Preview: HARD Summer, Los Angeles

by Irene Lo

Happening August 3 to 4 in downtown Los Angeles, HARD SUMMER Music Festival will be taking over LA State Historical Park from 12 PM to 12 AM with four stages devoted to EDM and hip hop. An ever-expanding festival in its sixth year, this year’s lineup offers an appearance by Ed Banger Records, making their only American stop during a tenth anniversary tour.

The released line-up shows who’s who in increasingly big print. The big boys on August 3 are London-based Knife Party, Duck Sauce, and Dog Blood, the side project of Skrillex and Boys Noize. On August 4, it’ll be Justice, crowd-pumping Bassnectar, and the outlandish return of Empire of the Sun.

While the headliners definitely whet the appetite, there are tons of other artists that also do the job right. Some of the buzz worthy names include Disclosure, who’ve just dropped their debut album Settle last month, Bondax, a teenaged duo that have made some great remixes as well as solid tracks of their own, as well as chill trip XXYYXX. Another act that will be interesting is Destructo, the DJ name of founder and CEO of HARD Events, Gary Richards; the new single off his second EP, Higher is skanky fun, and comes as per usual with a crazytastic music video. 2 Chainz, Flying Lotus, Flux Pavilion, Alex Metric, and Ryan Hemsworth will be lighting up Saturday.

Ed Banger Records owns Sunday with Justice, Mr. Oizo, Breakbot, Cashmere Cat, Busy P, So Me, and Feadz running the stage. The darling Azealia Banks will be making an appearance, and despite some bad taste left in the wake of bickering producers and gossip bloggers, “212” is undeniably a hit song; but it’s definitely not the only hit the goofy dancer has, with “Liquorice” and “Esta Noche” to name a few. And on that note, trap producer Baauer, whose song went viral a la people doing the infamous Harlem Shake, will also be laying down tracks. Zedd, Dillon Francis, and Canadian-grown Crystal Castles (Alice Glass in the flesh!) are on on the Sunday bill as well.

Over 50,000 ticket-buyers went to HARD SUMMER last year, and with the additional lure of Ed Bangers, the crowd most likely will be bigger and better. In the meantime, festival goers can get ready with the HARD SUMMER Future Stars mini-mix series, which are free mixes for your downloading pleasure by acts from the line-up. Grab the mixtapes by Paper Diamond and Duke Dumont already, and wait for August which will be here before you know it.

Image courtesy of HARD