that was hands down theworst display of EDM ever.....

[Cass_McMurphy]

Its really too bad that the EDM lineup was so generic this year, because Sahara by far had the best sound system and lights of the 3 smaller tents. Seeing both Fly Lo and SBTRKT in Gobi was a bit disappointing because it simply wasn't loud enough.

[cured]

Maybe when Paris Hilton finishes her "house album" she can headline the Sahara one night next year and finally drive the nail in the coffin for me.

[Wheres the beef?]

I mean, yeah, the dance lineup was terrible. I walked into Alesso and within the first four tracks I heard Gotye into LEVE7S into "One More Time" which was like a cheese overload. Apparently this was a common thing over the weekend but I didn't spend enough time in there to figure that out.

On the other hand though, GV knows what they're doing. It's not like they're accidentally booking all of these cheesy bro-house acts; this is deliberate and I don't think it's going to change. I honestly have accepted the fact that I am too old for the Sahara tent and that if I want to see quality electronic acts in a big setting like that I have to go elsewhere. That's kind of fine with me, I had a great time this year and I barely spent any time in the Sahara. I saw Jacques Lu Cont and the tent was absolutely empty after Borgore, only to fill up after Jacques' set right before Zed's Dead or whatever. The few times I wandered over there during a bro-house act I couldn't even get in, during Alesso and Afrojack the tent was overflowing with people.

On the way to Coachella we stopped at a few gas stations and fast food joints. Without a single exception, every conversation I overheard about Coachella was about the EDM lineup and how awesome it was. The few times I went in there I saw an incredible amount of braces and an incredible lack of facial hair. GV is pretty obviously trying to make the Sahara tent into something specific and while it's not exactly a thrilling move I can kind of understand it, I'd imagine that they sell a serious amount of tickets to people who just want to rage to Afrojack and could care less about any of the acts on the other stages.

The Sahara is the land of the teenage rager now. Accept this and move on.

Finally someone gets it. Although I suspect you figured that out before you left for the weekend. So the question is: where do we go from here? Detroit? Burning Man? BPM?

[soursour]

A popular festival sticking to mostly pop acts? Who would've thought?

[Trick Loves The Kids]

Finally someone gets it. Although I suspect you figured that out before you left for the weekend. So the question is: where do we go from here? Detroit? Burning Man? BPM?

I think EDC would be a good replacement, honestly, in terms of seeing legit DJs on huge stages with production. They will definitely have cheese and teenage ragers but they seem interested in booking deeper stuff as well, so if you're looking for that Olde Sahara Tent Feeling then that might be a good choice. DEMF isn't the same thing (no huge stages with crazy production) but in terms of lineup it's probably the best thing going on in America.

A popular festival sticking to mostly pop acts? Who would've thought?

This isn't totally fair, they used to mix actual DJs in with the cheese. Carl Cox played at like 8pm one year, Hawtin played a DJ set at 4pm one year, Orbital and Plastikman played at night a couple of years ago, etc. It's just that they don't seem to care about doing this any longer.

[sonicc]

The Sahara was completely packed and people were having an amazing time at Swedish House Mafia.

I think they're doing just fine...

[cured]

oh hey, selloutboy is back.

[seitron]

Sahara was epic fail. I did enjoy SebastiAn, Breakbot, Alesso (surprisingly very good despite what people on the boards were saying), Afrojack, Jaques Lu Cont, and Calvin Harris. SHM was also lots of fun and Modeselektor had the best set of the weekend. But 95% of the weekend was alternating between cheese house and dubstep, totally unacceptable and repetitive. The saturday Sahara lineup was just appalling, i think i spent more time in the Do Lab

[Josesativa]

The Sahara was completely packed and people were having an amazing time at Swedish House Mafia.

I think they're doing just fine...

lol this guy is lame i caught the webcast of
shm and if they didn't have lasers i'm sure people would have brought them down and hung them right then and there .. man that was the most horrible mixing i've seen in my life. so much hand waving MAKE SOME MOTHERFUCKING NOISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOSE GONNA SAVE THE WORLD!!!!!!!>> IT'S SONICC

[bgrace805]

u know what was missing? BOYS NOIZE, 2MANYDJS - i agree that there was no bridge in the sahara between house and dubstep. although sebastIan did his best to hold it down.

[aphrael]

Sahara was epic fail. I did enjoy SebastiAn, Breakbot, Alesso (surprisingly very good despite what people on the boards were saying), Afrojack, Jaques Lu Cont, and Calvin Harris. SHM was also lots of fun and Modeselektor had the best set of the weekend. But 95% of the weekend was alternating between cheese house and dubstep, totally unacceptable and repetitive. The saturday Sahara lineup was just appalling, i think i spent more time in the Do Lab

i generally do not get the appeal of dubstep ... so i wish it would go away, already.

[Goatchella]

Derp step must die

[AbundantChoice]

Finally someone gets it. Although I suspect you figured that out before you left for the weekend. So the question is: where do we go from here? Detroit? Burning Man? BPM?

DEMF/Movement for techno and house goodness with relatively little cheese. Drawback is you lose the visual spectacle.
If you want really abstract / experimental stuff along with surreal A/V collaborations, go to MUTEK up in Montreal. Drawback is 2/3 of it isn't remotely danceable.
If you want wub-wub dubstep and psytrance, go to Burning Man. Drawback is if you're going to BM just to dance and rave, you're doing it wrong.

The one thing I never get in these threads is people yelling and screaming at Goldenvoice being pop-pandering, non-forwarding thinking losers with the Sahara lineup, then when they say who should be playing the Sahara, it's all groups from 10-15 years ago. "Where's Underworld? Where's the Chemicals? Where's Sasha?" Now I love that late 90's techno as much as anyone, but there's no question a generational shift has happened and your average 20-something festival goer would 1000X rather see David Guetta than Underworld. And when those "oh my god!" techno acts everyone raves about end up playing Coachella (Orbital, Leftfield, Aphex Twin), they do so to 1/2 empty tents even though they put on a great show. So yeah, i'd love to see people like Agoria, Joris Voorn, Dave Clarke, or Martyn play the Sahara, there's just no way they're going to draw in the crowds that a tent of that size should be drawing. So who are the recent / modern EDM acts that would fill up the Sahara that people think GV should be booking instead?

[Trick Loves The Kids]

That's a great point. The thing is, if they book Orbital (who were completely awesome but played to a smallish crowd) they are going to compete with actual bands on the other stages simply because the people who are into Orbital are mostly older and might have some conflicts with the other acts playing. If they book Afrojack he's going to fill the tent with people who wouldn't even consider missing him for another act on another stage. There are only a few big EDM acts that work for the teenage ragers and the older folks... Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, a few others maybe. Acts like Orbital and Underworld and Aphex are amazing but they're mostly going to bore the ragers ("Where is the drop???"). I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's what the deal is now so you should get used to it.

[cured]

You make a great point AbundantChoice (although you did contradict yourself a tad). While I am part of the older crowd, I'd be happy with a Leftfield/Orbital/Underworld/etc offering anywhere rather than nowhere. The Sahara will be packed during the day pretty much regardless of who you put there. I'll always throw out Carl Cox as a safe Sahara bet but if Andy C or Markus Schulz was in the Sahara at 4 or 5pm, would it be empty? I doubt it. People will still go there. Tricky already made a good point about letting the Sahara go to the young crowd who prefer lights and "performance" over skill and programming and I'd be more than OK with that if GV threw us old folk a bone somewhere.

[hippityhip]

I mean, yeah, the dance lineup was terrible. I walked into Alesso and within the first four tracks I heard Gotye into LEVE7S into "One More Time" which was like a cheese overload. Apparently this was a common thing over the weekend but I didn't spend enough time in there to figure that out.

On the other hand though, GV knows what they're doing. It's not like they're accidentally booking all of these cheesy bro-house acts; this is deliberate and I don't think it's going to change. I honestly have accepted the fact that I am too old for the Sahara tent and that if I want to see quality electronic acts in a big setting like that I have to go elsewhere. That's kind of fine with me, I had a great time this year and I barely spent any time in the Sahara. I saw Jacques Lu Cont and the tent was absolutely empty after Borgore, only to fill up after Jacques' set right before Zed's Dead or whatever. The few times I wandered over there during a bro-house act I couldn't even get in, during Alesso and Afrojack the tent was overflowing with people.

On the way to Coachella we stopped at a few gas stations and fast food joints. Without a single exception, every conversation I overheard about Coachella was about the EDM lineup and how awesome it was. The few times I went in there I saw an incredible amount of braces and an incredible lack of facial hair. GV is pretty obviously trying to make the Sahara tent into something specific and while it's not exactly a thrilling move I can kind of understand it, I'd imagine that they sell a serious amount of tickets to people who just want to rage to Afrojack and could care less about any of the acts on the other stages.

The Sahara is the land of the teenage rager now. Accept this and move on.

Pretty much. People need to understand that EDM is on its second wave in N. America. It is extremely popular now as it was in the 90s. More so now because of social media. GV will continue to book big cheese acts because that is mainly what the 18-25 demographic wants right now. It's like kEwL again or sumthin...

[Mugwog]

We are old

[vertin]

yeah sahara kind of blew...definetly not as great as other years...I hope they change it up! time for new festivals like LiB

[frozen pilgrim]

the mojave is the new 21+ sahara. sub focus and modeselektor this year, leftfield last year, they're just relegating the cheesedom to the sahara and slowly putting more and more awesome other shit on the other stages.

[luckyface]

the mojave is the new 21+ sahara. sub focus and modeselektor this year, leftfield last year, they're just relegating the cheesedom to the sahara and slowly putting more and more awesome other shit on the other stages.

Nail on the head. Mojave is where it's at for electronic. And I always love me some Do Lab!

[evobeatsti]

I think you could do a greatnjob mixing in legit artists with the cheese guys that would pack the tent. Look at some of the stuff ultra brought in this year if you want a legit edm lineup. Furthermore, GV is going to have to expand the festival for next year. They aren't going to go to 3 or 4 weekends but they know the demand is there so I expect an extra tent, maybe that tent will be smaller and relegated to good edm while the big cheese guys will get the "main edm stage". My main problem this year was that there was no variety, hopefully if they bring in the cheese they will spread it across multiple genres.

Here is my ideal diverse sahara lineup nit necessarily who I'd want to see but a list I would expect to draw a lot of people

Day 1
Above & Beyond
Fatboy slim
Knife party
Jack beats
Dirty south
Joker
Jamie jones
Chris lake

Day 2
Carl cox
Laidback Luke
Pretty lights
Arty + mat zo b2b
Tommy trash
Michael woods
Visionquest

Day 3
Soul wax
Groove armada
Hardwell
Dimitri Vegas + like mike
Richie hawtin
Guy boratto
Ricardo Villalobos
Michael woods
James Blake
Pendulum
Rusko

Or something like that where you have some diversity in the music so I wasn't hearing the same song 10 times...

[cured]

^^ see that would be nice. A little something for everyone.

[Monko762]

^^ see that would be nice. A little something for everyone.

AGREED!! GREAT wishlist that is possible and pleases everyone GV PLEASE TAKE NOTICE!!!

[Natelevmofuggaz]

I wouldn't give a fuck about the sahara if they just brought the damn dome back... The dome made my 2011. So much talent in there. I couldn't give less of a fuck about light shows, I just want some proper dance music.

[Sensuality]

Never spent less time in Sahara, and couldn't be more happy. All the best shit was elsewhere, but I sound like a broken record at this point. Worthy and Christian Martin were fucking SOLID in the DoLab. And Modeselektor, can't stress enough how jacking that set was.

I'm hoping that GV saw how Coachella is now a guaranteed sell-out and they can go ahead and book artists next year that aren't total cheeseballs. I know there will always be those acts on the lineup, but there's no point in billing a ton of the most mainstream electronic artists to pull crowds if the people are already going to come.

[Jakedeez]

I mean, yeah, the dance lineup was terrible. I walked into Alesso and within the first four tracks I heard Gotye into LEVE7S into "One More Time" which was like a cheese overload. Apparently this was a common thing over the weekend but I didn't spend enough time in there to figure that out.

On the other hand though, GV knows what they're doing. It's not like they're accidentally booking all of these cheesy bro-house acts; this is deliberate and I don't think it's going to change. I honestly have accepted the fact that I am too old for the Sahara tent and that if I want to see quality electronic acts in a big setting like that I have to go elsewhere. That's kind of fine with me, I had a great time this year and I barely spent any time in the Sahara. I saw Jacques Lu Cont and the tent was absolutely empty after Borgore, only to fill up after Jacques' set right before Zed's Dead or whatever. The few times I wandered over there during a bro-house act I couldn't even get in, during Alesso and Afrojack the tent was overflowing with people.

On the way to Coachella we stopped at a few gas stations and fast food joints. Without a single exception, every conversation I overheard about Coachella was about the EDM lineup and how awesome it was. The few times I went in there I saw an incredible amount of braces and an incredible lack of facial hair. GV is pretty obviously trying to make the Sahara tent into something specific and while it's not exactly a thrilling move I can kind of understand it, I'd imagine that they sell a serious amount of tickets to people who just want to rage to Afrojack and could care less about any of the acts on the other stages.

The Sahara is the land of the teenage rager now. Accept this and move on.

Your words are so true. I hadn't been to Coachella since 06, and it was night and day how the times have changed. In 06 i was able to walk up to Daft Punk in a prime spot right before they came on. Now every time i even wandered in the sahara direction it was packed and spilling out the sides. There was no way i was getting in there. But i think i enjoyed my time at the other stages anyway so....

[guedita]

Uh as the OP addressed whether or not they actually spent a bunch of time in the Sahara and then figured out that these DJs fucking suck?

[Trick Loves The Kids]

Your words are so true. I hadn't been to Coachella since 06, and it was night and day how the times have changed. In 06 i was able to walk up to Daft Punk in a prime spot right before they came on. Now every time i even wandered in the sahara direction it was packed and spilling out the sides. There was no way i was getting in there. But i think i enjoyed my time at the other stages anyway so....

Yeah, I complained as much as everyone else about the cheese this year but when the tent was overflowing at 3pm each day I kind of realized that I'm just not the audience. I don't even blame these kids, if I was 19 I'd be all about it... if you can embrace the cheese it's like a 12-hour party every day.

[Porkchop]

Straight up the Sahara tent was so cheesy this year I couldn't get anywhere near it.. even the heiny garden behind the sahara was too painful to hangout. At least we had Modeselektor, the do lab and the heiny dome for droog to get out tech/deep fix!

[spence]

While I expect the cheese to return in full force next year, I would be surprised if we got as few quality acts again next year. As recently as 2011 did we get acts like Sasha, Boys Noize, Sven Vath, Shpongle and The Twelves in the Sahara along with The Presets, Leftfield and Trentemoller in the Mojave. I don't think Paul or whoever books this fest is blind to this board's opinions. I think them booking High Contrast last year is the best example. Considering this fest is a guaranteed sell out next year, I think they will bring some quality acts.

With that being said, I did have fun at Noisia, Breakbot, SebastiAn and Jacques Lu Cont this year but Modeselektor blew everyone of those acts out of the water