Gold Rush Music Festival was one for the books and kicked off Arizona’s festival season. While most states conduct their festival seasons in the summer months (May-September), Arizona takes advantage of its cooler weather in the fall to produce some of the best festivals in the nation.

◊

With performances from artists like The Chainsmokers, SLANDER, Alesso, and more, insane production, and a theme anyone could dress up to, Gold Rush proved to be a top-notch festival. With an independent production company behind the whole thing, Relentless Beats is proving to compete with the top name production brands time and time again. Arizona’s music scene is underrated by non-residents and this festival proved it.

The performances at Gold Rush were top tier this year, and showed that Arizona can host world-renowned talent with ease. Some of our favorite sets included Audien, who played an epic progressive house set and brought all of the feels. Black Tiger Sex Machine took us to church, with their epic Anime visuals mixed together with their dark and heavy dubstep sound.

Nikademis brought in the largest crowd we had ever seen for a 6:05pm set, filled with classics and heavy remixes, with the Arizona mountains as a beautiful backdrop. The smaller stages also included top tier performances, with the Evo Silent Disco bringing the vibes from artists like Not Yurs, Arizona locals who are revamping bass house and mixing it with tech house in their own unique way. Overall, all of the artists showed up and showed out.

Every festival hosted in Arizona has shown growth in their production, and Gold Rush now takes the cake for the coolest production I have seen at an Arizona festival. The stage designs were unreal, matching the “Wild Card” festival theme. Moonrise Mountain was dubbed the “bass stage” for the weekend, hosting artists like Deathpact, Inzo B2B Mersiv, Sullivan King and more. This stage had light towers that looked like the lights were floating in the air. Topped with a beautiful visual presentation projected onto the Arizona Mountains, it was a sight to be seen.

Paradise Prairie (the main stage) contained two giant LED dice, reflecting the wild west/Vegas theme well. Overall, the production was on par with Insomniac level festivals and proved that Arizona can have an independent organizer and give experiences of a lifetime.

The community makes the Arizona music scene the most underrated of them all. Every festival in Arizona has the nicest crowds, happy people, and overall a great experience as a fan or a staff member. With clear bag policies in place, we felt way more comfortable at this festival and didn’t worry about our phones being stolen. The bathrooms were always stocked with supplies and clean. With vibes off the chart, music that was healing, and production that was awe-inspiring, the festival scene here is only continuing to grow, and Gold Rush proved to be the best festival yet.