Last weekend, from August 26-28, 2021, the Electric Love Boutique Edition took place at Salzburgring, Austria and damn, WHAT A WEEKEND! I went there on Thursday and Friday and I’m still buzzing from how amazing it was. Not only did it feel surreal to finally be back at a proper event, but also the show the organization pulled off was beyond my expectations. I also got the chance to sit down with three huge artists who performed there – Sefa, Sub Zero Project & Primeshock! Keep reading to find out what they are up to these days and how I experienced the first real festival in ages!
THE LOCATION & HOW TO GET THERE
Surrounded by mountains, lakes, and forests, the Salzburgring race track sure is one-of-a-kind. You can get there in around 15 minutes from Salzburg city center, either by car or by the free ELF shuttle bus that leaves from the backside of Salzburg train station. There was enough parking for cars; parking tickets could have been purchased in advance or at the festival site and were 10€ per car.
We went by car the first day and by shuttle the second day and both options worked out perfectly well. Although I was worried that we’d have to wait for the shuttle forever as we, of course, stayed until the end at midnight, we only waited for 30 minutes. People were a bit pushy and impatient which was annoying but also to be expected. Getting a taxi or Uber is always a challenge after ELF, so I recommend staying in a hotel within walking distance of the train station – or just camp again next year!
THE FESTIVAL
Usually, Electric Love Festival takes place on the second weekend of July and is visited by a total of more than 180.000 electronic music lovers worldwide. With six stages, several camping areas, and hundreds of top-notch DJs, ELF is the biggest EDM festival in Austria and one of the biggest in Europe. Due to the ongoing pandemic, Revolution Event, the organization behind Electric Love decided to go through with a smaller version this year, the Boutique Edition. Only 10.000 people per day were allowed; there were no camping areas and ‘only’ three stages. Despite that the event was sized down significantly, you almost didn’t notice it – people partied as if it was 2019!
In classic ELF fashion, rain was forecasted for all three festival days. We packed our raincoats and brought an extra layer of clothes as the minimum temperature was supposed to be 9 degrees – gotta love Austrian summers! Luckily the forecast was pretty off, and it only rained in the early afternoon on both days I went. Towards the evenings, clouds cleared, and it stayed dry for the rest of the nights.
Another thing that is definitely worth mentioning is the food. DAMN, that was good! Besides Austrian specialties like Kasnocken, they also had festival classics like pizza and pasta, gyros, döner, Asian noodles, and more. Everything I tried was extremely good. Drink prices were low compared to Dutch festival prices. A large Spritzer (white wine mixed with sparkling water) was 5,40€, long drinks were 6,25€, 0,4 l beer were 5,75€, a bottle of water was 3,65€, but free tap water was available too.
Payments at the festivals were made through a chip that was on your wristband. You could even top-up the chip online, so you didn’t have to wait in line. After the festival, you can get the money back that’s left on your chip or donate it to charity – that’s definitely something Dutch festival organizers should implement too, fantastic system!
LINE-UP
HUGE names like Martin Garrix, Armin van Buuren, Afrojack, Nicky Romero, Steve Aoki, and more were booked for the mainstage, but also the Harder Styles line-up was super impressive! Headhunterz, Brennan Heart, Wildstylez, Da Tweekaz, Sub Zero Project, Warface, Sefa, and many more played tracks starting at 150 BPM. I stayed at the Harder Styles stage most of the time, of course, and oh my god, how amazing was that? Reuniting with Hardstyle homies I haven’t seen in ages and dancing to the finest tracks – it couldn’t have been better! Oh, and I heard A LOT of new music! It almost seemed like everyone was keeping their latest tracks to themselves, waiting to test them in front of a crowd. Get ready for a whole bunch of Hardstyle bangers, hopefully coming out soon!
I got the chance to sit down with three amazing artists that played the Electric Love Boutique edition – Primeshock, Sub Zero Project, and Sefa! They told me how they are doing, what they are working on at the moment, how it feels to be back on stage and all of them told me if they’d rather never DJ again or never produce again, exciting stuff! Read the articles here:
READ: SUB ZERO PROJECT AT ELECTRIC LOVE: WE’RE VERY BUSY PREPARING SOMETHING REALLY AWESOME!
READ: SEFA AT ELECTRIC LOVE: I WASN’T FOLLOWING TRENDS, BUT I WAS FOLLOWING MY OWN PHILOSOPHY, MY VISION
READ: PRIMESHOCK AT ELECTRIC LOVE: ONE OF OUR GOALS IS TO PLAY QLIMAX!