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ARC Festival Recap

2021-09-23T11:30:00-07:00

After months of living vicariously through live streams, I finally had the privilege to attend my first festival in two years this Labor Day. With roughly 20,000 attendees, my friends and I ventured to Chicago for the first ARC Music Festival. Union Park was the dance floor for two days with some of the hottest names in house and techno. Although this was Auris Presents’ first crack at a massive, those mad lads knocked this one out of the park with one helluva party!

ARC’s lineup was smacking! I wouldn’t have expected anything less for a festival held in the city where house music was born. Saturday kicked the weekend off with sets from megastars like ZHU, Fisher, and Cirez D. The best set from a DJ I’ve Never Seen Before award goes to Layton Giordani. Let me tell you; he brought the effin heat! His set was so hot it started raining because everyone there needed to cool off.

Sunday’s lineup was also fire; literally, it was humid. Being an old man who attends festivals, I was pretty worn out from the day before. Luckily, I visited Dr. Will Clarke and Hot Since '82 for a prescription of bangers kicking my rear back into gear. When the oontz-oontz got a bit too much for me, and I wanted something more boots-and-cats, I took a timeout at the main stage with Jeremy Orlander, Camelphat, and the king himself, Eric Prydz.

Aside from having such a stacked lineup, the guys at Auris did a great job designing the four stages. Each dance floor felt like a different festival with unique decor and vibes.

The Grid was a massive field of green grass with plenty of space. An enormous screen sandwiched between smaller monitors and speakers sat at the front, surrounded by shipping containers painted in neon green with splashes of blue and yellow. At night, strips of LED lights filled the dark park with vivid color as the flock of strobe lamps perched on top of the stage swept the crowd with an assortment of lasers.

Elrow was the second biggest stage at ARC, but it was definitely the most intoxicating. Decorative balloons dyed in flamboyant shades of pink, purple, and green covered the ceiling. I remember seeing performers in strange costumes walking around the dance floor on stilts led by exotic handlers as rainbow confetti rained down like we were at Carnival. It was all weird and confusing but funky and exhilarating, a sample of the original Elrow in Spain.

Between The Grid and Elrow was the GoodBus. Which, as you can probably picture, is a fully-functional mobile renovated school bus with a 10,000-watt machine! Aside from this festival, this party on wheels has made its way through Electric Forest and Summer Camp.

Expansion was the dustiest stage of them all. There were times when I thought the lasers were drawing designs on steam generated from a machine, but nope, it was clouds of dust. My nose is starting to close up just thinking about it. However, having the bathroom located in the back of this stage was clutch since not many people knew about it. So, thank you.

Getting to Union Park was pretty easy. I took the L train the first day (the CTA trains are beautiful and easy to use, BTW) and a rideshare the second. Getting out of the park was a different story. My friend and I walked back to our hotel on Sunday since we didn’t want to wait for transportation. The humidity did not make the 2.5 miles trek easy, nor did the sweat-soaked jeans I wore.

Even though the festival ended at 10 pm, the party continued with ARC After Dark: official afterparties spread across five Chicago clubs both nights, which isn’t surprising since Auris is a band of club owners and those in the nightlife industry. There was Blacklizt at Radius, Will Clarke at Spybar, the Adam Beyer-less Drumcode takeover at Concord Music Hall, and many more. I only had the energy to attend one, which was the PRYDA AFTER PARTY BABY! Thus completing a goal of mine, seeling all three of Prydz (current) alias in one weekend.

Besides getting walked through when I was trying to dance, I found that everyone was pretty chill; everyone there was just trying to have a good time after a festival drought. There was a lot of black attire. The outfits are similar to those seen here at homegameauction, but just in black with more black. Oh, and also a bunch of psychedelic Hawaiian shirts and overalls.

The thing I’ll remember the most about ARC is the people. ARC reminded me how magical it feels when you make a new friend over your shared love of music and overpriced water, or how sometimes all you need is a weekend running from stage to porta-potty with your tribe to feel like everything is going to be alright.

All in all, I had a fantastic time. If you have a chance to reconnect with your crew, then I would highly recommend it. 10-out-of-10, I would hella do it again!

HARD Summer Outfits

2019-07-19T00:00:00-07:00

It’s true. With neon colors being the biggest trend this summer on the rave scene, many of us are going all out in one neon color turning us into highlighters with legs. But, hey, I’m not mad at all. Neon colors are always in style for summer, always in tune for ravers, and a lot of fun to wear!

Hard Summer this year is pretty much going to be the apex of neon fashion this summer. The event takes place Saturday, August 3 - 4th in San Bernardino, CA. A summertime racetrack event, it promises to be hot-hot-hot. No SoCal rave feels more ‘summer’ than Hard Summer, and I can’t wait to be out there checking out the fashion.

In preparation for the event, here are a few neon looks I’ve come up with to inspire your looks for the event, or for another summer rave in another state, or heck another country!

Twin With Me

Why this name for this look? Because this is what I’ve bought to wear Sunday of Hard. And you know what they say, twinning is winning!

But in all seriousness, I thought this outfit was super adorable. It reminds me of a neon, rave ballerina!

Neon Fishnet Thigh Highs: $4,87

Sparkly Daisy Petal Pasties: 9.95
Dreamland Sequin Ruffle Crop Top: 29.95

Dreamland Sequin Booty Shorts: 26.95

Geometric Layers

Mixing all the neon colors is a great look too! I love this mini skirt with the shorts under, it’s super comfortable and cute. The sneakers also have that reflective material on them (where the gray is) so they’d look super cool in some shuffling videos(make sure to have your flash turned on)!

Cutting Shapes Mini Skirt: 10.36
Cybernetic Neon Contrast Bodysuit: 21.95
Famous Wavez Sneakers: 36.95

The Harness Is Not Out

I repeat the harness is not out! It’s still a great staple to mix into looks this year! I love how it looks layered with this top, especially since it looks more comfortable than just on the naked boobies (if that's your vibe, than you do you, no judgment here!) Also if you wanna save on some biker shorts, cut some old fishnets above the knee!

Technologic Neon Sequin BIkini Top: 24.95
Daisy Corsets Dark Rush Bra Harness: 36.95
Technologic Neon Sequin High Waisted Bottoms: 24.95
Freaky Fishnet Biker Shorts: 19.95

Neon Dudes

There are some fun looks for guys to be colorful at Hard as well! You can mix a pair of shorts with Graphic Tee, or try an alt style with some pasties and wild shorts! My friend is getting the Iridescent Dreams shorts because it’s going to match my neon yellow look!

Adding Neon

Ok, I wanna talk about accessories here because you don’t always need to order a whole new look to get in on a trend! It’s always fun to just re-work a few pieces you already own and save on costs! The neon trend is SUPER easy to just accessorize with because it matches black or white perfectly. For example, take all the racetrack checkered print items you rocked last year, and mix in a neon piece to make a new look!

Going in Circles Belt: 9.95

Atlas Bag: 43.99

PWR UP Corset: 42.95

Black Matrixx Platform Sneakers: $101

Still need more inspo to Go Hard? Check out these badass babes' looks (all available on homegameauction.com!):

Models: @sophglopez @destinyngg⁠

Photo Credit: @loveejasminn_

Photo Credit: @festivalpassport

Photo Credit: @_basskitten

Stoked to see you all in your neon looks at Hard Summer! Tickets are still on sale. You can buy a single day or two-day tickets! The event is 1 pm to 11 pm each day (woo! Early nights!) There are even city shuttles you can take, check out the SoCal locations they’re picking up here.

Escape 2018 Fashion Recap

2018-11-05T16:33:00-08:00

Ravers like to dress up, so naturally, Halloween is the perfect holiday. Escape Psycho Circus is one of my favorite Halloween raves, and this year did not disappoint! Taking place in San Bernardino, CA over the weekend on Friday and Saturday, October 26 & 27th, Escape hosted a sold-out crowd of 125,000 costumed Headliners.

For me, one of my favorite parts about Escape is touring the Wonderland Asylum. It’s a 32,000 haunted house with production quality at Disneyland levels. This year’s haunt was the largest and most intricate yet, featuring over 150 performers, 25 individual sound systems, and 30 distinct rooms depicting scenes from eight years of Escape trailer storylines.

The fashion though is of course a favorite thing for me as well! Day one I dressed as a leopard and day two I was a devil. The weather kept pretty warm both nights, so it was easy to be dressed in your costume without having to cover it up to stay warm! Let’s check out some of my favorite looks from this year. There’s, of course, no wrong time to wear a costume to a rave, so take these looks as inspo for even your next event -- Halloween or not!

Rawr

Mesh Keyhole Halter Top: homegameauction, 19.95

Wild One Belted Utility Pants: homegameauction, 30.51

Fishnet Oversized T-Shirt: homegameauction, 15.95

Glitter Tiger Pasties: Neva Nude, 6.47

Sparkly Snakeskin Strappy One-Piece: homegameauction, 26.44

Wet Look High Neck Zipper Bodysuit: homegameauction, 38.95

Into the Shadows Zip Front Tube Top: homegameauction, 13.21

Into the Shadows Lace Up Shorts: homegameauction, 16.64

Night Walker Face Jewels: Neva Nude, 12.95

Animal Instincts Plunge Bodysuit: homegameauction, 44.95

Liquid Leather Bottoms: homegameauction, 32.95