House and techno festivals are among my favorite events to attend! Everyone dances to the same rhythm and energy, yearning to groove until the sun comes up. With its Spring edition debut, Seismic Dance Events has established itself as the premier dance music festival in Austin, TX. I’ve been living in Austin for a little over a year and was initially unimpressed with the dance music scene. Coming from Southern California, where promoters like Insomniac and Goldenvoice are headquartered, it’s difficult not to have high expectations for every event. Seismic Dance Event’s exceptional production standards give me hope for a future where Austin can rival cities like Los Angeles and New York in hosting top-notch events. 

Clark Terrell

Venue

The Concourse Project is a staple in Austin nightlife. The brand new state of the production venue curated for dance music events leaves little room to complain. I believe the festival was initially planning on hosting two outdoor stages, but due to rain one stage was moved inside the venue and one was covered under a tent. Even with a last-minute change in plans the indoor stage was so far the best production stage I’ve experienced in Austin. Designated entrances and exits for the venue kept a clear flow of traffic and I never felt overwhelmed when moving in the crowd. Parking can add a lot of frustration to attending events but everything flowed smoothly and we were in and out with ease. Bars were stocked up and ready to go with little to no wait times for another round of drinks!

Bryan Gonzalez
@bryan_portray

Lineup

Friday was dedicated to house music and Saturday for techno. I personally like a two-day split like this, it allows fans of both genres to dedicate a full day to experiencing that sound. It was hard to step away from the main stage on Friday with back-to-back sets from Oden & Fatzo, DJ Hanzel, Hot Sinece 82, John Summit, and Sofi Tukker. Each of those artists takes up a good portion of my playlists so getting to see everyone on one stage was fantastic! It’s hard to pick which was my favorite but I would have to go with John Summit who had my favorite visuals of the night to go along with his iconic tracks. For Saturday i had to grab my favorite black on black outfit for a night of techno.  Although a massive headlining set for Deadmau5 alter ego Testpilot was hard to overshadow, Cristoph has been a personal favorite of mine for a long time now and is an artist who I hope to see joining the ranks of Eric Prydz and Deadmau5.

Bryan Gonzalez
@bryan_portray

Areas of Improvement

As much as I love to complain, there wasn’t much to complain about at Seismic Spring debut. I would like to see the festival incorporate more art installations in its future events but other than that Seismic Dance Events had all areas covered and ready to provide a great experience.

Future Events 

Keep up with Seismic Dance Events on their Instagram or website to attend their next show!