It's easy to say that the most common complaint about major music festivals is a lack of lineup diversity. For a period of time, it seemed like every festival featured the same five names as headliners, playing the same genre (I'm looking at you Big Room House). Similarly, a lack of emphasis is often put on the smaller names. Festivals tend to dump big bucks for star headliners, and ignore the quality of the smaller names at the bottom of a flier. Well, it seems as if Made Events noticed this trend. And their response to it comes in a big way through Electric Zoo 2015's Phase One Lineup.
This year's Electric Zoo 2015 lineup features what might be the most genre diverse stack of artists I've ever seen in a NYC festival. Moving away from the "bigger names mean a bigger party" mantra, Made Events has stacked the show with up and coming talent that includes names like Mija and Alison Wonderland. Similarly, big names from less popular genres populate the list. Seeing Hardstyle DJ Coone on a mainstream festival lineup was as surprising as it was refreshing. Techno fans can expect nothing less than perfection out of this lineup, as Sunday School Grove never ceases to impress year after year.
All of this is not to say that Electric Zoo didn't stack up the big names. Noteworthy mainstage stars like Above & Beyond and Borgore are all present, as per usual. However, the amount of genre diversity in the big names is a refreshing change of tune for Labor Day Weekend's biggest party. Excision and Zeds Dead were both announced as the representatives for dubstep, while trap fans will get their fill with Keys and Krates. It's difficult to find a genre that isn't partially represented at this major festival. Made Event has clearly deviated from the norm, and in doing so may have atoned for two straight years of Sunday disappointments.