Day Trip: Photos, drones and what it was like to be at Insomniacs newest festival

August 2024 · 8 minute read

Just after 9 p.m. on Saturday night, as house music bumped from two large stages and thousands of fans danced along, 200 drones levitated into the dark sky above the NOS Event Center in San Bernardino.

While the drones performed their own set at the first day of the inaugural Day Trip Festival, perhaps their biggest hit was a formation that read “We back, baby!!” in red lights, a literal sign that after more than a year of concerts and festivals being dark due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was time to dance again.

Here’s a look at what it was like to be at Insomniac’s first festival back since COVID-19 restrictions lifted in California:

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The vibes

The only thing brighter than the sunshine at the first day of Day Trip was the fans’ joy, which was palpable even in the parking lot.

While you would see occasional people wearing masks, it was like traveling to a time before the pandemic. More fans wore glitter and fishnets than face coverings. Hand fans were used to keep cool during the triple-digit afternoon, but also as a musical accessory to keep time with the music.

Some carried in flags and totems, as simple as a sky flag featuring a heart, house and musical note emojis to an elaborate totem with LED lights illuminating a map of the galaxy.

There were men wearing Hawaiian shirts and women in revealing bikinis sipping on blue drinks out of Day Trip’s signature fishbowls, lounging on beach chairs under misters and disco balls in shade structures just soaking up the moment of normalcy.

The production

Day Trip’s journey to San Bernardino wasn’t the smoothest, with two venue changes in the weeks before the show, but it’s a testament to Insomniac’s production that with the exception of the event no longer being on the waterfront, you wouldn’t have known that it wasn’t planned for NOS the whole time.

Justin Spagg, vice president of festival operations and experience for Insomniac, said the crew lost about a day’s worth of building time by the time the final move was announced Tuesday, but the bigger challenge was the heat.

Insomniac has used the venue for its massive shows for decades, and promoter’s production team of 15 management staff and 70 crewmembers used the landscape to their advantage. The lagoon near the entrance provided a perfect photo opportunity for fans to pose in front with a giant Day Trip Festival sign. The Deep End stage, which featured palm trees, foliage and the festival’s giraffe mascot in a pink VW bus, was in an area of the grounds with large trees and grass. Where the Deep End was more organic, the High Tide stage on the other side of the site was more high-tech, with more lights and bells and whistles.

But the highlight wasn’t on the ground. Insomniac is known for having fireworks displays at its festivals, but with it being the holiday weekend and the recent change of venue, Spagg knew getting a pyrotechnics show together in a few days wasn’t an option.

“What can I do?” he asked himself.

He was able to connect with a drone production company that had to scrap its plans for a show in Washington, D.C. and the Day Trip fans ended up with something more special.

The 10-minute-long drone show went into the sky as Claptone and Dombresky performed, displaying the festival’s name and its motto, “House music all day along,” as well as formations that included Day Trip’s mascot of a giraffe in a VW bus — complete with spinning wheels — and a pulsing stereo speaker.

The music

With a lineup full of fan favorites in the house genre, the crowd flowed back and forth between the two stages to see artists such as Sidepiece (who dropped a little of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” into his sunset set), a house set from Diplo and a live set from Chromeo.

But it appeared that French producer Tchami was the big draw of the night, closing down the High Tide stage with video production that made the stage look like a cathedral, attracting thousands of dancing worshipers, a fitting end for the joyous return of dance music in Southern California.

This post first appeared on ocregister.com

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