Top Acts To See At Imagine Music Festival Aug. 30-31st

Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend this year Atlanta, Georgia welcomes the inaugural year of Imagine Music Festival. Held in the historic Old Fourth Ward Park and Masquerade Music Park, this party picked a beautiful background for its stages to be set upon. Iris Presents spared no expense to curate an excellent multi-genre line-up that will have every type of electronic music lover on their feet for every set. Schedule planners did an excellent job dividing artists and genres up to keep most fans pleased (see below), but it is always so tough to decide where you should be and when. Hopefully my recommendations below will help you and your crew decide your final schedules this August 30-31st.

ill.Gates
First of all, never miss the high priest of the church of bass ill.Gates anywhere. He is an amazing Canadian-born music producer, DJ and educator. His list of contributions to music and to the electronic dance music culture are the stuff legends are made of. When he’s not headlining huge festivals like Burning Man or Shambhala, he regularly teaches DJ/production classes, dubbed the ill.Methodology Workshop. His classes range from teaching beginners the bare bones of music theory all the way to mastery levels of the well-known production software Ableton. He has designed the Ableton template used by household names like Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, Beats Antique and more. His YouTube channel offers many of these tutorials and workshops at no cost. I personally have watched all 41 minutes of his Chapter 1 ill.Methodology Workshop class and can’t speak enough for all of the priceless knowledge shared within. Even if you have no interest in becoming a producer yourself, his lecture still has so much to offer a music lover or general creative-type. It’s reminiscent of a TED talk on inciting creativity within yourself and balancing artistic work flow. If you like music and hearing intelligent people deliver riveting, contagious ideas, you really must watch Chapter 1. You will hear something that resonates within you. You will be inspired in some way. This is just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to reasons why you should check out ill.Gates. Do not miss his set.

Destroid
The latest collab project of Excision and Downlink have given birth to some of the heaviest bass music being played today under their alias Destroid. Just when audiences thought Bassnectar or Excision shows were about has heavy as things could get, these 3 producers come together to make the most murderous sounds dubstep/bass music has ever thought possible. Their message is simple and stated in one of their first songs ever released:

“Years have passed since our arrival on earth. Your democracy has become an illusion. Global mind control tactics must be stopped. We must unite as one to save your planet. Those who rise against us will be Destroid. Those who achieved an elevated existence… RAISE YOUR FISTS!” [Raise Your Fist ]

Destroid, in a nutshell, are aliens from outer space here to change our world by condoning free thought and unity through the vessel of badass lyrics and the wompiest sets this world has ever seen. The stage characters and new instruments they’ve invented to bring you this message are absolutely out of this world. You have never seen anything like this at an EDM show. Even if you are not normally into this kind of music the production value of what they’re doing alone is enough to check it out. Do not miss Destroid.

Crystal Castles then Beats Antique followed by Emancipator to close out the night at the Amazonia Stage on Saturday
From 7:20-11:00pm Imagine has curated an excellent end to the night on the Amazonia stage. It is very important when putting together a festival schedule that you keep in mind crescendo and set dynamics as you build your way to your headliner. These three in this order is an excellent way to end the night if you’re looking for that chill hippie vibe or you’ve just seen Fedde Le Grand too many times.

Pretty Lights Music Label Block with Supervision and Michal Menert on Sunday
Pretty Lights’ label never disappoints for an excellent live show. Staples in the Atlanta music scene, the label always brings excellent talent to festivals around the community. Michal Menert is one of my favorite artists in their showcase and his chill, ambient vibe will be perfect for his sunset performance in the beautiful Georgia weather. “Who Am I”, a co-produced track by the pair, is an excellent example of the dream-like melodies chock full of funky-bass you can expect to love as the sun goes down on the Amazonia stage on Sunday.

RJD2
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s RJD2 is a man of many talents; master turntablist, pianist, drummer–there’s not much he can’t do to entertain a crowd. Instrumental hip-hop at its best, he will be an excellent follow-up act to the vibe Supervision and Michal Menert created before him. Chill, melodic and what some might call a more mature option than Rusko who plays the opposing stage, don’t miss RJD2 if you want to see some mind-blowing turntablism and live music production.

These great artists and MANY more await you August 30-31st in Atlanta, GA this year.
Cop your tickets ranging from $125-$150 for General Admission here.