On The Scene: DGTL Madrid

The acclaimed DGTL festival has conquered yet another city, Madrid, and we could not be happier!

This past 5th of December, Madrid gathered to celebrate the 4 day break the way they know how to best, by partying! Announced in August, right after DGTL’s very successful 4th edition took place in Barcelona, it has been a date electronic music lovers have been looking towards and it was well worth the wait. After witnessing their level of organization, creativity and compromise with their audience for a second time, it comes to no surprise that this incredible festival keeps branching out onto new cities like Madrid and Santiago de Chile and keep coming back where they first started such as Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Barcelona and Sao Paulo. Known for their industrial feel, DGTL brought their famous Generator, Frequency and Modular stages into IFEMA, situated half an hour (on metro) away from city center, where techno and house lovers devoted themselves in this 9 hour long celebration of music.

The journey began at 10 PM when talented locals Javi Redondo and Vane Madrid took over the Modular and Frequency stages respectively, along with Dutch DJ JP Enfant at Generator. One thing that makes DGTL stand out from other festivals is that you have a guarantee that the talent you will be witnessing is nothing but the best. Both local and international artists that step foot on a DGTL stage carry with them a long, successful trajectory behind them and are important pieces to create the atmosphere of each stage and the festival as a whole.

As soon as you entered IFEMA, right after passing the long lines of coat check one could find the Modular stage. Being the biggest of the three, Modular welcomed the most visitors and had some of the bigger names on its stage. From 11:30PM until 1AM Portuguese producer and DJ Trikk took over to share with us his techno and house sounds. Playing some of his of tunes and mixing them with others, Trikk created a great atmosphere for those who were already giving it their all on the dancefloor as well as the newcomers. Congruent to Trikk, were locals Damian Schwartz at Frequency and Versions (Psych & Tadeo) playing a live set at the second biggest Generator stage.

Charlotte De Witte came on after and everyone’s excitement elevated the room’s energy.

Her killer set was a great transition to go back to Modular and see the one and only Ame playing a live b2b set with Mathew Johnson, which went on until 3 AM. On the Frequency stage, which was set up like a Boiler Room set in that the audience could surround the beautifully lit stage, was a well-welcomed Norwegian Skatebard.

No matter how big the space is, DGTL always manages to fill it up and IFEMA was not an exception. At 3 AM, it didn’t matter if you went to see DJ Koze at Modular, Robert Hood at Generator or Midland at Frequency, you were guaranteed to have a blast and dance like there was no tomorrow amongst others who were enjoying it just as much as you. This DGTL differentiated from the one in Barcelona in size, therefore there were less (but just as yummy) food carts and the lines to order drinks, which you could only buy with tokens, were thankfully much smaller!

Sadly the last two hours of the night came upon us and one could not choose in which stage to spend them. You could go to Modular with the screens surrounding the space like a box, and see different images being projected on them while Spanish John Talabot was giving it his all to his audience. You could also go see the American queen of Dance music The Black Madonna at the Frequency stage, which was one of the names that hyped up this DGTL. Or you could see the legend Len Faki killing it at Generator along a great laser show to go along his incredible mixes.

 

Truth is no matter which stage you chose, your feet could not stop moving along the rhythm of the beat. The sets each DJ crafted enabled the audience to let go of any worries, any prejudice and let themselves be carried by the music, an incredible way to start the 4 day break. DGTL has been (for those who have gone a few times) and quickly becoming (for new goers) their festival of choice. Even though the lines to go in and coat check were a little long and unorganized, the overall festival was extremely worth the attendance, so much no one wanted to leave by 7AM. If the first edition in Madrid was already this good, I cannot wait to see what the second edition will bring. If you, like me, are impatient and do not want to wait a whole year to pass, you can check out the other DGTL festivals happening before that.