In this article, we will talk about the first and largest electronic music festival in New York. It was a success from the beginning. During its development, the event became one of the largest in the world. The festival also went international. It is also held in Tokyo, Shanghai and Mexico City. More information about the founding, development and further activities of the Electric Zoo festival can be found on manhattanski.
The founding and instant success of Electric Zoo
Electric Zoo is an annual electronic music festival in the United States, which is traditionally held on Labor Day on Randalls Island, which is part of Manhattan. The peculiarity of this festival is that a wide variety of electronic music genres are presented here. The best singers and DJs gather to convey the atmosphere of the event.
The electronic music festival Electric Zoo was founded in 2009 by the company Made Event. It was held on Randalls Island, in the open air. The best performers gathered there and it all looked like a ‘literal zoo of electronic music’. This event was popular with locals and was attended by over 26,000 visitors. Given the excitement, the festival was significantly expanded in 2011. The following year, the event was attended by a record number of guests – over 85,000 people. It is worth noting that the following years the festival was canceled due to fatal incidents. In 2015, Electric Zoo returned, significantly expanded and updated.
Further successful activities of the Electric Zoo festival
In 2016, the Electric Zoo festival was even better and even more crazy. That year, the event featured impressive scenery, extraordinary stage design, various installations and talented artists who turned Randall Island into a ‘Wild Island’. The following year, the organizers tried no less and also created bright, extraordinary and large-scale stage decorations. This time the stage looked like an elephant and was called Elephant’s Roar. Creative Director of Electric Zoo Jeff Wright explained that all this was created to immerse guests in the entire atmosphere of the event as much as possible and leave pleasant memories for each visitor for a lifetime.
In 2018, Electric Zoo celebrated its tenth birthday. It was a special year. The organizers could not ignore this day, so they created the largest three-day festival, which was attended by about 100 thousand guests. The event was filled with world-famous DJs and a rich program, which had never been seen before in the history of the festival. Thus, every year was special and the year 2019 was no exception. The organizers stunned visitors with the highest and widest main stage in the history of the festival. From it, guests could admire beautiful views of the city. The following years were not very encouraging. In 2020, the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the festival was threatened by Hurricane Ida. However, the danger passed and the festival took place with the necessary safety measures. In 2022, the festival was traditionally held on Labor Day, September 2–4. Electric Zoo was held during Labor Day weekend and lasted from September 1 to 3 in 2023. The event was also not without problems. On the first day of the festival, the concert was canceled three hours before the start due to internal problems. There were also difficulties with the timely completion of the main stage. It remained unfinished throughout the festival. In addition, there were delays, long lines due to some problems, etc.
It is worth noting that the festival has gone international and is held in cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Mexico City.