Epic New Years Eve Review

Review by Justin Metras from Club Lights sold at Ellumiglow.com

This was Epic’s second attempt at a party thrown at the huge grounds of the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Coming into the event, all you see is stanchions galore, and not a big crowd which was a big bonus compared to the first event that Epic threw at the race track. One major change compared to other events was clear: Safety. Security was abundant as any entrance, walkway, bathroom or music hall had a security staff waiting for action. Any sign of foul play had a swarm of security staff waiting to pounce. As secure as you felt there, at least two large fights broke out in the crowd, that I saw at least. The crowd otherwise was great as usual as most people I talked to were very friendly and extremely happy to be there. The total amount of people there seemed like it was between 5,000 and 7,000 when the capacity of the event was about 15,000 people. Most rooms had a healthy crowd of people but clearly they were expecting a bigger crowd for New Year’s Eve.

photo by Jeff Allen Photography

A huge shadow that was cast over the night was any security personnel that saw anything glowing on an event goer was immediately taken. This included glow sticks, EL Wire, and more. I asked one of the security staff why they care if people had glow sticks, and they said it was because “it gives people on drugs a sense of euphoria.” I told him the drugs give them the euphoria, and the lights give everyone whether they are on drugs or not a simple sense of pleasure, let alone additional safety. If they really didn’t want people looking at cool lights, they wouldn’t have used over $50,000 in stage lighting equipment to light up the auditoriums. When people go to events these days, many plan ahead with their glowing costumes or lights. Going to an event like this and traveling in a big group, it’s often hard to keep a large group together. Having a common light to look for make it very simple to keep groups together, which in turn allows for a more enjoyable time.

The “No Glow Stick Rule” aside, great job to Epic for the layout stage lighting and sound control, as the musical aspect was superb. The stage lighting surrounded each of the three giant rooms, and the speakers could have filled a room twice the nice quite nicely. Two rooms were spaced far enough apart where people didn’t get congested walking from one room to the other. There was a pretty good mix of DJ’s there, and some of the headliners put on a great show. Moby, Afrojack, and Porter Robinson all killed it and put on great sets. Moby put on an awesome dirty electro house set, which was different than past shows which had him inside his trance comfort zone. Afrojack played his staple songs, but mixed in some new winners that had not been heard previously.

I would rate the show a 3 out of 5 as the music and sound quality was great, but the nasty security staff and “No Glow Stick Rule” seemed to bring down the crowd a bit and didn’t make any sense. All in all, good second attempt; but next time, just allow glow sticks. They don’t hurt anyone.