Travel Down A Rabbit Hole With Beyond Wonderland Chicago…
When Beyond Wonderland announced a Chicago edition, I thought to myself, I had to go because I absolutely LOVED EDC Chicago. I know that Insomniac brings magic and wonder to any festival they put on and Beyond Wonderland Chicago was no exception.
Photo Credit: Brandy Fik
Before attending, I had to do some research. Parking was kind of a hassle. The festival recommended using public transit to get to the festival, but that wasn’t realistic for us. We stayed at a hotel in the suburbs (much cheaper than the city), and the Metra doesn’t run all night, so we decided to drive. If we were staying in the city, we would have for sure taken the train! We took the train to Spring Awakening the two years when we went and it worked like a charm. But we chose to park and used the Park Whiz app to figure out an affordable place to park.
I knew Northerly Island was near Soldier Field, but I didn’t realize that I would be taking the same exact walking route that I took for Spring Awakening! It brought back tons of memories and nostalgia as I reminisced about the good old days in 2013 and 2014. Even though it was 30 minutes to the venue by walking, we had fun hanging out with fellow ravers during the walk.
Photo Credit: Brandy Fik
Finally, we arrived at the festival! It was raining, which was a bummer, and I had hoped the rain would pass. However, it did not. We made the best of the muddy situation and so did others, who were dancing in the puddles, which you can see in the video recap I made of the night.
We ran into some friends and spent most of our night at the Cheshire Woods. There were some really cool acts there and we were vibing to them! We were trying to avoid the mud as much as we could, so when we found a dry spot of grass, we held down the fort for awhile! As the night went on, however, we stopped caring so much. Especially after I fell in the mud, imagine that.
Some cool sets we saw Saturday were Nurko, Trivecta, Kaivon, Audien b2b Jason Ross, Peekaboo, and Svdden Death. It was quite a wild ride in the muddy mess.
Then Day 2, baby! The sun was shining so I knew most of the mud would dry out, which was great! Before going to the show, I grabbed some tacos at some phenomenal place, I wish I had gotten the name. Too bad, because I’d go back there for some tacos!
Photo Credit: Brandy Fik
I had hoped that most of the mud would dry out, which some of it did, but I also hoped Insomniac would take care of some of the mud. I get that you can’t control the weather, but honestly, I was very frustrated by the mud. I’ve been to muddy festivals before such as Summer Camp and Dancefestopia, and they tried by putting down straw and wood chips. You can’t stop everything when it comes to mud, but this was my biggest disappointment about the weekend. I wasn’t alone in this sentiment, because it echoed in the reviews I took of attendees. Check those out!
Anyway, I still tried to make the best out of the weekend (RIP SHOES) and basked in the sunshine. I went into VIP, which was neat, because they had all kinds of free goodies and kandi making stations. I didn’t spend a bunch of time there because Ben wasn’t VIP, but it was a neat area to check out.
Today, we bopped around a little more. I spend time taking more videos and interviewing attendees, who had some time to enjoy the weekend. Overall, people were having a ton of fun, but had wished the mud would change. People loved the stage design, the awesome sets, and the VIBES! People were doing their best to ignore the muddy mess before them.
Sunday funday at Beyond Wonderland had so many epic sets we got to take part in! Some of the sets that I checked out included Hairitage, Maddy O’Neal, SoDown, Ray Volpe, Daily Bread, Alesso, Of The Trees, and finally, REZZ! This was Ben’s favorite artist so we vibed through the mud (main stage had the worst mud) and grooved until finally, we decided to trek out. Check out our recap of the weekend!
Overall, I had a great weekend at Beyond Wonderland and would definitely go back. I loved the Cheshire Woods, the neat aspects of VIP, and the attention to detail put into every set. The performers were neat and I enjoyed all the visuals. But, the mud was my biggest complaint of the weekend. Again, you can’t control the weather, but I felt like Insomniac could have worked a little harder to remedy the situation. Hopefully, they learn from this and are ready for a rocking year 2! I know that I am ready to rock out with year 2, hope to see you back there! Tickets are already ready to drop, so save the most money by buying for Beyond Wonderland 2025 now!