Photos: Snowglobe Festival Lights up the Sky

Snowglobe, the 3-day music festival that calls South Lake Tahoe home; just had it’s fourth year bringing in the New Years with 15,000 festival-goers, headliners and underground, and a snowstorm that left more than six inches of powder in the festival grounds. Skrillex, Disclosure (DJ set), Branchez, Odesza, Trippy Turtle, and the dirtybird crew were some of the stand-out sets that played over the three days.

Coming into the festival the audience was presented with three different stages: The Main stage was set to hold the top acts of the festival: from Skrillex closing out day one to Flume ringing in the New Year. The Sierra tent, which was at the heart of the festival, was big enough to fit a few thousand people and decorated with spiral icicles hanging down from the ceiling. It also was a shield from the below freezing weather. And lastly the Igloo tent, the smallest stage, was placed near the end of the festival and hosted the dirtybird crew in a tradition with last year.

Weather played a big factor in this years festival since that it snowed at the end of Day One and throughout the night. We were waking up for Tuesday morning and finding that the water bottle we left in the car overnight had ice in it. That was how frigid it was; even so festivalgoers still put on multiple layers, face glitter, neon tu-tus, and colorful winter jackets and huddled together like emperor penguins during the artic winter for warmth. That being said, the love for music can overcome the sensation of being cold to see some great acts in an environment with positive vibes and amazing people. On Day One Skrillex spent half the time on the decks and the other half in the air as fire bathed the crowd in warmth, one of the most memorable sets of the festival.

With a variety of  sets over the three days there was bound to be a few that didn’t meet expectation. Disclosure's DJ set was controversial: while many love their deep house mixes, other fans were disappointed to miss out on actual Disclosure songs after they opened with "When a fire starts to burn." It seems that the deep house wave that's crashing over the scene hasn't fully taken hold, and Disclosure's live sets remains distinct from their DJ sets, to the delight of some and the dismay of others. To further complicate matters, Howard was sick so Guy took the decks solo;  much like What So Not touring without Flume, while the necessity of two DJs together may be questionable, the lack of input from the full duo muddled the set's reception. Don't worry, Guy closed out the set with “Latch feat. Sam Smith” and then brought in their unreleased remix of Outkast's “Mrs. Jackson” that they've been playing since they first dropped it at their set at Output at the beginning of the year. Cherub missed their whole set on Day 3 (a feat similar to their delay at Electric Forest). Luckily, Snowglobe saved the day by bringing them in as a special guest after Zedd.

Everyone had his or her most anticipated set, but what made the festival truly special was the spectrum of genres presented, allowing for those moments of discovery for fans on opposite ends of the gamut. Trippy Turtle, the notorious turtle from the fofofadi crew threw down on Day Two with banging remixes from T-pain, to Bell Biv DeVoe, to other hit R&B songs. His set had the whole tent going crazy with his booty banging remixes from a MacBook. And yea, in case you haven't gotten the memo yet, he does have Lido's hair. And face. Getting a variety of music at a festival is good and Atmosphere did just that on Day Three. The rap group's stage presence brought a new vibe to the snow; they even ended with a mindblowing freestyle. For those who still wanted to party late into the night Snowglobe offered three different after parties each night; two conveniently located at the Montbleu hotel where the shuttles dropped you back off. All after parties went into the early hours of the morning and provided a  club feel after being exposed to the weather all day.

Words can't describe the moment of the new year:

Closing out 2014 and stepping forth into 2015 the place to be was Snowglobe. With great acts, people, and vibes, we can't wait for next year! Another year older and another year stronger, with snowy mountains in the background, Tahoe weather and scenery, the only question is will you be apart of it?

- Joseph Brasley and Antonio Barrio Florio