What can be said about Lights All Night (LAN) 2012? The lineup was stellar, with one of the most extensive and impressive array of artists together for one show in 2012. It took place at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, which is a humongous complex that is also used for the Texas State Fair (remember, “everything is bigger in Texas” *eyeroll*). As with every show, LAN had its ups and its downs. Despite what might be perceived as some negativity, I had a more positive experience than not. Make no mistake, it was the best NYE party that I have ever been to by far. Any fan of EDM should seize the opportunity to attend if they get it.
Background Info
Lights All Night is a fairly new annual event created a few years ago by Scott Osborn and Hank Keller, both Dallas natives. Osborn and Keller also founded a company called Highland Entertainment, based out of Dallas. Their company specializes in concert promotion, event management, as well as artist booking and management. LAN takes the cake as their biggest event; however, they throw many other events on a much smaller scale.
A Bit of History on LAN
LAN has grown immensely over the past few years. With humble beginnings, it started as a one-day event with a few good headliners and a few thousand people. It has exploded into the national destination festival that it is today in record time, and is now considered one of the most desirable EDM events in the US to attend and ring in the new year with a bang. Check out the annual breakdown of each year since its inception and take note of the exponential growth of both artists and attendees:
By the Numbers
- | 2010- 1-day event – 5 headlining artists – 6,000 attendees
- | 2011- 2-day event – 20 headlining artists – 30,000 attendees (WOW)
- | 2012- 3-day event. 60 HEADLINING ARTISTS – 50,000 attendees.
- Some of the nearly SIXTY big-name headliners featured included the likes of 12th Planet, Zed’s Dead, Crizzly, Adventure Club, Alvin Risk, Bassnectar, Cookie Monsta, Mord Fustang, Figure, Flux Pavilion, Bingo Players, Ghostland Observatory, Tiesto, Calvin Harris, Feed Me, Diplo, Sander Van Doorn, A-Trak, Avicii, Griz, Krewella, Markus Schulz, NERO (DJ Set), SuperVision, and ZEDD, just to name a few.
Check out this ridiculous 2012-13 lineup in its entirety by date (2012-2013 Flier)
The Experience
Upon arriving to the venue you couldn’t help but notice there was a glittering, glowing Chinese Lantern Festival that happened to also be occurring at Fair Park the same three days of LAN. From the outside, it looked something like Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory; a kandi-raver’s wonderland of sorts. It was in an adjacent gated area across the sidewalk from our festival entrance. As attendees collectively sauntered inside our festival gates; we were totally enthralled by the luminescence of the display in the opposite direction, hoping it would be just as elaborate inside our gates. The Chinese Lantern fest was what many people probably imagined Lights All Night would look like. Unfortunately for us, it was far more colorfully lit up than anything LAN had to offer, visually speaking. Those that were hoping for a second look of the luminous display of the lanterns later on in the night were disappointed again upon exiting- it was shut down. Not a single bulb was aglow. I can imagine this was a carefully planned tactic to prevent excessive loitering after-hours. 
My main complaint (this is an event review, after all), though, is the early ending for all three nights. An annual EDM “destination festival” titled “Lights All Night” that attracts 50,000+ attendees yet ends at midnight hosts a decent amount of irony. I take it the suits in charge of Fair Park were not interested/didn’t care that people wanted to have their faces melted long after 12am. The first two nights shut down promptly at midnight, and the festivities on NYE itself were over by 12:30am.
Decidedly Out of My Element
Texans are notorious for the mentality of “everything’s bigger in Texas” and “Texas does it better”. True, many things are, in fact, larger in size in Texas than elsewhere (it seems that dripping in excessiveness seems to only be attractive/desireable to themselves; to most everyone else it just makes them look like arrogant jerks but hey, that’s just my humble opinion).
According to the official LAN website, they hired a team of visual artists that set out to “transform the beauty of Fair Park into an unforgettable party location by bringing together massive stage production, over-the-top venue treatments, luxurious furniture, visual art installations, site décor, stage enhancements, interactive artistic elements, and more in order to create the ultimate New Year’s Eve venue in the nation.” But, dare I say it? Sorry, Texas – Fair Park was, in fact, an awesome location for this event, the extra-special décor and ‘over-the-top’ venue treatments (or lack of them) weren’t anything special as planned, or at least when compared to how it was advertised on the event website.
On the other hand, the fairgrounds are extremely vast and extensive, and decking every nook and cranny out specifically for a raver’s taste would be expensive (but hey, so were the tickets) and obviously a lot of work. The go-go dancers were few and far between (not to mention they seemed to lack energy and excitement while performing), the stages were the same exact set-up (lights, props and all) for every act, all three nights. I do realize that many people contributed and worked very hard at decorating and making it what it was. I’m not complaining, I’m just pointing out that it wasn’t nearly as decked out as promised online.
Homegrown Colorado Girl in a Southern Texas World
(THIS IS WHY I LOVE COLORADO)
My only other main gripe was basically the vibe. Don’t get me wrong, everyone in sight looked to be having a wondrous time. In all honesty, though, the audience at LAN just didn’t seem to connect with one another and become one with the music the way that I’m used to at shows here in my home state of Colorado.
Not to toot our own horn, Coloradoans (k, maybe just a little) – we are pretty much a big deal, and it becomes more and more apparent while in attendance of shows/festivals out of state. If you can’t take my word for it, ask any show-attending Colorado resident you can find and you will hear similar answers. Many artists really do bring their best to play for us here in our beautiful mountainous sunny state (despite the fact that we don’t necessarily have the die-hard reputation of being bigger and better than everyone/anything else, as Texas does); they have more energy with their performances overall (for any genre of music), and seem more excited to play for the wild animal that is the Colorado music fan base.
When you hear an artist say “Colorado….I seriously love you guys,” or something to that effect, take it to heart. They aren’t bullshitting. It’s not an “insert city here” type phrase. The majority of them ACTUALLY MEAN IT.
The most linear example I have for demonstrating what I perceived as seemingly locational differences in a particular artist’s performance would be to compare Flux Pavilion appearances. I saw him headline last year’s Decadence NYE party in Denver, and then again five months later for the Global Dub festival (I also saw him play in the fall of 2011 in Denver with Doctor P). I feel as if I have a pretty good grasp of how Flux throws down here based on that. Well then I caught the last half of his set at LAN. His stage presence altogether was very noticeably different: he seemed decidedly sluggish, lethargic, and apathetic in Dallas when compared to his high-energy, full-throttle demeanor during performances in the Rocky Mountains (every time).
The Dallas crowd, while obviously having an awesome time, mostly seemed kind of mild: unwilling to release their inhibitions and just let the music move their body for them. There wasn’t as much raw excitement. They don’t rage like we do. Add a firecracker (or ten) under their butts, and maybe, just maybe, they could hold their own against a homegrown Colorado crowd. I don’t know what it is, can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe it’s the altitude here. I just know for sure that it’s different. If you haven’t experienced a show in Colorado, this probably sounds rather arrogant, but really it’s not intended that way. I’m simply making an observation (that I am not alone in believing, I asked around) If LAN had happened in Colorado, I can imagine how different it would have been. Nonetheless, despite all of that, I still had an unforgettable time and again, it was still the best NYE I have experienced to date. Decadence, the NYE event in Denver that I referred to above, is not nearly as huge as LAN. It’s not even close.
Overall Artist Performance Reviews
Obviously I can’t possibly review every single artist I saw or every single artist that was there, seeing as how from 4pm-midnight there were three stages, each with their own stacked lineups coinciding with one another. However, my favorite performances that stood out were those from Zed’s Dead, Ghostland Observatory, Cookie Monsta, Bassnectar, and NERO (DJ Set). All of these performances were pretty stellar and unforgettable.
The Good
Out of those favorites, if I had to narrow it down a bit more, my top two picks would be Cookie Monsta and NERO’s DJ set (it’s too hard to narrow it to one, sorry). Cookie Monsta has earth-quaking bass for days and once he gets going, he just doesn’t stop. He gains momentum the longer he is performing, like I believe it should be. I was blown away by his performance once again. He played on the first night of the event at The Club @ LAN. Don’t be fooled by the name of that venue, though. The Club stage was nothing like a club at all. This building was huge: much larger than necessary for the amount of people in the audience at any given time I was over there. Cookie Monsta drew the biggest crowd I saw over in that building, hands down. He delivered bass to our faces atop a 3-dimensional led-encrusted square that frequently displayed the friendly face of Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster with a bright brilliant blue, and he delivered the bass real nice. The crowd literally didn’t know what to do with themselves when presented with that much of a rumbling. It was awesome to see them bewildered and excited at the same time.
NERO’s DJ set was done by Joseph Ray alone, who is one of the three members of NERO. He played at the Hangar Stage on the third night (NYE itself) and was the last act of the night for that stage and event. To witness this magnificent performance, I was lucky enough to squeeze my way up front, literally right up against the guardrail. He dished out hit after hit, making the crowd go buck-wild. This performance was when the crowd was the most hyped and animated out of all three days in my experience. The stage had fire shooting up on either side of it, and I could feel the heat from it all over my body. I could not think of a better way to ring in the New Year than to be right up front, at my first festival of this magnitude, in good company and watching NERO blow the roof off. I wish it would have lasted longer, but then again, I would have been happy with it going on every night, forever.
The Bad & The Ugly
Mord Fustang was also a notable performance that must be pointed out, but not for good reason. He was far too intoxicated on something to be up on the booth performing. He also played the first night of the festival in The Club @ LAN. I was surprised to see that there was not much of a crowd there to watch him perform, but then again, quite honestly maybe it was for the best that not a lot of people saw what I saw. I am a HUGE FAN of Mord Fustang’s music, but I was severely disappointed at his lackluster stage presence and disgustingly obvious inebriation. I had originally planned on staying there to watch his whole set, but left when it was less than half-way over because his performance was literally painful and disappointing for me to watch.
There was no crowd interaction whatsoever from him. He appeared terrified of his laptop. You win some, you lose some, I suppose. Don’t get me wrong, I realize everyone makes mistakes and I still got lotsa love for Mord Fustang. He just needs to remember that he is supremely talented, blessed, and lucky enough to make music/perform for paying attendees for a living. Whatever he does in his personal time is his business. But when you have a task at hand like performing for little over an hour for your fans that literally are the key to and the reason behind your success as an artist, perhaps you should lay off the sauce until AFTER you have performed. Maybe it was just a bad day for him – maybe it’s a regular bad habit. Either way, I had to offer some friendly constructive criticism from a lowly fan’s perspective. It was that bad. I couldn’t possibly write an honest review without mentioning this.
In Conclusion
Lights All Night 2012 definitely had both it’s positive and negative aspects, as to be expected from a show of its stature. Even with its negative points, though, I wouldn’t have traded the experience itself for anything else, and I feel lucky to have gone and experienced it at all. Even though the crowd couldn’t hold a candle to a Colorado audience as far as vibe and energy goes, I did feel overwhelming rays of positivity and love emanating from every corner of the LAN venue.
That’s what I love about EDM. Outsiders can (and certainly do) claim many things and have many uneducated ideas about EDM and EDM shows. They can just go on in their own little worlds with their beliefs as far as I’m concerned, ignorant to what EDM shows REALLY are about. But guess what? We know better. We don’t owe them an explanation, or anything for that matter, to justify the kind of group positivity and love for your fellow human that you can regularly find at EDM shows in particular. On that note, I can only hope for another chance to experience this awesome festival another year in the future. I would definitely do it all over again.
I’d like to give a special thanks to Euphonic Conceptions for helping to make all of this possible for me. Can’t express enough gratitude.
Check out the photography from all 3 days on Facebook:
Lights All Night Photography – Day 1 | December 29th, 2012
Lights All Night Photography Day 2 | December 30th, 2012
Lights All Night Photography Day 3 | December 31st, 2012
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