This past weekend, Hijinx Festival made its return to the city of brotherly love for its second year. Taking place at the Philadelphia Convention Center, the event took over city center in full force. After it’s successful debut in 2018, tickets for Hijinx sold out quickly. On top of the good music and vibes, the event was the perfect way to send off the last weekend of 2019 in good fashion.
Although I did not attend last year’s edition, I heard many good things about the festival. On top of the plentiful compliments on social media, there was much praise to be found on Reddit. The event is one of the most rave friendly festivals out there in the which the volunteers and staff are “full senders” themselves.
Upon entering the 1 million sq ft massive venue, ravers are greeted by a visually stimulating aesthetic. Neon lights, giant inflatables, and gigantic tentacles make the experience feel a lot like an actual festival. There were also photo op sites available for squad pics galore. With over 24,000 people in attendance, the venue had the perfect amount of space for the crowd to dance and head bang their hearts out to.
When talking about the lineup, it was absolutely massive and a huge reason why the energy in the room was insane. With headliners like Excision B2B Slander, Porter Robinson, Bassnectar, Skrillex, and Zeds Dead, I honestly found it hard to believe to be true. However, that didn’t mean people didn’t show up for the smaller artists because they all threw down. This was truly an event curated for bass lovers and it really showed by how passionate everyone was.
On top of all the booming bass, the production was very impressive. There was plenty of lasers and lights which filled the cavernous venue with vibrant colors. Some people mentioned that there was issues with the sound last year but I thought it was fine. I asked people that went last year and they agreed that there was a massive improvement this year. Another complaint was that the lines for the bars were too long last year but this year had many more bars spread out through the venue. Huge props to the team behind Hijinx for listening to ravers and making the necessary improvements this year. FULL SENDS only was their motto this year and that’s exactly what we got.
When talking about the highlights from the weekend, there was honestly too many to talk about. On day one, Griz took his signature saxophone sound to empower his bass fueled sets to another level. Bassnectar and Zeds Dead delivered on on their fronts as well – propelling the crowd energy with their high octave sets and filthy transitions.
Going into day two, Porter Robinson had one of the best sets of the night taking us into a different dimension. There’s something about his ‘Fresh Static Snow’ track that exudes an indescribable energy everytime he drops it in his sets. On top of his other notable tracks like ‘Shelter’ and ‘Fellow Feeling’, he also mixed in a good amount of DnB drops which is something he’s recently incorporated. And finally his epic ending with ‘Language’ was truly something else in conjunction with his mesmerizing light show. Right after Porter, Skrillex threw down an electrifying set that had the whole venue shaking. His one hour and 25 min set featured an onslaught of crowd favorites such as ‘Ease My Mind’, ‘Chicken Soup’, and ‘Purple Lambhorgini‘. He also threw in a couple Jack Ü songs as well before ending with his grammy nominated single ‘Midnight Hour‘. And finally, Excision and Slander debuted their track ‘Your Fault‘ which will be a crowd favorite going into 2020 for sure.
In summary, Hijinx delivered a successful event and went full send mode with all of the improvements this year. I can see why the festival is talked so highly of from other attendees. I’d personally love to see Hijinx back for another year and and now holds a spot amongst one of my favorite festivals. I’m sure many feel the same, until then – the send in 2019 is now complete and we can’t wait for 2020!