After arriving and setting up our tent in the ever impressive DreamVille, we were ready to follow the thumping bass to the official pre-party. My understanding was that The Gathering would be held in DreamVille, but instead it took place on two stages that would be used in the festival.
After crossing over one of the large lakes on the property, via a steel bridge with large water geysers and lasers on each side, we found our self directly in the middle of the actual festival grounds. In this section were three stages, a water stage, large circus style tent and a elaborately decorated, colorful, Taj Mahal styled stage. Only the water and tent stages were being used, but seeing the third stage was a nice sneak peak of what was in store.
We first headed to the tent stage area, which seemed to be holding more of the trap styled artists. The interior was very impressive, with large mushrooms, butterflies and other structures placed all over and even hanging from the air. The sound system was fantastic, with deep bass and extremely clear highs. Overall this tent really was put together nicely. I would say throughout the night this tent kept about 30% of the pre-party attendees.
Next we visited the main stage of The Gathering, the ultra impressive water stage. When approaching this stage you cannot help but to be taken back with the beautiful design. This stage was filled with numerous LED panels, TV panels, crazy lighting, lasers and multiple water geysers that would rocket streams of water 25 ft into the air. The dancing and standing area for festival goers was perfect, it slowly inclined toward the back and kept everyone in a great view of the action. This is the stage we spent about 95% of our time at during the pre-party.
The water stage’s sound system even out did the adjacent tent. I can honestly say this was one of the best sound systems I have ever heard at any festival, the clarity was outrageous. There were numerous local artists on during the beginning of the day with the stage being closed out with electro house artist Morgan Page and TomorrowWorld poster boys Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike.
There was one artist that especially stood out to me at the gathering, TJR. The quality of his set, transitions and song selection really blew me away! You could tell he was giving his all and enjoying every minute of it. As a collective though, I would say the sets played by the artists I listened to at the pre show were top of the line and no one held back anything. If the pre-party was this good, I could only imagine what I was in store for during the actual festival.
Here are some videos I shot of the water and tent stages from The Gathering.
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