If y'all are gonna boycott you need to actually commit to boycotting. Especially lately I've noticed companies are getting real BOLD with stealing people's money, not delivering on what they promised, and creating situations where people get hurt and they don't care. They know people are gonna continue to support and at most they'll have a few months of poor PR and it's getting ridiculous.
Fr. Reminds me of people who boycott unethical companies, but they're not really doing it, they only pick and choose the companies they boycott and they're extremely inconsistent about it. Like that doesn't make any change
@@josf9616 I really do hate buzzwords and the like but slacktivism does seems more prevalent nowadays. It can do good and has done good in the past however, it shouldn't take the place of actual activist work.
@josf9616 craziest part. The companies that do get the flak for bad practices only take superficial damage bc there are like two to three more parent shell companies that own it and only like 8 major corporations actually own everything.
"it's hard to boycott them [AG]" simply don't buy tickets where their name is attached. you don't HAVE to go to concerts esp when this city is so easily accessible to others!
So true, I'm glad someone finally said it - Also it's not hard at all to quit a crippling fentanyl addiction, simply don't buy bags of drugs that have fentanyl in them 🧠🧠🧠🧠 Genius. 😂
I had the displeasure of actually working on the stagebuilds at this years EZOO. As a huge fan of the past EZOO's, I was actually excited to be apart of it. But it became apparent very quickly that there was an extreme lack of planning and mismanagment going on. Equipment was all over the place and plans for certain stages were finalized just days before the festival. These types of stages take time and precision to do correctly and safely. I think AG bit off way more than they could chew by adding Mega Mirage, which to me was completely uneccesary. You cannot plan a festival of that size and scale logistically in just a week, espeically when your mainstage is one the largest structures in the world. On top of all of that, they failed to pay crew timely and wasted hours while crew sat and waited for back pay. So its no wonder they haven't issued any refunds of the sort and are activiely disputing chargebacks. I can almost gaurantee they will not be allowed to host a festival next year unless its completely sold to another company.
I didn't work it myself, but as someone who works in the production industry I had a lot of friends on the build and everyone I talked to said it was a mess. I heard that they didn't bring in Stagehands from IATSE until Friday, up until then it was just freelancers, and not enough of them. Nor did they rent enough gear to build the stage designs that were initially planned leading to last minute changes. As a Lighting Designer myself it's appalling how little the logistics of this industry were respected by EZoos owners and staff. Most of the teams behind festivals of this scale work with the Production Designers, Venue, Labor Provider, and Gear Vendors for months sometimes even almost the entire year between festival to make sure everyone knows whats going on to ensure that all the needed labor, gear, permits, engineering approvals, and infrastructure are all in place and ready to go by the time doors open.
My team provided the majority of the equipment on site. That process alone, they're requests, were enough to let us know it was going to be a shit show. We don't even know if we're going to support them should AG still be involved.
@@raymijumbihow does one become a part of such a team? I’ve been attending these sorts of events for over 10 years and finally have a chance to pursue an educational route relating to something in this field due to my current job paying for education. But I hear most of the people in this field get in through good connections and that an education isn’t exactly necessary. What would you recommend for someone who would like to make a career out of making these events happen?
Charging for water at a festival is nasty work. Where I live, they set up whole hydration stations, and you’re allowed to bring an empty bottle into the venue to use them. It’s literally just four counters under a tent with about 8-10 filtered water taps on each. Event planners are out of control
event planners know EXACTLY what they're doing, it's about making more back from insurance than they'd make if the event went off with no issues, these events are designed to be as chaotic and unpleasant for the fans as possible, that way you get scenes like the gate rush, they cancel the event citing "safety concerns" and blame external factors (fan behavior, local authorities, overzealous security/police etc) they then go to their insurance company and blaming the "external factors" that were 100% caused and deliberately planned by them ask for a pay out, some of those payments for event cancellation can be in the millions of dollars, so instead of making like 500k for an event of this size suddenly they're making 1 million/2 million dollars and they don't have to pay the artists because they never played, don't have to pay staff/crew/security for cancelled days and if they make getting a refund as difficult as possible they don't have to pay back 70% of the fans meaning they can pocket 90% of that payment they got from the insurance and suddenly they're an overnight millionaire.
@@protectandsurvivelivinghis3206 that’s disgusting…. Jesus. Thank you for your contribution! This information is definitely gonna be useful for me when choosing festivals. I’ve heard some horror stories, so I’m already wary.
I think they're actually required to do that in some places. I remember being at festivals one year and then the next. The first year, it was mad max. The next, there was plenty of water.
@@dfailsthemost it is hot as balls where I live, so that makes sense 🤣🤣 It just bums me out. You have an outdoor event in the summer, and you charge for water????!!! It’s uncouth
I throw underground parties in warehouses and ive learned a lot of lessons. We all want to throw huge parties with 1000s of people but over the years you realise that the more people you get the more things you need to plan and manage so you need to find the sweet spot where you put on a world class show while being able to cater to every person that attends and supports you. Trying to go too big too quick ALWAYS results in the attendees suffering due to your own poor project management experience and skills. If you cant do the little things right youll never be able to do the big things right.
Think a good example is Kai Cenat giving away Playstation 5's and what not in New York City. Something that seems like a harmless, fun thing can turn into hell with out the proper planning.
"Someone threw a water bottle! That could have started a fight!" TRUTH. My parents were at a rock and roll festival while mom was pregnant with me. Someone threw a water bottle at her which hit her head. That was the first and so far only time that mom saw dad punch a man lmao
As a 52 year old Brit who raved in aircraft hangars And warehouses in the Summer of Love in the late 80s.. you kids need to ditch the corporations! Do it yourself .. all you need are DJs .. decks .. sound system and a space .. you’re way ahead of that mess straight away! The raves back in the day lasted days on end .. it’s got to be a better and cheaper option!!
almost got trampled 😢 it was so scary. i was at the front for tiesto and slowly everyone started to freak out and try to run out- i’ve been raving for 6 years and this traumatized me
“It’s hard to boycott them” but not impossible. Or at the very least sit out EZoo. This is what I personally find so tiring about where we’re at in our consumerist culture. People will literally spit in the buyer’s faces and next week we’re back to normal as if nothing ever happened.
It’s difficult to sit out when there’s so many artists you wanna see in one place in one weekend in your home state. Yeah consumerism and all that… but you’re talking live music from artists who you may not get the chance to see again for a year or longer, or never. If you don’t do things because of money, you’re gonna miss out on a lot because let’s be real… everything is a money grab and everyone is pulling at our emotions to get what they want
@@mcgritty8842 I mean that’s entirely the crux of it though - nobody is willing to stand on principle. They’d rather let bad things slide as long as nobody dies pretty much. It’s giving “beaten wife,” “maybe he’ll love me if I give him another chance”- behavior. Plenty people are willing to just have a good good time for a quick buck. It’s exactly why the state of the world is in the state it is - people value their own immediate comfort over small discomfort for the betterment of people as a whole.
@@mcgritty8842 genuine question, maybe there's something up with me, i get that in some ways these kind of events are once in a life time. but why would you suffer self allowed disrespect and indignity for a chance to participate in the event? this isn't one of those "the universe wasn't aligned" moments, you're choosing the real chance that you would go through all this again. what keeps you from putting that energy towards finding, following, and attending indie, niche, or otherwise smaller artists who you may discover to enjoy, or just follow alternative venues for your favorite artists. why would you suffer dealing with people who would rather you suffer heat stroke, piss yourself, get possibly tramples or harassed in a stampede, but not suffer the effort to take your business and passions elsewhere? I can't make any assumptions on free time and money, but if the effort can be put into putting up with a sequel to this disaster, why not take that effort elsewhere for the sake of what you enjoy from the event?
After all the crowd crushes throughout history, the video of people stepping over the barricade to get in made my hair stand on end. I would have left right then if I saw that.
The good raves still happen, but we keep them small and secret. I was there when these festivals started and it was the end. I am glad my group found our own way.
You're right about security. I work seasonal security. So far we are handling college graduation. People come to the event with the weirdest things. I'm searching bags like, "This is a graduation, not a survival training event."
A crowd crush is one of my worst nightmares of what can happen at a festival up there with an active shooter. I was at Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge in Washington state camping all days both 2022 and 2023 this year and there was an active shooter at the campgrounds which left 2 people dead and some injured. I was already in the event and they did not release any statement after the time (I believe they wanted to avoid a stampede or people going back to the campground where the situation was happening) but rumors were going around so we had to hear through word of mouth and not know if this person got into the event as well or not and it was super unnerving not knowing if we were safe or not. Quite a few artists also pulled out so we would be going to a stage and someone totally different was playing so you could tell something was up. I definitely believe some of the people could have had weapons who rushed the gates at Ezoo and even if they didn’t overcrowding and stampedes can cause a crush and mass casualties. Stay safe and keep the plur alive everyone
@DavidHanada yeah we had to have friends outside the event doing research on local news to let us know what was happening. My one bud has a friend he calls chopper 5 cause she so on top of the news. Took awhile to get the whole story. It was actually quite tragic. The two that died were a lesbian couple that got in between a dude arguing with his gf. The gf got shot but was saved because those two girls got in the way, truly a couple of guardian angels. Also shout out to the staffer that showed up first took a bullet to the face, and had it deflect off her glasses she was the one that got the call out to authorities and got everyone to start getting away from the scene. Honestly the whole situation was really sad. RIP to the couple that saved that girl. 🙏
@@roydark The DJS dont play live they are pre recorded sets. Dont try and tell me its about the production because other live acts can manage to sync the two together. A proper DJ reads a crowd and plays tunes accordingly to suit a particular night. Its just my opinion mate dont wind yourself up over it. You have yours and thats all good. I have been in the industry for over 25 years and its just what I have seen and heard from punters and artists and myself. All good;-)
@@petelewisNZ No shit sherlock, everyone knows that since like 15 years ago, now you are going to tell me that people were not DJing with vinyls 30 years ago for money. You are not the only one with decades in the scene, gasp that.
@@roydark ha ha like I said it was my opinion. Yes of course they were getting paid, tens of thousands for a set no. I never said I was the only one with decades in the scene, ha ha chill bruv
@@petelewisNZ Lol no, DJs have been "celebrities" since the 70s, you do know that DJing started back in the 50s, right? clubs/disco scenes have been paying DJs big bucks for so long, the festival scene is pretty new compared to the actual history of DJing, also a "set" was not adopted as a term in the DJing scene untill the 90s.
This is not only this festival. If something gets cancelled because of weather the vendors are always the last ones to get the news. In my case one day was cancelled because of heavy rain and everyone knew about it but because they didn't had a clear answer for the vendors I still had to travel to the festival. I could have just stayed home instead of travelling there and making my tent in full rain 😤
It's just a fest. I've been to many. Lots of money loss. And your good time is predicated by someone elses work. It's better when you have control overall. And way to overcrowded.
That guy on the interview who said he didn't feel unsafe because "ravers take care of each other" clearly doesn't know the dynamic of panic / stampede situations and is looking at it through rose-tinted glasses. A good example is the love parade disaster of 2010 in Germany. No one meant to hurt other people, but people died and got injured. Same with the 2022 Halloweed disaster in Korea. Also....this makes me appreciate festivals like Fusion and Nation of Gondwana in Germany. Always spotless organisation and you can only get through lottery into Fusion.
I attended Ezoo every year (except for 2022) since 2017, including Ezoo Cancun in 2021 which was a disaster on its own that I feel like no one talks about. 2017 was a great year and the stage design was amazing so I fell in love. I bought one ticket for Friday and two tickets for Sunday for 2023 as well as a 3 day day (bc it was cheaper then two individual days) and one single day ferry pass for sunday. I had just gotten out of the shower when my coworker let me know that Friday was cancelled. I was super bummed and spent my day trying to find an event to go to but everything was either sold out within minutes or overpriced or both. I nearly got tickets for ATLiens but the show started at midnight and that was just to late for me so I decided against it. Luckily for Sunday, I got into the festival around 4:30pm. I saw one set, then needed to sit and get some food because the sun was beaming and I hadn't eaten all day so I felt like I was going to pass out. Finally around 6pm when Tiesto was set to come on stage, my partner and I find a good enough spot to watch the show. I quickly realize that there was no way of moving closer to the stage because the crowd was insanely dense and in all my years of attending I had never been that far back from the main stage. I looked around and saw just how packed the area truly was, and was afraid of an emergency happening because the exit out of the area was through a small "hole in the wall" that they built. I also witnessed someone have a seizure during the set (not sure if it was drug related or not) and it was a terrifying thing to witness. Among other issues, there were no handwashing stations near the porta potties, only hand sanitizer. They removed the 21+ section that usually had the trailer bathrooms. Food was overpriced per usual. The tvs at the stages didn't work and they let anyone onto the ferries without checking wristbands so I literally wasted my money. My dispute with citibank got denied unfortunately even though I sent them mountains of proof that the services received were not as advertised and I don't know how else to get my money back. I refuse to go to AG or any venue that they own, no matter the DJ that is playing. I refuse to give them more of my money when they have not even made an attempt to rectify my losses with EZoo. A festival that was very close my heart is now ruined forever thanks to corporate greed.
2017 was the only year I went and it was such a good time, Oliver Heldens into Malaa into Rezz into Drezo into Wax Motif into Brohug at Riverside was insane! Glad I experienced it at its peak apparently.
The lesson here is be selective where you spend your money. Not all festivals are built the same. I have been going to music festivals for 30 years. Venue and the ins and outs have become my top criteria for attending a festival, which is why I’d never attend EZoo. Last thing I want to do after raving for +8 hrs is spend +2 hrs trying to get back to a hotel. And def outgrew the camping festivals…sleep is beautiful. Personally I dig city centered festivals such as Lollapalooza(Chicago), Global (Denver), EDC Orlando, Miami Music Week or even Art Basel. Of course being a lil more selective isn’t necessarily as budget friendly but….more joy and less stress per dollar spent is worth it to me.
@@DavidHanada Hijacking the other guys comment, as an ex raver I can promise you that a few people brought weapons in. Thankfully it sounds like none were used. There's *always* a couple dozen total a-holes who bring knives and other things for the purpose of "protection". It's more common the bigger the crowd size but I feel like that can be said about most events with less than stellar security and planning.
A majority of my clients are EDM staff (engineers, producers, lighting, etc) - and I've just started becoming enamored with EDM myself. THIS video was gold to find - amazing research, very good commentary, and best of all - the guy's not annoying, just genuinely pissed and wants answers. So he finds them - great video!
I watched your video from start to finish without giving it a second thought - I was totally enthralled. After watching the Fyre Fest documentary and the crowd surge at Astroworld 2021, this kind of content really put into perspective the countless layers of logistics that are demanded in the industry; to organize a gargantuan festival that is not only catered to their audience, but convenient and *SAFE* for us to participate in. I took some time to read the comments, because I wanted see other peoples' stories on this, but when I scrolled back up the page, I did a double take. 12,847 views and 442 subscribers..? I thought I was hallucinating. While watching your video, I didn't second guess the production quality. My guy, I was expecting MILLIONS of views, because this is worth the watch. I really hope you continue to produce documentary-style commentaries, because you have a talent for not only researching the information, but arranging it in a manner that is easily digestible for us, as viewers. You've earned yourself a subscriber. Keep up the great work, NYC Out Loud. :)
Thank you so much for the kind words! Recently I've been putting in a lot of effort trying to get better as an editor. It's all self taught so it feels good to get positive feedback like yours!
thanks for the video! One thing that is very shocking to me is: the sheer volume of attendants still chose to funnel into the proposed venue, despite the mountain of evidence that the festival was not being coordinated to the degree an event of this size should. I love music, and I love concerts, but no sound is worth risking your life, your health, or your able bodiedness. The second thing that was most shocking was at the end: that people's answers was not an unequivocal no to the idea of attending in 2024 horrifies me - how much incompetence does an event planning organization have to display before putting your safety, the safety of your friends, and the safety of fellow music lovers in jeopardy become unacceptable?
Great video. You really did a fantastic job at covering all the angles in which they monumentally screwed up. I've gone every year since 2018 and the fall off in quality after AG purchased the festival was insane. To be honest, this year I was able to avoid most of the major issues people were faced with and personally had an awesome weekend, but I just refuse to continue giving money to a company that clearly could not care less if people are safe and have a good experience or not. I strongly encourage people to stop attending AG/Mirage events because as long as they continue to sell out major shows every weekend, they will continue being shady and doing shit like this. It's a miracle something devastating hasn't already happened with how much they oversell every event.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Luckily this year I was able to avoid most of the major issues too, but I won't be going back to the festival. Hopefully we see some news on the lawsuits/government investigation soon.
I went to Ezoo every year from 2015 to 2021 and then I moved to Miami and I am JUST learning about this nightmare from your video! Super informative and very hilarious. Watched the whole thing start to finish. Thank you.
As someone who takes the subway everywhere in NYC, I can only imagine coming from like Brooklyn and needing to ride the train like two hours to get there- only for it to be delayed 💀
Ey you earned yourself a random subscriber from Bali, Indonesia. I myself am a festival director and to listen to all the horrific events happened there, it made me feel like I need to brace myself even more. Thank you for such an engaging video and I'll surely share this video to my festival friends, we all can learn so much from this. Thank you!
Every music festival always ends the same way: greed wins. That’s why I’m either only doing VIP or not going to a festival at all. I’m too old to be waiting in lines for hours.
Really well made video! I personally experienced PTSD at the crowd crush because it reminded me of the 2021 Astroworld fiasco I also experienced. Not to mention the disgusting MegaMirage stage that got manure up my nose and all over my neck.
I went to EZoo and I was extremely lucky with my circumstances. I bought my wristbands ahead of time so it was mailed to me and we didn’t have to wait in the will call line. I also was just supposed to go on Saturday and I was blissfully unaware of most of the shit that happened. I feel so bad for everyone
I've worked for almost every major multi day festival in the nation. It is always chaos the week leading up to the event and usually doesn't stop until it's over. There have been a few exceptions but it's rare that everything runs smoothly and on time. What makes it worse is that it's normal for the promoter to vanish as soon as the event begins. If you look at the most successful and consistent events and their best years you'll see that there are 2 maybe 3 promotion companies that know how to pull it off.
Compared to the situation in europe this is really horrible and also surprising. These kind of problems are simply completely unknown in europe at major festivals
I worked in security management and big a part of that was crowd control. I understand the psychology of crowds, I've studied audience dynamics and the forces that are generated in a movement like that. Everyone is EXTREMELY LUCKY no one died. It's quite frankly a miracle. Under those conditions and with that many people you would expect numerous deaths and dozens of serious injuries. The fact that didn't happen is just blind luck. And for the guy who talks about "good vibes" - the mob doesn't give a f about your "vibes" dude. Thousands of people pushing at the back of a crowd don't even know the front of the crowd exists, or that their light shove turns into hundreds of pounds of force by the time it reaches the front. It's like a tsunami of pressure moving through the crowd, and your "vibes" will not stop it.
I attended Love Parade ( free btw) in Acapulco in 2005. Organization was spotless. We randomly gathered at the main boulevard, far from the venue, and police just took it upon themselves to stop public busses to send the crowd on their way. We got stopped by federal police halfway and you can imagine the scare... everybody pushing their goodies to the back, to no avail as we were joyfully loaded but the feds only checked the drivers papers and told us to be nice and safe. There were over 10000 from all walks of life, security only asked that weapons were checked at the door and by sunrise we were not only sharing water, joints and spiced beers but organized ourselves to pile garbage as our feet were getting stuck in the cans and water bottles. No one got hurt, no fights broke out and it was magical seeing people staying in posh hotels just mingling with those camping on the beach. I really miss those good old times when e music was about love and unity. I still play the sunrise set and break down in tears of joy. Hopefully my 8 year old will get to experience those wonderful parties with her half century old mother, by the time she is of age. Till then, we'll continue raving at home and loving every second of it
This was an amazing video. I didn’t know Ezoo 2023 was that much of a disaster. I’ve never been to one despite living about 40 minutes away from here and a big fan of EDM I just couldn’t get the chance but I was looking forward to coming for the first time in 2023 but luckily I decided not to for whatever reason. Boy did I dodge bullet lmao.
19:51 what’s even more pressing, is anyone in that crowd of people rushing through has no choice but to literally go with the flow! Like you cannot go in the opposite direction of hundreds of people are all rushing in one direction! Have you ever been in a crowd that starts an intense sway?
I was there on Sunday. Compared to past festivals, the main stage was not completed and I also heard alot of the problems at will call with people waiting hours to finally get in. Also, I didn’t find out about what happened on Sunday until we were leaving at the end of the night. We saw the videos of people crashing the gates and metal detectors. This festival was such a fiasco. I’ll be happy if another company buys it and return it into the proper nyc festival that it was.
Man my EDM shows/festivals go way back and I was at EZoo for some of the best and biggest years. It was amazing, and I'm glad those memories aren't tainted from going in 2023. I know a few ppl in the NYC entertainment management scene, and many quietly acknowledge that they try not to work with AG. I was warned when AG bought EZoo, and those warnings were terribly on point.
Really good breakdown, I didn't know much about the AG founders so this was really informative. I feel good in my decision to cut back on shows at Mirage. I was a Friday-only ticket holder and I coated my bathroom in glitter for NO REASON. One of my friends was nearly trampled in the Sunday security breach. I am still waiting on my Chase chargeback...when I was on the phone with the bank rep he started laughing when I said it was for EZOO. Apparently they're being bombarded. I'm glad I got to see 3 days in 2022, because I'm never falling for it again.
A stampede is a dangerous enough situation, the people have to keep moving for their own safety at that point, security pushing people during a stampede is shocking like most important thing when that happens is that everyone stays upright. Security should be helping the crowd move safely and then shut down the show.
these security are often just regular people looking for a job or looking for a way in. there needs to be better training and also people need to understand that they are not entitled to stampede thousands of people just because they want to see a set. people could have died but everyone involved should be held responsible
I watched and enjoyed the entire video despite not knowing much about or being apart of this particular subculture. But when I hit the subscribe button and looked at the subscriber count i was shocked that it was only in the hundreds. You’re going places. 💜
They used to be well managed and truly exhilarating. A bunch of people just chilling and enjoying a common Joy. I don't know what the heck is happening recently
I went to Ezoo a few years ago and I hated it. My wife and I been to many festivals so we know how the little things like how stages sounds, bathrooms, water refill points, and access to the festival makes big difference. We both agreed we will never go back until they fix their issues. I’ve been to some of the biggest festivals and to smaller ones that run festivals better than EZoo. It doesn’t matter how stack the lineup is when you can’t do the little things right. I never imagined it would get this bad.
As a German remembering the Love Parade tragedy I got so freaking tense watching all these people swarming in uncontrolled. I could only watch it because your tone was too light hearted for there to have been serious casualties...
As someone who loves EDM, I have never been to a festival. I'm sure there are some that are awesome, I just have hesitancies on spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to sit in a field for three days straight when I only want to see a few sets there. This video is really confirming my biases. My ideal rave is like a warehouse or a basement somewhere where I can have fun for the night then go home, as other people have said. I don't need giant animals, or thousands of people, or to be in head to toe in body glitter and Vicks.
The world will be fine without a festival like Ezoo. Just go to a music festival with camping and trust me you will never look back. Ezoo 2013 was my first festival and I thought I fell in love, that is of course until I went to Electric forest the following year and realized what a real music festival is suppose to be and feel like. I’ve been going to EF every year since going on year 9 next year.
Exactly what happened to me. I went to EZoo in 2015 had so much fun and went to forest is 2016 and have gone every year since. Never been back to EZoo. Camping festivals are just top tier
@@No1SlapFIGHTFan You can glamp it up if you have the coin - sleep in a real bed in a yurt, there are showers, and I think the yurts have AC too. They do it right at the ranch.
Just go to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Movement). It has a better lineup if you want real techno, house, ghetto tech, electro, etc., and better management. People come from all over the world to attend. There are tons of after parties, hotels, restaurants, clubs. It's been happening since 2000, and is probably the most popular pure electronic music festival in the country.
@@getonwithit.2847 Ghetto tech, booty house. Its a genre native to the midwest (Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Columbus, etc.) DJs like DJ Assault, DJ Godfather, DJ Slugo, DJ Deeon, DJ Funk, Mr. De', Disco D - just to name a few.
As someone who was there……. I feel like Randall’s island is low key cursed because the last festival I went to there was Panorama 2018 and that was a whole mess too
Upset that they dropped the ball so much w this festival because now ARC music festival in Chicago will be a madhouse. Same weekend, incredible house & techno lineup, very well executed the past 3 years since it’s inception. This past year was absurd & it has picked up a lot of hype.
Never heard of this festival, but I've heard about a lot of large festivals that have become disasters, particularly ones more recently. It seems like everyone's seen Wayne's World 2 and think it's gonna be super easy to put together a large music festival with zero experience. Then it all falls over and patrons lose their money. My preferred music isnt played at big outdoor festivals, so I'm naturally immune to these kinds of issues. I did go to a weekend music festival recently, that was niche and spread between four different existing indoor venues (all walking distance from eachother) and it was perfectly well organised even though the organisers were pretty inexperienced. The key: Existing venues (dont need to worry about toilets, water, food and drink vendors, permits or constructing anything) and a niche audience (dont need to worry about crowd control, as attendance is smaller and they'll spread across the different venues). If you want to become a festival organiser, start small so you can gradually learn more and get better and then think about bigger shows. Otherwise you'll have these sorts of videos made about you. Or worse, someone may die at your festival.
Really insightful video! I don’t live in NYC, but I was helping a friend move into her NYU dorm in 2012 Labor Day weekend. Ezoo had cancelled Day 1 that year bc 3 people died at the fest (was before fests started really emphasizing water stations). We ended up going to a warehouse rave in Brooklyn with a bunch of ppl who were supposed to be at the festival and it was a fun time!
Wow this is some great coverage! Thanks for sharing! I feel like so many festivals have been going downhill lately. Lots of overcrowding and poor management. Thats why i prefer smaller fests bc they are more intimate and less corporate greed
It’s real sad that Insomniac stopped doing EDC NY, because EZoo was really the only big EDM festival in the NYC area left after that. I almost thought about going to EZoo this year, but ultimately decided against it (in what turned out to be a wise decision) as I was already pretty festival-ed out for the year after attending Gov Ball. Obviously after the dumpster fire that was this year’s EZoo, I will never be going to EZoo if they somehow manage to survive all this and come back next year. But putting that aside, EZoo likely never coming back is going to leave a huge hole in the EDM scene in NYC that someone else (who knows how to properly run a festival) will now have to fill in. Side note: I’ve heard rumblings that AG was running into financial issues well before EZoo ‘23 happened, so I imagine the financial fallout from this dumpster fire might end up bankrupting the company, which could explain why they’re trying to dispute some of the chargebacks. If they do go under as a result of all this, it’ll be interesting to see who ends up acquiring the remains (including the venues).
@@ovrxposd8652 Well I was more talking about local competition. NYC doesn’t really have the same amount of festival variety an area like SoCal does. For EDM it has basically boiled down to just EZoo or the few EDM acts with crossover appeal that Gov Ball books every year in terms of big EDM festivals.
i hear you. As someone who attended ezoo since 09, i can say it had a super long solid run. EDC had one good year, in NEW JERSEY the first year. They couldn't hang here in NY, that's why it stopped. NYC is for late night/afters marathons, big room clubs & illegal parties... not candi cali plur baby BS. keep that over there. @@MysteryMii
I was a vendor at the event on Randal’s Island the weekend after E Zoo and when I showed up to load in on Friday there was still a ton of equipment, barricades, etc… left from the event that hadn’t been picked up because E Zoo stiffed the suppliers. The organizers for my event said they had spent the last 4 days frantically scrambling to figure out ways to get everything out of there.
LOVED CityFox parties. Was one of the people turned away for the Halloween party. Remember standing waiting so long people started having panic attacks in line. Those parties used to be epic. Complete visual mapping of every surface. But they cut corner after corner after corner
Thank you for making this video and documenting how insane it was. I was there for the whole weekend and it just felt like it kept getting worse and worse🙃
I have absolutely no clue of what has happened at this EZOO event, in fact, I’ve never even heard of it before or the drama surrounding it. Yet I am balls deep in the drama.haha
Thanks for catching me up with the scene, the last ezoo I attended was in 2012 and it was awesome but then I got old and had a kid (see profile photo- his first word, I shit you not, was “BEATS!”), still love that scene and I’m sorry it’s being so poorly managed, clearly it needs someone who loves it enough to do the hard work to make it happen
Very well done video! Just as others said, you piqued my interest and kept me wanting more the entire half-hour watching! I remember seeing older videos on Fyre Festival a couple years back so I knew this’d be good… Unfortunate for all the people who had to endure this terrible experience.
From a festival goer's point of view. I was a little bummed out for friday also. I also went all 3-days. I think the craziest experience for me has got to be how packed it was on sunday. I was lucky and blessed enough to attend tiesto on sunday at the top of the VIP table service area. And, i was overlooking the whole main stage when tiesto was performing and WOW was it PACKED. I'm talking about how it looked like a million little ants were crowded at the whole area. It was actually insane!!
I made this post before even finishing the video. But, as soon as you spoke about saturday will call. It reminded me how insane the line was. I didn't have ticket that day, so me and my friend went scouting for tickets. Luckily we got 2 vip tickets from someone, and as we were lining up to get in. I ended up on the willcall line, and group in front of me actually told me he was online for 4 hours already. And, I told him he was insane for standing there. Not to sound like those a*holes that cut line. But hey i did it! Had to do what you had to do lol
great video!!! I find it absolutely hilarious that the first year I go to Ezoo after a decade in this rave life & this is what happens lmfaoooo. At least it's a crazy story to tell
I had a Friday ticket. My mom also had a ticket, shes gotten pretty into edm and this was meant to be her first rave. She was super excited, I was super excited, but when we were at the NJ transit station in hamilton nj to go to the fesitval, we got the news. The train came and left and there were about 10 of us at the station who were supposed to go to ezoo, just sat there lost and confused. We never got a refund but luckily we disputed the charge. The Firday lineup was amazing and my mom is super bummed her first rave experience was canceled. We not have tickets for Hijinx, hopefully that will be an amazing first expereince for her, and an amazing festical for me.
Awww, my mother and I went dancing several times when she'd come to visit me in NYC. (She used to live here and danced at the Limelight back in the 80s.) Go have fun!
I've seen costs for some festivals escalate, from the time they start selling tickets to the opening day of the festival. By the start of the festival, the festival is going into debt despite selling out. So far, I've seen few corporations and individuals handle this gracefully. I'm happy for the few that handled this gracefully and cancelled their festivals ahead of time while costs could be controlled
I think there’s a bottleneck in our country…I’m noticing similar patterns all over the place since the pandemic. In 2023, I drove on highways out East and saw many poorly organized construction projects with huge traffic lines (7-10 mi long), of which I was a part…lines at stores…airports being bottlenecked with flight schedules somehow…little to no public assistance, CS assistance available…it feels like the pandemic started something awful. The more I look into frauds increasing not just in festivals but many major corporations, ppp loans, and yes, social media…and all of the terrible suffering happening simultaneously in the world (I pray gets better), I am worried. Something is broken in the world and I hope it fixes. It is a bizarre and terrible pattern going on. I think the companies to start, to be actively held peacefully accountable by collective somehow other than boycotting, and more nonviolent collective unity is needed. When are we peacefully protesting, when are the markets crashing…are the two questions I ask myself every year. I am truly sorry everyone.
Can't say it enough but awesome vid David! It's somewhat melancholy that 2023 might have been the last year of Ezoo but the scene and the people in it deserve better. For all you out there that might want to check something somewhat comparable to fill the void in 2024, Elements Music Festival in PA has been fantastic the last 2 years. Highly recommend!
Thank you so much for being part of the video! I've heard good things about Elements and Lost Lands a bit further west. Hoping to be able to check those out at some point
Event organizers refuse to let things sell out anymore, because a sold out show is "lost money" in their eyes, when in reality, a sold out show builds more hype and allows you to actually create an experience that isn't going to suck.
Man, I'm in my 30's now and I never thought I would be like my parents, but I'm just thinking of having kids of age to go to these events and how much I would be protesting to my wife about them being able to attend.
Great in depth and thorough video! I went to Ezoo this year and I feel like I was one of the lucky ones. Although Friday was canceled and it felt a lil packed, overall I had a good time. Probably wouldn't attend next year though knowing how they messed up big time in many different areas.
![Quando Rondo - Life Goes On [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eIf3fhMXAow/mqdefault.jpg)
who is shack? u put up a pic of dj diesel
If y'all are gonna boycott you need to actually commit to boycotting. Especially lately I've noticed companies are getting real BOLD with stealing people's money, not delivering on what they promised, and creating situations where people get hurt and they don't care. They know people are gonna continue to support and at most they'll have a few months of poor PR and it's getting ridiculous.
Fr. Reminds me of people who boycott unethical companies, but they're not really doing it, they only pick and choose the companies they boycott and they're extremely inconsistent about it. Like that doesn't make any change
@@josf9616 I really do hate buzzwords and the like but slacktivism does seems more prevalent nowadays. It can do good and has done good in the past however, it shouldn't take the place of actual activist work.
@josf9616 craziest part. The companies that do get the flak for bad practices only take superficial damage bc there are like two to three more parent shell companies that own it and only like 8 major corporations actually own everything.
Like the people screaming F Ezoo after they spent money at a Ezoo event
Getting? Wow and what are you gonna do with this new found sense of inspiration? Make a meaningless reply on a RUclips video! What a Leader
"it's hard to boycott them [AG]" simply don't buy tickets where their name is attached. you don't HAVE to go to concerts esp when this city is so easily accessible to others!
Not hard for me. There are so many great clubs and parties in this city. It's very easy to not go there.
So true, I'm glad someone finally said it - Also it's not hard at all to quit a crippling fentanyl addiction, simply don't buy bags of drugs that have fentanyl in them 🧠🧠🧠🧠
Genius. 😂
there's nothing more chaotic than hearing drum n bass during a stampede
Remember Love Parade 2010
magic people voodoo people
😂😂😂😂
Music matches the current theme
Not if you keep the beat!😅
I had the displeasure of actually working on the stagebuilds at this years EZOO. As a huge fan of the past EZOO's, I was actually excited to be apart of it. But it became apparent very quickly that there was an extreme lack of planning and mismanagment going on. Equipment was all over the place and plans for certain stages were finalized just days before the festival. These types of stages take time and precision to do correctly and safely. I think AG bit off way more than they could chew by adding Mega Mirage, which to me was completely uneccesary. You cannot plan a festival of that size and scale logistically in just a week, espeically when your mainstage is one the largest structures in the world. On top of all of that, they failed to pay crew timely and wasted hours while crew sat and waited for back pay. So its no wonder they haven't issued any refunds of the sort and are activiely disputing chargebacks. I can almost gaurantee they will not be allowed to host a festival next year unless its completely sold to another company.
This was very insightful, thank you!
I didn't work it myself, but as someone who works in the production industry I had a lot of friends on the build and everyone I talked to said it was a mess. I heard that they didn't bring in Stagehands from IATSE until Friday, up until then it was just freelancers, and not enough of them. Nor did they rent enough gear to build the stage designs that were initially planned leading to last minute changes. As a Lighting Designer myself it's appalling how little the logistics of this industry were respected by EZoos owners and staff. Most of the teams behind festivals of this scale work with the Production Designers, Venue, Labor Provider, and Gear Vendors for months sometimes even almost the entire year between festival to make sure everyone knows whats going on to ensure that all the needed labor, gear, permits, engineering approvals, and infrastructure are all in place and ready to go by the time doors open.
My team provided the majority of the equipment on site. That process alone, they're requests, were enough to let us know it was going to be a shit show. We don't even know if we're going to support them should AG still be involved.
@@raymijumbihow does one become a part of such a team? I’ve been attending these sorts of events for over 10 years and finally have a chance to pursue an educational route relating to something in this field due to my current job paying for education. But I hear most of the people in this field get in through good connections and that an education isn’t exactly necessary. What would you recommend for someone who would like to make a career out of making these events happen?
@@christopherburgos9957get ahold of your local stagehand union.
Charging for water at a festival is nasty work. Where I live, they set up whole hydration stations, and you’re allowed to bring an empty bottle into the venue to use them. It’s literally just four counters under a tent with about 8-10 filtered water taps on each. Event planners are out of control
event planners know EXACTLY what they're doing, it's about making more back from insurance than they'd make if the event went off with no issues, these events are designed to be as chaotic and unpleasant for the fans as possible, that way you get scenes like the gate rush, they cancel the event citing "safety concerns" and blame external factors (fan behavior, local authorities, overzealous security/police etc) they then go to their insurance company and blaming the "external factors" that were 100% caused and deliberately planned by them ask for a pay out, some of those payments for event cancellation can be in the millions of dollars, so instead of making like 500k for an event of this size suddenly they're making 1 million/2 million dollars and they don't have to pay the artists because they never played, don't have to pay staff/crew/security for cancelled days and if they make getting a refund as difficult as possible they don't have to pay back 70% of the fans meaning they can pocket 90% of that payment they got from the insurance and suddenly they're an overnight millionaire.
@@protectandsurvivelivinghis3206 that’s disgusting…. Jesus. Thank you for your contribution! This information is definitely gonna be useful for me when choosing festivals. I’ve heard some horror stories, so I’m already wary.
I think they're actually required to do that in some places. I remember being at festivals one year and then the next. The first year, it was mad max. The next, there was plenty of water.
@@dfailsthemost it is hot as balls where I live, so that makes sense 🤣🤣
It just bums me out. You have an outdoor event in the summer, and you charge for water????!!! It’s uncouth
They used to have water stations for those who had bottles but this was pre Covid haven’t been back since
"The mega mirage stage smelled like poop."
I hope that quote is used in next year's promo.
Well I had to go... I shouldn't have eaten that glitter... At least it looked interesting.
Someone should put it on a tshirt and make their money back ha
I’m done. 💀
I throw underground parties in warehouses and ive learned a lot of lessons. We all want to throw huge parties with 1000s of people but over the years you realise that the more people you get the more things you need to plan and manage so you need to find the sweet spot where you put on a world class show while being able to cater to every person that attends and supports you. Trying to go too big too quick ALWAYS results in the attendees suffering due to your own poor project management experience and skills. If you cant do the little things right youll never be able to do the big things right.
Tell me the details, I'll be there
Think a good example is Kai Cenat giving away Playstation 5's and what not in New York City. Something that seems like a harmless, fun thing can turn into hell with out the proper planning.
I do the same here in toronto, and i couldn’t agree more!
What party do you throw?
Local law enforcement were stunned with our Midnight Sun Festival on Værøy. 3000 people and no fights.
"Someone threw a water bottle! That could have started a fight!" TRUTH. My parents were at a rock and roll festival while mom was pregnant with me. Someone threw a water bottle at her which hit her head. That was the first and so far only time that mom saw dad punch a man lmao
Doom in the Womb. Rumble in the Bubble. The fight of your life. Must have been crazy for you to spectate
Definitely go read the book called Amongst the Thugs about chaos in mass crowds of English football fans
@@kaydwessie296 go dad!
Your mom is a dumbass for going to a festival while pregnant
That guy you interviewed that said he didn’t think the stampede was unsafe because everyone has good and positive vibes is a an absolute dunce lmao
Exactly what I think. Obviously he wasn't paying attention.
Man was off the Tesla spreading PLUR while Becky getting trampled 💀
Typical NYC voter
Honestly everyone in this video that paid for ezoo in 2024 is an absolute dunce.
Drugs are funny things. 😂
As a 52 year old Brit who raved in aircraft hangars And warehouses in the Summer of Love in the late 80s.. you kids need to ditch the corporations! Do it yourself .. all you need are DJs .. decks .. sound system and a space .. you’re way ahead of that mess straight away! The raves back in the day lasted days on end .. it’s got to be a better and cheaper option!!
Let's bring it back!
Aircraft carries really? Wow that is wild.
No joke. Rando bando rave baby! These kids are organized to the point of no fun.
43 yr old raver turned biker here. Good sir, you speak the truth. Corporate turns to shit.
Yeah im just seeing that Ezoo has been terrible since inception, I can't believe it was ever considered good.
almost got trampled 😢 it was so scary. i was at the front for tiesto and slowly everyone started to freak out and try to run out- i’ve been raving for 6 years and this traumatized me
Oh my, sorry you had to experience that!
Wow that sounds awful!
Holy shit I'm glad you made it out ok! Festivals really need to put safely as a top priority
“It’s hard to boycott them” but not impossible. Or at the very least sit out EZoo. This is what I personally find so tiring about where we’re at in our consumerist culture. People will literally spit in the buyer’s faces and next week we’re back to normal as if nothing ever happened.
Agree, at the very least sit out Ezoo
It’s difficult to sit out when there’s so many artists you wanna see in one place in one weekend in your home state.
Yeah consumerism and all that… but you’re talking live music from artists who you may not get the chance to see again for a year or longer, or never.
If you don’t do things because of money, you’re gonna miss out on a lot because let’s be real… everything is a money grab and everyone is pulling at our emotions to get what they want
@@mcgritty8842 I mean that’s entirely the crux of it though - nobody is willing to stand on principle. They’d rather let bad things slide as long as nobody dies pretty much. It’s giving “beaten wife,” “maybe he’ll love me if I give him another chance”- behavior. Plenty people are willing to just have a good good time for a quick buck. It’s exactly why the state of the world is in the state it is - people value their own immediate comfort over small discomfort for the betterment of people as a whole.
@@mcgritty8842 genuine question, maybe there's something up with me, i get that in some ways these kind of events are once in a life time. but why would you suffer self allowed disrespect and indignity for a chance to participate in the event? this isn't one of those "the universe wasn't aligned" moments, you're choosing the real chance that you would go through all this again. what keeps you from putting that energy towards finding, following, and attending indie, niche, or otherwise smaller artists who you may discover to enjoy, or just follow alternative venues for your favorite artists. why would you suffer dealing with people who would rather you suffer heat stroke, piss yourself, get possibly tramples or harassed in a stampede, but not suffer the effort to take your business and passions elsewhere?
I can't make any assumptions on free time and money, but if the effort can be put into putting up with a sequel to this disaster, why not take that effort elsewhere for the sake of what you enjoy from the event?
@@CaulkMongler Bingo.
Holding a rave at a Superfund site is literally something out of the plot of a zombie apocalypse movie.
We almost there
This is literally an entire multi-episode arc on The Fall of the House of Usher show on Netflix!
? What's that
Love canal
After all the crowd crushes throughout history, the video of people stepping over the barricade to get in made my hair stand on end. I would have left right then if I saw that.
Why? Crowd crushes happen when people get pinned against barriers. They were jumping the barrier, so they couldn't be crushed.
It's surprising how much ravers will put up with for the festival experience
You put up with a lot of crap when you're pumped up with drugs 💀😂😂
The good raves still happen, but we keep them small and secret. I was there when these festivals started and it was the end. I am glad my group found our own way.
They are great for the first few years. Once it becomes popular, don't go. It's terrible
The drugs do a lot of the heavy lifting
@@pamelalansbury94 it's a shame, because concert promoters get away with too much BS at festivals
You're right about security. I work seasonal security. So far we are handling college graduation. People come to the event with the weirdest things. I'm searching bags like, "This is a graduation, not a survival training event."
A crowd crush is one of my worst nightmares of what can happen at a festival up there with an active shooter. I was at Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge in Washington state camping all days both 2022 and 2023 this year and there was an active shooter at the campgrounds which left 2 people dead and some injured.
I was already in the event and they did not release any statement after the time (I believe they wanted to avoid a stampede or people going back to the campground where the situation was happening) but rumors were going around so we had to hear through word of mouth and not know if this person got into the event as well or not and it was super unnerving not knowing if we were safe or not. Quite a few artists also pulled out so we would be going to a stage and someone totally different was playing so you could tell something was up.
I definitely believe some of the people could have had weapons who rushed the gates at Ezoo and even if they didn’t overcrowding and stampedes can cause a crush and mass casualties. Stay safe and keep the plur alive everyone
I heard about Beyond Wonderland, actually. So tragic. I'm glad you were able to avoid the shooter and make it out
I live in WA and have multiple friends who went to wonderland and I heard nothing and had no idea! That’s so horrible.
@DavidHanada yeah we had to have friends outside the event doing research on local news to let us know what was happening. My one bud has a friend he calls chopper 5 cause she so on top of the news.
Took awhile to get the whole story. It was actually quite tragic. The two that died were a lesbian couple that got in between a dude arguing with his gf. The gf got shot but was saved because those two girls got in the way, truly a couple of guardian angels. Also shout out to the staffer that showed up first took a bullet to the face, and had it deflect off her glasses she was the one that got the call out to authorities and got everyone to start getting away from the scene. Honestly the whole situation was really sad. RIP to the couple that saved that girl. 🙏
I don’t know how much longer rave culture will last if I’m honest. And PLUR isn’t taken to heart as much anymore sadly
EDM is about money. Underground scene is about music. Always has been.
Name 1 thing that isn't
@@roydark The DJS dont play live they are pre recorded sets. Dont try and tell me its about the production because other live acts can manage to sync the two together. A proper DJ reads a crowd and plays tunes accordingly to suit a particular night.
Its just my opinion mate dont wind yourself up over it. You have yours and thats all good. I have been in the industry for over 25 years and its just what I have seen and heard from punters and artists and myself.
All good;-)
@@petelewisNZ No shit sherlock, everyone knows that since like 15 years ago, now you are going to tell me that people were not DJing with vinyls 30 years ago for money. You are not the only one with decades in the scene, gasp that.
@@roydark ha ha like I said it was my opinion. Yes of course they were getting paid, tens of thousands for a set no. I never said I was the only one with decades in the scene, ha ha chill bruv
@@petelewisNZ Lol no, DJs have been "celebrities" since the 70s, you do know that DJing started back in the 50s, right? clubs/disco scenes have been paying DJs big bucks for so long, the festival scene is pretty new compared to the actual history of DJing, also a "set" was not adopted as a term in the DJing scene untill the 90s.
All I gotta say is that I worked as a food vendor for ezoo, and they left EVERYONE including section managers in the dust of what was going on.
Smh
This is not only this festival. If something gets cancelled because of weather the vendors are always the last ones to get the news. In my case one day was cancelled because of heavy rain and everyone knew about it but because they didn't had a clear answer for the vendors I still had to travel to the festival. I could have just stayed home instead of travelling there and making my tent in full rain 😤
I'm glad am a boring person, I stay home, don't do much.
Same here! I usually stay home, and read books, or smoke meat
Am outside house ! 😮
It's just a fest. I've been to many. Lots of money loss. And your good time is predicated by someone elses work. It's better when you have control overall. And way to overcrowded.
I eat protein bars with nuts in it.
Same with thees people who go to stuff like this... boring, but loud.
That guy on the interview who said he didn't feel unsafe because "ravers take care of each other" clearly doesn't know the dynamic of panic / stampede situations and is looking at it through rose-tinted glasses. A good example is the love parade disaster of 2010 in Germany. No one meant to hurt other people, but people died and got injured. Same with the 2022 Halloweed disaster in Korea. Also....this makes me appreciate festivals like Fusion and Nation of Gondwana in Germany. Always spotless organisation and you can only get through lottery into Fusion.
Someone else also mentioned Love Parade 2010, I had to look that up. What a disaster
I attended Ezoo every year (except for 2022) since 2017, including Ezoo Cancun in 2021 which was a disaster on its own that I feel like no one talks about. 2017 was a great year and the stage design was amazing so I fell in love. I bought one ticket for Friday and two tickets for Sunday for 2023 as well as a 3 day day (bc it was cheaper then two individual days) and one single day ferry pass for sunday. I had just gotten out of the shower when my coworker let me know that Friday was cancelled. I was super bummed and spent my day trying to find an event to go to but everything was either sold out within minutes or overpriced or both. I nearly got tickets for ATLiens but the show started at midnight and that was just to late for me so I decided against it.
Luckily for Sunday, I got into the festival around 4:30pm. I saw one set, then needed to sit and get some food because the sun was beaming and I hadn't eaten all day so I felt like I was going to pass out. Finally around 6pm when Tiesto was set to come on stage, my partner and I find a good enough spot to watch the show. I quickly realize that there was no way of moving closer to the stage because the crowd was insanely dense and in all my years of attending I had never been that far back from the main stage. I looked around and saw just how packed the area truly was, and was afraid of an emergency happening because the exit out of the area was through a small "hole in the wall" that they built. I also witnessed someone have a seizure during the set (not sure if it was drug related or not) and it was a terrifying thing to witness.
Among other issues, there were no handwashing stations near the porta potties, only hand sanitizer. They removed the 21+ section that usually had the trailer bathrooms. Food was overpriced per usual. The tvs at the stages didn't work and they let anyone onto the ferries without checking wristbands so I literally wasted my money.
My dispute with citibank got denied unfortunately even though I sent them mountains of proof that the services received were not as advertised and I don't know how else to get my money back. I refuse to go to AG or any venue that they own, no matter the DJ that is playing. I refuse to give them more of my money when they have not even made an attempt to rectify my losses with EZoo. A festival that was very close my heart is now ruined forever thanks to corporate greed.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience! Hopefully the refunds come soon. I haven't been to any AG event since and won't go until there's real change
2017 was the only year I went and it was such a good time, Oliver Heldens into Malaa into Rezz into Drezo into Wax Motif into Brohug at Riverside was insane! Glad I experienced it at its peak apparently.
The lesson here is be selective where you spend your money. Not all festivals are built the same. I have been going to music festivals for 30 years. Venue and the ins and outs have become my top criteria for attending a festival, which is why I’d never attend EZoo. Last thing I want to do after raving for +8 hrs is spend +2 hrs trying to get back to a hotel. And def outgrew the camping festivals…sleep is beautiful. Personally I dig city centered festivals such as Lollapalooza(Chicago), Global (Denver), EDC Orlando, Miami Music Week or even Art Basel. Of course being a lil more selective isn’t necessarily as budget friendly but….more joy and less stress per dollar spent is worth it to me.
I'm def trying to hit up an EDC at some point. Venue really is important, I agree
Movement in Detroit is wonderful! They have their shit together and truly do care about their patrons. Highly recommend!
I would never consider going to a festival any larger than 10K. My fav is Noisly set in a forest. Magical.
That stampede footage was so scary! It's honestly a miracle no one got seriously injured in that.
This was really well edited and paced. Kept me interested and engaged the entire half hour. Well done!
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed
@@DavidHanada Hijacking the other guys comment, as an ex raver I can promise you that a few people brought weapons in. Thankfully it sounds like none were used. There's *always* a couple dozen total a-holes who bring knives and other things for the purpose of "protection". It's more common the bigger the crowd size but I feel like that can be said about most events with less than stellar security and planning.
Damn it was half an hour!
Same! His humor was also on point lol
Agreed
A majority of my clients are EDM staff (engineers, producers, lighting, etc) - and I've just started becoming enamored with EDM myself. THIS video was gold to find - amazing research, very good commentary, and best of all - the guy's not annoying, just genuinely pissed and wants answers. So he finds them - great video!
Thank you!!
I watched your video from start to finish without giving it a second thought - I was totally enthralled. After watching the Fyre Fest documentary and the crowd surge at Astroworld 2021, this kind of content really put into perspective the countless layers of logistics that are demanded in the industry; to organize a gargantuan festival that is not only catered to their audience, but convenient and *SAFE* for us to participate in.
I took some time to read the comments, because I wanted see other peoples' stories on this, but when I scrolled back up the page, I did a double take. 12,847 views and 442 subscribers..? I thought I was hallucinating.
While watching your video, I didn't second guess the production quality. My guy, I was expecting MILLIONS of views, because this is worth the watch. I really hope you continue to produce documentary-style commentaries, because you have a talent for not only researching the information, but arranging it in a manner that is easily digestible for us, as viewers.
You've earned yourself a subscriber. Keep up the great work, NYC Out Loud.
:)
Thank you so much for the kind words! Recently I've been putting in a lot of effort trying to get better as an editor. It's all self taught so it feels good to get positive feedback like yours!
lol this guy thinks popularity and merit are connected
thanks for the video! One thing that is very shocking to me is: the sheer volume of attendants still chose to funnel into the proposed venue, despite the mountain of evidence that the festival was not being coordinated to the degree an event of this size should. I love music, and I love concerts, but no sound is worth risking your life, your health, or your able bodiedness. The second thing that was most shocking was at the end: that people's answers was not an unequivocal no to the idea of attending in 2024 horrifies me - how much incompetence does an event planning organization have to display before putting your safety, the safety of your friends, and the safety of fellow music lovers in jeopardy become unacceptable?
Great video. You really did a fantastic job at covering all the angles in which they monumentally screwed up. I've gone every year since 2018 and the fall off in quality after AG purchased the festival was insane. To be honest, this year I was able to avoid most of the major issues people were faced with and personally had an awesome weekend, but I just refuse to continue giving money to a company that clearly could not care less if people are safe and have a good experience or not. I strongly encourage people to stop attending AG/Mirage events because as long as they continue to sell out major shows every weekend, they will continue being shady and doing shit like this. It's a miracle something devastating hasn't already happened with how much they oversell every event.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Luckily this year I was able to avoid most of the major issues too, but I won't be going back to the festival. Hopefully we see some news on the lawsuits/government investigation soon.
I went to Ezoo every year from 2015 to 2021 and then I moved to Miami and I am JUST learning about this nightmare from your video! Super informative and very hilarious. Watched the whole thing start to finish. Thank you.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it
As someone who takes the subway everywhere in NYC, I can only imagine coming from like Brooklyn and needing to ride the train like two hours to get there- only for it to be delayed 💀
Literally me but luckily I was still home when they announced it 😭
That’s probably a fun time compared to those that flew out with no hotel reservations the first night 😂
Lets not forget that there are other things happening that same weekend in NYC.
"I was dressed i was glittered" lolol shes awesome
Ey you earned yourself a random subscriber from Bali, Indonesia. I myself am a festival director and to listen to all the horrific events happened there, it made me feel like I need to brace myself even more. Thank you for such an engaging video and I'll surely share this video to my festival friends, we all can learn so much from this. Thank you!
Thank you so much! Let me know when your next festival is I've never been to Bali
@@DavidHanada Let me know when you're around, I can show you around the island!
Love the vibes here, my friend! This is awesome! Keep up the amazing work 😍
Thank you! I appreciate it
Every time festivals go wrong but I see people do pop-ups or make their afterparties extra lit, it still gives me hope
Every music festival always ends the same way: greed wins.
That’s why I’m either only doing VIP or not going to a festival at all. I’m too old to be waiting in lines for hours.
Theyre still using "global supply chain disruptions" as an excuse? Meanwhile festivals like edc, tomorrowland, Ultra, etc have been going on
Exactly smh
"rich enough to be persistent" is too accurate...
We'll get there one day
Really well made video! I personally experienced PTSD at the crowd crush because it reminded me of the 2021 Astroworld fiasco I also experienced. Not to mention the disgusting MegaMirage stage that got manure up my nose and all over my neck.
Thank you! I'm sorry you had to go through that crowd crush. What a disaster
I appreciate your fire extinguisher in the background.
Haha thank you
I went to EZoo and I was extremely lucky with my circumstances. I bought my wristbands ahead of time so it was mailed to me and we didn’t have to wait in the will call line. I also was just supposed to go on Saturday and I was blissfully unaware of most of the shit that happened. I feel so bad for everyone
Pretty much my situation. We're lucky haha, glad you had a good time
I've worked for almost every major multi day festival in the nation. It is always chaos the week leading up to the event and usually doesn't stop until it's over. There have been a few exceptions but it's rare that everything runs smoothly and on time. What makes it worse is that it's normal for the promoter to vanish as soon as the event begins.
If you look at the most successful and consistent events and their best years you'll see that there are 2 maybe 3 promotion companies that know how to pull it off.
FunFunFun (before the corporate entity took over)
Compared to the situation in europe this is really horrible and also surprising.
These kind of problems are simply completely unknown in europe at major festivals
I worked in security management and big a part of that was crowd control. I understand the psychology of crowds, I've studied audience dynamics and the forces that are generated in a movement like that. Everyone is EXTREMELY LUCKY no one died. It's quite frankly a miracle. Under those conditions and with that many people you would expect numerous deaths and dozens of serious injuries. The fact that didn't happen is just blind luck. And for the guy who talks about "good vibes" - the mob doesn't give a f about your "vibes" dude. Thousands of people pushing at the back of a crowd don't even know the front of the crowd exists, or that their light shove turns into hundreds of pounds of force by the time it reaches the front. It's like a tsunami of pressure moving through the crowd, and your "vibes" will not stop it.
@@ct5625 really crazy stuff
I attended Love Parade ( free btw) in Acapulco in 2005. Organization was spotless. We randomly gathered at the main boulevard, far from the venue, and police just took it upon themselves to stop public busses to send the crowd on their way. We got stopped by federal police halfway and you can imagine the scare... everybody pushing their goodies to the back, to no avail as we were joyfully loaded but the feds only checked the drivers papers and told us to be nice and safe. There were over 10000 from all walks of life, security only asked that weapons were checked at the door and by sunrise we were not only sharing water, joints and spiced beers but organized ourselves to pile garbage as our feet were getting stuck in the cans and water bottles. No one got hurt, no fights broke out and it was magical seeing people staying in posh hotels just mingling with those camping on the beach. I really miss those good old times when e music was about love and unity. I still play the sunrise set and break down in tears of joy. Hopefully my 8 year old will get to experience those wonderful parties with her half century old mother, by the time she is of age. Till then, we'll continue raving at home and loving every second of it
This was an amazing video. I didn’t know Ezoo 2023 was that much of a disaster. I’ve never been to one despite living about 40 minutes away from here and a big fan of EDM I just couldn’t get the chance but I was looking forward to coming for the first time in 2023 but luckily I decided not to for whatever reason. Boy did I dodge bullet lmao.
Thank you! I'm glad you decided not to go lol
19:51 what’s even more pressing, is anyone in that crowd of people rushing through has no choice but to literally go with the flow! Like you cannot go in the opposite direction of hundreds of people are all rushing in one direction! Have you ever been in a crowd that starts an intense sway?
I have not but yes the whole situation was crazy!
Happy to keep the memories of this festival from 2015-2018 as happy ones
Jealous! I'm glad you experienced those
I found this coverage really compelling, and glad you could do a deep dive on what happened! Thanks for the vid.
Thank you for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed
I was there on Sunday. Compared to past festivals, the main stage was not completed and I also heard alot of the problems at will call with people waiting hours to finally get in. Also, I didn’t find out about what happened on Sunday until we were leaving at the end of the night. We saw the videos of people crashing the gates and metal detectors. This festival was such a fiasco. I’ll be happy if another company buys it and return it into the proper nyc festival that it was.
Hopefully things change
"in one ear you heard dubstep, in the other drum and bass"
Coming from UK and seeing what type of festival this is, I highly doubt that.
Thank you Daniel Shutt, very cool!
Bri'ish think all electronic music sounds like Marshmello, apparently
They can season neither their food nor their music
@@KaaneDragonShinobiwe know dubstep, it ain't what they play at US festivals.
Man my EDM shows/festivals go way back and I was at EZoo for some of the best and biggest years. It was amazing, and I'm glad those memories aren't tainted from going in 2023. I know a few ppl in the NYC entertainment management scene, and many quietly acknowledge that they try not to work with AG. I was warned when AG bought EZoo, and those warnings were terribly on point.
Really good breakdown, I didn't know much about the AG founders so this was really informative. I feel good in my decision to cut back on shows at Mirage. I was a Friday-only ticket holder and I coated my bathroom in glitter for NO REASON. One of my friends was nearly trampled in the Sunday security breach.
I am still waiting on my Chase chargeback...when I was on the phone with the bank rep he started laughing when I said it was for EZOO. Apparently they're being bombarded. I'm glad I got to see 3 days in 2022, because I'm never falling for it again.
Thank you! I'm glad you found it informative :) I'm sorry to hear about your friend
Glitter is always a bad choice. There is never a good reason for the devils dandruff! 😂😅
A stampede is a dangerous enough situation, the people have to keep moving for their own safety at that point, security pushing people during a stampede is shocking like most important thing when that happens is that everyone stays upright. Security should be helping the crowd move safely and then shut down the show.
these security are often just regular people looking for a job or looking for a way in. there needs to be better training and also people need to understand that they are not entitled to stampede thousands of people just because they want to see a set. people could have died but everyone involved should be held responsible
And now there will be less cops in NYC to handle situations like this
I watched and enjoyed the entire video despite not knowing much about or being apart of this particular subculture. But when I hit the subscribe button and looked at the subscriber count i was shocked that it was only in the hundreds. You’re going places. 💜
Thank you so much!! More to come
I'm not into edm… I'm just here for the PIPPING HOT TEA 🍵😂
*Irony:* “It’s literally called, ‘Electric Zoo’”
☠️
I will never understand the appeal of these gigantic festivals, I hear more horror stories than anything else.
They used to be well managed and truly exhilarating. A bunch of people just chilling and enjoying a common Joy. I don't know what the heck is happening recently
I went to Ezoo a few years ago and I hated it. My wife and I been to many festivals so we know how the little things like how stages sounds, bathrooms, water refill points, and access to the festival makes big difference. We both agreed we will never go back until they fix their issues. I’ve been to some of the biggest festivals and to smaller ones that run festivals better than EZoo. It doesn’t matter how stack the lineup is when you can’t do the little things right. I never imagined it would get this bad.
Same, I won't go back. I need to check out some of the other festivals, I'm pretty new to the scene.
these company's have not learned from Woodstock '99. WTF
Had to google that...omg
@GothamTalk yea some crazy shit went down. I think there is a documentary on netflix or amazon or something about it
I just found it on Netflix if anyone catches this comment - "Trainwreck" on Netflix
Not even the Woodstock guy learnt from Woodstock, though. He's a reverse King Midas - everything he touches turns to shit
As a German remembering the Love Parade tragedy I got so freaking tense watching all these people swarming in uncontrolled. I could only watch it because your tone was too light hearted for there to have been serious casualties...
I'm glad there weren't any serious casualties at Ezoo (that I heard about)
Man.... Ezoo 2017 was a vibe. The animal stages were unmatched.
As someone who loves EDM, I have never been to a festival. I'm sure there are some that are awesome, I just have hesitancies on spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to sit in a field for three days straight when I only want to see a few sets there. This video is really confirming my biases.
My ideal rave is like a warehouse or a basement somewhere where I can have fun for the night then go home, as other people have said. I don't need giant animals, or thousands of people, or to be in head to toe in body glitter and Vicks.
Oh the days of rolling and Vicks
Thank you for shining a light on this tragedy. Let the history books reflect the true history of e zoo.
You are welcome! Thanks for watching
The world will be fine without a festival like Ezoo. Just go to a music festival with camping and trust me you will never look back. Ezoo 2013 was my first festival and I thought I fell in love, that is of course until I went to Electric forest the following year and realized what a real music festival is suppose to be and feel like. I’ve been going to EF every year since going on year 9 next year.
Will have to check that out!
Camping sounds terrible.
Exactly what happened to me. I went to EZoo in 2015 had so much fun and went to forest is 2016 and have gone every year since. Never been back to EZoo. Camping festivals are just top tier
@@No1SlapFIGHTFan You can glamp it up if you have the coin - sleep in a real bed in a yurt, there are showers, and I think the yurts have AC too. They do it right at the ranch.
@No1SlapFIGHTFan camping shows are awesome, you gotta hit up Hulaween someday, it'll change your life.
Just go to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (Movement). It has a better lineup if you want real techno, house, ghetto tech, electro, etc., and better management. People come from all over the world to attend. There are tons of after parties, hotels, restaurants, clubs. It's been happening since 2000, and is probably the most popular pure electronic music festival in the country.
Cool! Gonna have to read up on that
Detroit Ghetto Tech 😸
What's ghetto techno lol
@@getonwithit.2847 Ghetto tech, booty house. Its a genre native to the midwest (Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Columbus, etc.) DJs like DJ Assault, DJ Godfather, DJ Slugo, DJ Deeon, DJ Funk, Mr. De', Disco D - just to name a few.
@GhostlyEcheveria yooo what !!!?? 🤣. I'm curious as fuck now lol. When I RUclipsd ghetto techno jay-z popped up lol.
As someone who was there……. I feel like Randall’s island is low key cursed because the last festival I went to there was Panorama 2018 and that was a whole mess too
Upset that they dropped the ball so much w this festival because now ARC music festival in Chicago will be a madhouse. Same weekend, incredible house & techno lineup, very well executed the past 3 years since it’s inception. This past year was absurd & it has picked up a lot of hype.
Never heard of this festival, but I've heard about a lot of large festivals that have become disasters, particularly ones more recently. It seems like everyone's seen Wayne's World 2 and think it's gonna be super easy to put together a large music festival with zero experience. Then it all falls over and patrons lose their money.
My preferred music isnt played at big outdoor festivals, so I'm naturally immune to these kinds of issues. I did go to a weekend music festival recently, that was niche and spread between four different existing indoor venues (all walking distance from eachother) and it was perfectly well organised even though the organisers were pretty inexperienced. The key: Existing venues (dont need to worry about toilets, water, food and drink vendors, permits or constructing anything) and a niche audience (dont need to worry about crowd control, as attendance is smaller and they'll spread across the different venues).
If you want to become a festival organiser, start small so you can gradually learn more and get better and then think about bigger shows. Otherwise you'll have these sorts of videos made about you. Or worse, someone may die at your festival.
thats fucking hilarious that theyre taking the time to fighting the chargebacks.
Really insightful video! I don’t live in NYC, but I was helping a friend move into her NYU dorm in 2012 Labor Day weekend. Ezoo had cancelled Day 1 that year bc 3 people died at the fest (was before fests started really emphasizing water stations). We ended up going to a warehouse rave in Brooklyn with a bunch of ppl who were supposed to be at the festival and it was a fun time!
Thank you! I'm sorry you had to go through that, I'm glad you still had a good night!
I can confirm the security crowd in Avant Gardner is horrible. Always violent and rude. They literally ruin the night since the beginning
Yep; absolutely. Pure trash club owners. It starts from the top. You always know how awful the owners are by their staff.
Wow this is some great coverage! Thanks for sharing! I feel like so many festivals have been going downhill lately. Lots of overcrowding and poor management. Thats why i prefer smaller fests bc they are more intimate and less corporate greed
Thank you! I'm gonna have to find some smaller ones too
It’s real sad that Insomniac stopped doing EDC NY, because EZoo was really the only big EDM festival in the NYC area left after that. I almost thought about going to EZoo this year, but ultimately decided against it (in what turned out to be a wise decision) as I was already pretty festival-ed out for the year after attending Gov Ball. Obviously after the dumpster fire that was this year’s EZoo, I will never be going to EZoo if they somehow manage to survive all this and come back next year. But putting that aside, EZoo likely never coming back is going to leave a huge hole in the EDM scene in NYC that someone else (who knows how to properly run a festival) will now have to fill in.
Side note: I’ve heard rumblings that AG was running into financial issues well before EZoo ‘23 happened, so I imagine the financial fallout from this dumpster fire might end up bankrupting the company, which could explain why they’re trying to dispute some of the chargebacks. If they do go under as a result of all this, it’ll be interesting to see who ends up acquiring the remains (including the venues).
EDC sucked in NY and failed so… yea
@@ovrxposd8652 Well I was more talking about local competition. NYC doesn’t really have the same amount of festival variety an area like SoCal does. For EDM it has basically boiled down to just EZoo or the few EDM acts with crossover appeal that Gov Ball books every year in terms of big EDM festivals.
i hear you. As someone who attended ezoo since 09, i can say it had a super long solid run. EDC had one good year, in NEW JERSEY the first year. They couldn't hang here in NY, that's why it stopped. NYC is for late night/afters marathons, big room clubs & illegal parties... not candi cali plur baby BS. keep that over there. @@MysteryMii
I was a vendor at the event on Randal’s Island the weekend after E Zoo and when I showed up to load in on Friday there was still a ton of equipment, barricades, etc… left from the event that hadn’t been picked up because E Zoo stiffed the suppliers. The organizers for my event said they had spent the last 4 days frantically scrambling to figure out ways to get everything out of there.
I heard the same story from someone else. Just awful from Ezoo
This was very well done. Good to see a modern face of the current NY scene, even under these circumstances. Thank you for this.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed
This is not even my scene, but i watched this whole video. 👍
Thank you!
LOVED CityFox parties. Was one of the people turned away for the Halloween party. Remember standing waiting so long people started having panic attacks in line.
Those parties used to be epic. Complete visual mapping of every surface. But they cut corner after corner after corner
This guy sound like a kool person, I’m going to Subscribe!!! If EZOO HAPPENS NEXT YEAR. IM GOING IN FOR FREE LOL😂
ayyy thank you!
Seems people put more effort into creating slick social media campaigns than the actual event. So dangerous.
So true
Nice video- didn’t know much about the owners of Mirage before so now it all makes sense
Thank you, I'm glad the history was useful!
Thank you for making this video and documenting how insane it was. I was there for the whole weekend and it just felt like it kept getting worse and worse🙃
Thanks for watching! I hope you were able to avoid most of the chaos 🙏
How are you this underrated???!! this video was very professional:))
Thank you so much! Hopefully this isn't a fluke
I have absolutely no clue of what has happened at this EZOO event, in fact, I’ve never even heard of it before or the drama surrounding it. Yet I am balls deep in the drama.haha
I love the internet
You look like you could be the main character of a star wars spin off in this video. I dig it.
Thank you! I will send this comment to Disney
Thanks for catching me up with the scene, the last ezoo I attended was in 2012 and it was awesome but then I got old and had a kid (see profile photo- his first word, I shit you not, was “BEATS!”), still love that scene and I’m sorry it’s being so poorly managed, clearly it needs someone who loves it enough to do the hard work to make it happen
You are welcome! So cool that your kid started early haha. I hope we hear of change to the NYC scene soon
Very well done video! Just as others said, you piqued my interest and kept me wanting more the entire half-hour watching! I remember seeing older videos on Fyre Festival a couple years back so I knew this’d be good… Unfortunate for all the people who had to endure this terrible experience.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it
From a festival goer's point of view. I was a little bummed out for friday also. I also went all 3-days. I think the craziest experience for me has got to be how packed it was on sunday. I was lucky and blessed enough to attend tiesto on sunday at the top of the VIP table service area. And, i was overlooking the whole main stage when tiesto was performing and WOW was it PACKED. I'm talking about how it looked like a million little ants were crowded at the whole area. It was actually insane!!
I made this post before even finishing the video. But, as soon as you spoke about saturday will call. It reminded me how insane the line was. I didn't have ticket that day, so me and my friend went scouting for tickets. Luckily we got 2 vip tickets from someone, and as we were lining up to get in. I ended up on the willcall line, and group in front of me actually told me he was online for 4 hours already. And, I told him he was insane for standing there. Not to sound like those a*holes that cut line. But hey i did it! Had to do what you had to do lol
yeah sunday was clearly a MADNESS
can't imagine that view haha, crazy
The contrast of the crowds panicking while feelgood high energy edm music sounds in the background is giving me whiplash
actually crazy
great video!!! I find it absolutely hilarious that the first year I go to Ezoo after a decade in this rave life & this is what happens lmfaoooo. At least it's a crazy story to tell
Haha true
Victor is a king, love that dude, love his vibe.
I had a Friday ticket. My mom also had a ticket, shes gotten pretty into edm and this was meant to be her first rave. She was super excited, I was super excited, but when we were at the NJ transit station in hamilton nj to go to the fesitval, we got the news. The train came and left and there were about 10 of us at the station who were supposed to go to ezoo, just sat there lost and confused. We never got a refund but luckily we disputed the charge. The Firday lineup was amazing and my mom is super bummed her first rave experience was canceled. We not have tickets for Hijinx, hopefully that will be an amazing first expereince for her, and an amazing festical for me.
That sucks for your mom to have that happen at her first festival. I'm glad you guys were able to dispute the charge. Enjoy Hijinx!
Awww, my mother and I went dancing several times when she'd come to visit me in NYC. (She used to live here and danced at the Limelight back in the 80s.) Go have fun!
I've seen costs for some festivals escalate, from the time they start selling tickets to the opening day of the festival. By the start of the festival, the festival is going into debt despite selling out. So far, I've seen few corporations and individuals handle this gracefully. I'm happy for the few that handled this gracefully and cancelled their festivals ahead of time while costs could be controlled
Blessed by the algorithm! Loved the vid dood
Thank you dood 🙏
I think there’s a bottleneck in our country…I’m noticing similar patterns all over the place since the pandemic. In 2023, I drove on highways out East and saw many poorly organized construction projects with huge traffic lines (7-10 mi long), of which I was a part…lines at stores…airports being bottlenecked with flight schedules somehow…little to no public assistance, CS assistance available…it feels like the pandemic started something awful. The more I look into frauds increasing not just in festivals but many major corporations, ppp loans, and yes, social media…and all of the terrible suffering happening simultaneously in the world (I pray gets better), I am worried. Something is broken in the world and I hope it fixes. It is a bizarre and terrible pattern going on. I think the companies to start, to be actively held peacefully accountable by collective somehow other than boycotting, and more nonviolent collective unity is needed. When are we peacefully protesting, when are the markets crashing…are the two questions I ask myself every year. I am truly sorry everyone.
Can't say it enough but awesome vid David! It's somewhat melancholy that 2023 might have been the last year of Ezoo but the scene and the people in it deserve better. For all you out there that might want to check something somewhat comparable to fill the void in 2024, Elements Music Festival in PA has been fantastic the last 2 years. Highly recommend!
Thank you so much for being part of the video! I've heard good things about Elements and Lost Lands a bit further west. Hoping to be able to check those out at some point
Event organizers refuse to let things sell out anymore, because a sold out show is "lost money" in their eyes, when in reality, a sold out show builds more hype and allows you to actually create an experience that isn't going to suck.
Man, I'm in my 30's now and I never thought I would be like my parents, but I'm just thinking of having kids of age to go to these events and how much I would be protesting to my wife about them being able to attend.
Thank you for the video! Does anyone know the name of the song at 16:45?
Upper bound - FIBRE
Great in depth and thorough video! I went to Ezoo this year and I feel like I was one of the lucky ones. Although Friday was canceled and it felt a lil packed, overall I had a good time. Probably wouldn't attend next year though knowing how they messed up big time in many different areas.
Glad you had a good time!