When word started to spread over social media about Utah’s upcoming annual St. Patrick’s themed rave ‘Get Lucky’, the hype surrounding the event was insurmountable. Utah’s sole proprietor of electronic music, V2 Presents, had started to announce the lineup in phases. It wasn’t long after the announcement of the Disciple Tour members Barely Alive, Dodge & Fuski, and Astronaut did the company announce the arrival of Lady Faith and the Italian legend himself TECHNOBOY! At that moment, it was decided instantaneously that I would be attending this gold and green massive for the first time ever.

Immediately upon entering the The Great Saltair I had to admit that the production of this show was much higher than any other rave of V2‘s in recent memory; also, I discovered as I was rummaging hastily through the crowd that Utah finally had a rave that was actually worth the trip for out-of-state ravers! Finally, I managed to arrive at the Tent O’ Gold (the harder stage) where I remained for the rest of the night, naturally. First on, the ‘Disciple Tour’: a beautiful blend of Drum & Bass by Dodge & Fuski, Trap and two-step by the humble Astronaut and an appearance by the experimental bass music duo Barely Alive which drastically helped cushion the blow of a high priced ticket. These guys kept their sets seamless between each other that you couldn’t even tell who was on next until you looked up and noticed a different face! True heavyweight champs in their respective genres.  Then suddenly, the entire atmosphere shifted, and I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing:

Technoboy appeared at midnight to a tightly packed and maniac crowd (who surprisingly remained throughout the entire two hours of Hardstyle)! As he played through all the popular main stage bangers, he also played some more aggressive tracks at the end of his set (however there was no appearance of his Qlimax 2008 anthem ‘Next Dimensional World’, but that was only a minor disappointment) and that aggression was absorbed and distributed outward  by the crowd as some mosh pits were opened and people were being launched into the air. But now, it was time to make way for the “Queen Bitch of the Universe”, LADY FAITH! This stunning woman kept that same amount of energy and aggression going throughout the last hour ending on a Rawstyle note; if only I was able to remember her last track! Unfortunately, due to the time change at the 2:00 am hour, the venue had to quickly close up as it was now in violation of our local laws (shows/events may not continue past two in the morning) and due to the force out by venue security, I was unable to get an interview with either one of the stars shortly after Lady Faith’s set.

At the end of the night, however, it was empowering and reassuring to see the impact of Hardstyle on the local crowd. Utah clearly has the intense desire and passion for the harder styles and by some stroke of luck (or the right people in the right ears) V2 managed to pull through for all us (finally!). We can only hope that they were there to witness the certain impact of their workings and that this event will prompt them to bring out even more Hard acts to the Great Salt Lake.

All photos courtesy of: @ballenmedia