Vietnam’s Epizode Festival made a huge mark on all who attended this year. The second edition of the ten day long event was a landmark one, with people from all over the US, UK, New Zealand, Russia and Australia making up the diverse crowd.
Of course, plenty of locals from the Asian scene also got involved and with a line-up featuring the likes of Ricardo Villalobos, Dixon, Ame, Peggy Gou, Loco Dice, Luciano, Marcel Dettmann, Sofia Rodina, Bambounou and many more, the festival really has helped drive the scene forward and bring plenty of big names to the area for the first time. As such, here is a run down of the 7 key performances.
Carl Cox
The iconic big man made a huge statement to the world with his first set fo the year. Despite his advancing years, he still has the energy of a teenager and the taste of a rising star. He kicked off the festival in real style with a powerful and on point selection that will have people desperate to catch him round the world again in 2018.
Peggy Gou b2b Bambounou
These two relative new talents really impressed not once but twice. They went back to back on the Main Stage and then straight to afters stage where they continued until late morning. Playing across the house and techno spectrum, they effortless segued into each other’s selections and took us on a real trip.
Loco Dice
The Desolat label boss served up one of his famously chunky and funky sets of hsoue slash techno. He drew the biggest crowd of the ten days and played big hitters like ‘Bang’ by ZDS, which drew wild reactions.
Ricardo Villalobos
By now you have probably seen the video going round of him playing to a crowd of people wearing masks of his face He loved it and played to the crowd perfectly at the best after party on the Fresbee Stage. He was DJing on and off for 13 hours from sunset to sunrise and did some unplanned back to back sets with Sammy D, amongst others. When he dropped Radio Slave’s Children of the E (North London Mix), there were shivers.
Pan Pot, Nic Fanciulli and wAFF
This naughty lot all went back to back and served up lots of crazy fun on the Fresbee Stage. From techno rib rattlers to main room house via freaky tech, it was a wild and rugged ride that was all about heading into the unknown and trying to hold on.
Luciano
Playing a sunset, the famous minimal techno man played a different type of set and probably the best sunset set of the week. He was there all week and enjoyed many other DJs’ sets and got fully involved in the vibes and the community of the festival as a punter as well as a selector.
The Residents – Roustam Mirzoev & Tyoma
Both Roustam Mirzoev and TYOMA played around 15 + sets between them over the 11 days from warm up to sunrise afterparties to emotional sunset specials. Their hard work was paid off with a new found stardom at the event, as well as surely round the world once everyone gets home and tells their friends. They rarely repeated themselves and managed to dig out sounds that perfectly suited the time and environment, no matter what that was.
