HARD Day of the Dead

We bought VIP tickets. Worthless. Just like their staff. Why was it over at 1130? I was expecting 2am, That was weird. Still had a good time

PROS:
— Great lineup!
— Great setting: huge park to walk around, but not too big to miss sets
— Water was huge and not that expensive
— Not too many young rave-​kids, good atmosphere of people dressed up for Halloween
CONS:
— A huge pain to get in and out (tried to make us put away an empty backpack simply because it was the same style as a CamelBak and tried to make us take off ½ our facepaint)
— Drinks are obscenely expensive

My friends and I had a blast. I did especially. Mainly came on a Sat night to see Skrillex DJ. Other than that, I was hoping the music would be good throughout the night. It sure was. My friends were loving the hard music. I got tired for a moment, so I sat down. Security guards were watching people sit thinking something was going on. Ummm… no! I was exhausted from dancing to the music. I had to get up. All in all, I had a fun night and had a 14 hour sleep recovery the next day LOL
Parking — expensive! $ 40 if you want one close to the venue. Some would park farther and take the train for like 6 bucks. You can do that depending on how many people you come with and if you don’t mind leaving a tad early. The last Hard (fest) I went to had train transportation covered. This time it didn’t, unfortunately… oh well

It was my first time going to one of these events and had an amazing time! Went with a couple of friends and did one day only. Came to check out deadmau5 and Calvin Harris. Wished I got a chance to check out the other performers.
I would suggest to get dropped off since parking is insane! Also, wear comfy shoes that u don’t mind getting dirty. Be prepared to get dirt all over it and getting them stepped on by other people (rude!).
A huge negative are the porta potties. DISGUSTING. I mean, I don’t expect them to be clean or smelling like roses. But it got so bad that I stopped drinking alcohol And water just so I won’t pee!!! Yea… that bad. I won’t go graphic on how it looked.
Also FYI they don’t check bags as thoroughly as they do with you. They pat you down like nobody’s business.

HARDfest’s Halloween installment, wisely planned the weekend after Insomniac’s Escape from Wonderland, brought an impressive lineup and dense crowds to the Los Angeles State Historic Park. It was a BLAST. And now it’s time for a breakdown!
LOCATION & PARKING
5 stars here. LA State Historic Park is a 20-​minute walk from Union Station (and even closer to the Chinatown stop of the Gold Line), and HARD worked with the LA Metro to provide free rides on all Metro lines for anyone with a ticket. SCORE. And if you planned ahead like me, you found a station with free onsite parking (although it may have been far away, at least you didn’t have to sit in traffic to get to your destination!). A festival that encourages you to save money on both gas AND parking is already awesome in my book.
GETTING IN & OUT
This is the single biggest reason that this event wasn’t 5 stars for me. Some things can’t really be helped, like a rowdy crowd, but about an hour and a half after the music started, apparently some people moved some bike racks that had been used as barricades and totally messed up the lines to get in. HARD had to reset a bunch of stuff and so by the time I got there (punishment for being late?), I stood in a huge, nebulous crowd with no idea where the entrance was and no clue when I’d ever reach it. I can tolerate this bullshit when I have a bajillion decibels coming at me and lazers melting my eyes, but just to get in? I’m ready to murder the next person who so much as brushes up against my shoulder. Overheard in the crowd: «C’mon man, don’t make me smoke all my weed out HERE!»
I understand that bad crowds aren’t necessarily the organizers’ fault. BUT a bullhorn and a soapbox would have been really useful at this point. SOMEthing to let us know what was going on, or that we were even in the right place. Instead there was a slow movement as people were let in and eventually I found myself at the entrance, 40 minutes later, having missed the first set that I wanted to see.
EVENT LAYOUT
Super manageable. In some cases, almost too close. There were four stages with — true to form — a small variety of genres to please different palates. You had moombahton tucked in the back, dubstep towards the middle, the big headliners on the main stage, and even a smaller stage (charmingly called the Red Bull «DIscotheque») for funky house. This was a great setup, even though at some points there was a little sound bleed between the Red Bull stage and the main HARD Stage. But walking from one end of the event to the other was less than 10 minutes. There was an assortment of food and beverage vendors, but it was $ 4 waters for me all night.
CROWD
Yeah, so we talked about the bike racks. That aside, this was another super cool crowd. Less dressed up than Escape the weekend prior, I think, but overall super chill. I actually was meeting up with friends, but in some cases had lost them by the end of the evening, or didn’t even get a chance to meet up with them before my battery went dead. No matter; there were plenty of people around and striking up conversations and making festival friends was a piece of cake… it’s actually part of the experience.
One note about cell phone service in the LA State Historic Park: IT SUCKS. Even with my robust Verizon 4G megamegamegabattery phone, it still ate up half the battery life just getting a signal. If the damn thing didn’t double as a camera, I’d have opted to leave it behind.
MUSIC
Noooooo complaints here. Justice. Major Lazer telling people to throw shit up in the air (for reals!
). Bro Safari. Knife Party yelling at some clown to get down off the truss. Soul Clap playing Ronnie Hudson’s 1982 «West Coast Poplock» from which you’d recognize Tupac’s «California Love» chorus, and making several new fans (one here!).
Overall it was a ridiculously fun night under the stars and a great way to send out a spectacular Halloween week. Come for the music, come for the lights, stay for the experience, because it doesn’t have to end just ’cause they’re shutting it down at 2!