Coasties Glided Into North Coast

This past Labor Day Weekend, Ben and I had the opportunity to attend North Coast. This was Ben’s second North Coast but my third. We were psyched to be able to head back and join in on some of the fun! This year, we went with our friend Devlin, who was an awesome companion throughout the weekend.

Let’s start with Friday! I had to work my day job first, so we didn’t get there until about 6 pm. Sadly, we missed a few of the sets we wanted to catch like Drinkurwater and Elohim, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do! We spent a little time exploring and I have to say, there were some major improvements this year. First off, the water was so much more accessible than last year. I also noticed it was easier to get in and out of The Stadium than last year. We also never had a problem with lines to enter the venue, which was something that was a problem for people in GA last year.

We were able to catch the tail end of Valentino Khan, which was great, to say the least. Next up, ZOMBOY! I can honestly tell you, I cannot remember the last time I saw Zomboy. It was years ago and I was psyched! I got some great pics of the show and grooved with my besties.

After that, we decided to head on out and find Club Coast! Club Coast was the secret speakeasy that you needed a password for. To be honest, I was a little disappointed at how easy it was to find. I expected some clues and to spend some time searching for this secret club. The app made it pretty obvious and we found it right away. We gave Harold the password, “Mello” and enjoyed some time grooving. While in there, we met some really cool people, one who was dressed as Mario, who we continued to hang out with throughout the evening. The speakeasy was a nice place to reset, use some indoor restrooms, and have some great views of The Stadium.

We wandered back down to The Stadium and saw some Jauz before Alesso. I was PSYCHED for Alesso because I was a huge fan back in the day. We continued grooving with the Mario friends we had just made at The Speakeasy, who sadly, were only there for Friday. We exchanged contact info and I know we’ll see them again! As for the show, I sang my heart out to some of the best songs from 2013. There’s one that’s extra special to me because Alesso was the second concert I ever went to and I went with my bestie Jade…. and that moment, when we were singing together- “If I lose myself tonight, it’ll be by your side.” It’s a forever special moment in my heart. I wasn’t able to groove with Jade but I did send her a Snapchat of that special moment.

We wanted to make it to Liquid Stranger but at that point, we decided to stay put because we’ve seen Liquid a ton of times and honestly, we’ve never seen Marshmello, and we wanted to vibe it out. It was a little different this year because I really don’t think we spent much time at The Stadium last year and I feel like this year, we were almost constantly there.

The first night, it was terrible to leave. We left about half an hour early to hopefully avoid the traffic and a half an hour drive took about two hours. It felt like everything was bottlenecked up and we were stuck in that traffic forever. Thankfully, North Coast realized this was a problem and the second two nights it was much more fluid. I’m not sure what they did, but it was much better!

Now it’s Saturday! We rested up at our VRBO before heading back in. It was hot as heck and I had an interview with Sherm that evening. We were able to check out a little bit of his set before heading to the media tent to conduct our interview. I’m not going to go too much into depth about what he had to say here because you can check that out HERE or with this video!

We spent some time after the interview exploring. We found the silent disco and grooved for a bit, The Fire Pit, and went back to the Speakeasy. Then- BTSM! We weren’t paying attention to the time so I missed going into the photo pit, but they are one of my all-time top EDM artists so I was ready to have a blast! We then followed with GWN. We were having so much fun that we accidentally missed Lane 8 as well as DJ Snake and we finished the night out with Zeds Dead.

Then, Sunday! Sunday got a little crazy because when we pulled into the parking lot, Dev realized he had forgotten his wristband. He said he had taken it off for some reason, not sure why, but he ended up going back to the VRBO, which took an hour. We went in anyway, in hopes of seeing INZO in The Chill Dome, but alas, the line was super long and we decided that we would rather explore than wait in a line. Lines are no fun. I hope that next year, North Coast will figure out a way to make The Chill Dome more accessible for all because we never got a chance to enjoy it.

I always have so much fun and then Sunday is my day to get to work! I decided this was the day I would take tons and tons of pictures! We started off at The Vega for ATLiens! They’re so much fun in their alien costumes. But my top set of the weekend- would be DABIN! If you haven’t read my article about why I LOVE Dabin and how he makes me feel alive, then check that out HERE!

We debated going to see NGHTMRE next but as with Liquid, we’ve seen him tons of times, so we decided to stay for Alison Wonderland. As you can see, I got some KILLER pics and she was vibing, especially so soon after having a baby.

I have never seen FLUME so I had to check that out for a bit. We vibed, we danced, before heading out to catch Gigantic NGHTMRE, which was a flop because as we showed up, they were on their last song. That was a such a bummer because that was one collab I was HYPED about and had to miss.

But that’s it- my review of North Coast! We had so much fun and are hoping to be back next year because we had so much fun. Overall, they made huge improvements to their lines as I spent way less time in line than last year. I enjoyed the new water spickets and the Speakeasy, although I wish it was a little more of a challenge to find. It was fun to cool off from the heat in a place that felt so secret. We’ll see you at North Coast 2024!

Wanna check out the photos? They’re posted here and also on our Facebook page!