Heard It Here First

Between the rolling pastures of southern Minnesota lies a tiny slice of heaven, where the sound systems are perfectly tuned, and the lights hit the trees just right. As festivals across North America struggle with ticket sales, Infrasound remains the gold standard for boutique festivals, curating diverse audio and visual lineups on some of the best sound systems the scene offers. Attendees could stay at one of the three stages all weekend and have a phenomenal experience.

The lineup routinely features electronic and dance music icons and the hottest up-and-coming acts. The lineup for the 2024 festival installment was one of the best in the festival’s history. Artists like Joker, J:Kenzo, BCee, Enei and Kasra, Sir Spyro, Mefjus, and Schmoop had fans reminiscing about their sets all weekend and beyond.

Harmonic Stage

The Harmonic Stage with Funktion-One Sound provided by Soundsystem Cultures becomes the festival’s central hub. This stage hosts most of the festival’s audio and visual headliners. Ternion Sound and Joker were the highlights of Thursday’s run, with exceptional sets from pheel., Jon1st, and Onyx Garden as well. Joker was accompanied by a fantastic visual performance from Ivy Visuals.

The legendary Ott. and Johnathan Singer punctuated Friday’s run with an electric performance. However, Saturday’s run was the most memorable. Reggae legend Sister Nancy captivated the crowd before BoggDogg, Mr. Bill, Schmoop, Mefjus ft. Daxta MC, and Eprom each put on phenomenal performances of their own. Eprom’s Syntheism Live set was the perfect set to finish the weekend. It felt like seeing Eprom at his absolute best.

Portal Stage

The Portal Stage has become iconic at Infrasound, offering the most dazzling visual display of any festival this writer has been to. Visual artists project their art onto the portal sculpture and the inside of the hangar. The Element 5 rig is a fan-favorite, providing gut-punching bass. The stage became a home base for fans of glitch hop and open-format bass music. The highlights of Thursday’s performances were Floret Loret, Drrtywulz, Goopsteppa, and K.L.O.

Yoko packed out the Portal early on Friday before up-and-comers Lord Genmu and Entangled Mind rocked the stage. Freddy Todd, Seppa with Tenorless, and kLL sMTH finished an incredible night of music. Chez, Cosmic Trigger, and Juno Reactor (composer for The Matrix sequels) ended the weekend with electric performances on Saturday.

Pyramid Stage

Last but most certainly not least is The Pyramid stage, where the artists perform inside a wooden pyramid bearing the art of the legendary Aaron Brooks. Champion Sound deployed its Void rig for this stage, offering premium sound for some of the festival’s most iconic sets and engaged crowds. Attendees will bang on the pyramid to let the DJ know they approve of the track or want a wheel-up.

Infrasound attendees have adopted the “Tip Your Dubtender” ideology, throwing dollar bills at the DJs like a proverbial gentlemen’s club. The intimacy of the Pyramid Stage offers the best opportunity for fans to tip their favorite acts. Performers often walk away with close to or more than $100, a welcome sight as touring becomes more expensive and unsustainable.

The energy at this stage is unlike any other. The crowd during Enei and the Critical Soundsystem b2b was Infrasound’s most intense drum & bass crowd. Joker’s old-school garage and grime set was a history lesson. Causa, Ome, Substance, Wraz., and J:Kenzo put on a dubstep clinic to open the weekend.

On Friday, Necromancer brought another incredible installment of his Coffee & Cigarettes concept, spinning d&b and jungle early in the day to warm up the crowd. Club icon DJ Paypal was a highlight. Rising star Mary Droppinz tapped into numerous genres to get the crowd moving. Ternion Sound experimented with d&b and jungle for their second set of the weekend. Legend Zed Bias schooled the crowd with garage and old-school club music. Unfortunately, Flava D couldn’t make it, but Kursa filled in adequately under his jungle alias S.Murk. Madam X was one of my favorites, playing open-format club music at twilight. In his return to dubstep, Taiki Nulight decimated the Pyramid Stage, popping off with tracks like his “Counting” remix that elicited roars from the crowd.

Saturday’s run started with phenomenal showings from dubstep up-and-comers SirSteez and Basura before inspect3r captivated the crowd with garage and d&b before closing his set with the nuttiest Baddadan x CKY edit. ATYYA put on a bass music clinic before Nic Baker (inspect3r and Vide) delivered the goods with uptempo club smashers.

A Chat With An Icon

Soulful drum & bass pioneer BCee played one of the most memorable sets this writer has ever seen. His label, Spearhead Records, laid the groundwork for the sound over the last twenty years, and it was an honor to watch the don himself play a set. We’ll have a full interview with BCee out later this week, talking about drum & bass’s past and future and his experiences coming to the United States to share the sound.

A Truly Special Place

Infrasound attendees are unlike any other. They’re inquisitive and open to new sounds and styles of music they may not have been familiar with. The energy is simply infectious. People are actually respectful of the dancefloor. Infrasound isn’t without a sea of chairs and inflatable couches, but they’re always set up to the side or behind the sound booth. There’s a feeling of mutual respect and love between attendees. Infrasound weekend is about every attendee’s dissolution of self and giving themselves to the collective and the shared experience of sound. The more Infras you attend, the more you find yourself intertwined with the fabric of the festival itself.

Oh yeah, they do it a second time in the fall, too! See you at Infrasound Equinox, September 12th to 15th. You can grab tickets here.

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