy bass meshed with electronic and techno sound bits. The crowd jumped along to the thudding bass and cheered as the drop hit, waving their arms to the beat. Only two hours in, and HARD’s audience’s energy was electric and contagious.

The most surprising performance was by Seven Lions, who blew the crowd away with his remixes. A Billboard alum, the American drummer-turned-DJ-producer, delivered renditions of top chart hits, such as Bastille’s “Pompeii,” and his own compositions “Strangers” and “Days to Come.” His fast-paced set at 4:30 p.m. on the main stage juxtaposed Salva’s earlier set and made apparent the diversity of performers at HARD this year.

GTA was the next group following Seven Lions and Salva. The group relied on sharp and staccato electronic dance music. Afterwards, Pretty Lights stayed true to his name, providing the audience with some of the best visuals in the electronic music scene today.

Diplo and Knife Party closed the HARD stage Saturday night. Similar to his performance at USC’s Springfest last year, Diplo supplied his audience with a dynamic and vibrant set of mixes. He demonstrated his production prowess by throwing out tracks from his previous collaborations with Skrillex, including “Jack U,” and signature tracks such as “Boy Oh Boy” and “Revolution.” Diplo proved to be a crowd favorite.

The night ended with Knife Party. He opened with the “biggest pre-album listening session ever,” according to their frontman Rob Swire. They debuted their upcoming album, Abandon Ship, to thunderous applause and cheers and a cascade of fireworks to end the first of two very eventful nights. The crowd still had energy; even after 10 hours of dancing, partying and cheering, HARD festival goers were all smiling, Instagramming and tweeting their favorite moments with the hashtag #HARDDOTD2014.

Sunday’s lineup was just as promising. HARD’s founder Destructo spun on the main stage early in the evening, followed by Zedd and Calvin Harris. Meanwhile, the smaller stages — HARDer, Purple Stage, Pink Stage and 7UP Green — hosted Bassnectar, Zeds Dead, Shift K3y and other emerging artists.

All in all, HARD Day of the Dead 2014 delivered on everything it was advertised to be — a big festival that featured a diverse and talented group of artists. Veterans of the festival were not disappointed, and newcomers became die-HARD fans.