Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Memory Lane: Sun City Music Festival 2012 - El Paso, TX (Day 1 Part 1)

Picture of SCMF 2012 lineup. Property of Disco Donnie.
Welcome to another segment of "Memory Lane" by One Nation Under EDM. "Memory Lane" is one of the components of my blog where I talk about the past festivals or concerts I've been to. As of now, I've been to many festivals and concerts around my hometown. This post is very special to me because Sun City Music Festival 2012 was my first all-EDM festival that I went to. It was also the first time I traveled in a far distance by myself. Not only I saw the headlining DJs for the event, including some new surprising acts, but I felt for the first time the vibe of a festival crowd. One that I'll always remember for a long time.

I heard about this festival while I was surfing the internet right about this time one year ago. At the time, I was searching for upcoming David Guetta appearances since he was one of the current and newest DJs I was listening to. So I searched and his shows were in the usual hotspots for DJ: Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Ibiza, and Paris. As I searched on, I happened to see him going to El Paso around Labor Day weekend. I was confused for a second and had to keep clicking the refresh button over and over to make sure it was a mistake or something. But it was true.

After being excited by the fact that Guetta was indeed coming to Texas I searched to see why was he coming to El Paso out of all places. That's where I found out about the 2-day EDM music festival and saw that Above & Beyond was headlining there as well. I was debating for about a month or two until I finally decided to go. After I committed myself to go, the rest of the lineup submerged. I didn't know too many of the DJs when I first attended the festival, but all I had on my mind was seeing David Guetta.

Attendees for SCMF waiting for the gates to open for the 2-day
weekend to start. Taken by Roland Ruiz
As the day approached, I was nervous because I have never been on a plane by myself or traveled this far from Houston by myself. As I got on the plane and it was taking off, I was less nervous about being on the plane and became more excited as the festival was going to start the same afternoon that I was leaving from Houston. I got to El Paso around 10-11 in the morning so I went to the movies to kill some time at the local mall. Afterwards, I checked in to my hotel and it was already time to head on out to the festival.

As I was on my way to Ascarate Park, the site of the festival, the taxi driver was kind enough to change the radio from the Latino station into a pop station that was playing electronic/dance music in honor of Sun City coming to town. The kind gesture went a long way because I've heard so many bad things about El Paso since it's right next to Juarez - the most notorious city in Mexico. These guys were so nice and kind to me from the moment I stepped foot into El Paso. I knew after I got out of the taxi and once the doors were opened for the 2-day festival to began that it was going to be memorable.

Next Post: Sun City Music Festival 2012 (Day 1 Part 2)
Upcoming Posts: ML - SCMF 2012 (Day 2); ML - Something Wicked 2012; Album Review: Armin Van Buuren - Intense; Special Announcement from One Nation Under EDM (stay tuned).


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