Mark Stefanos
LA’s landmark electronic festival HARD Summer touched down at the grounds surrounding SoFi Stadium in Inglewood last weekend, Aug. 2-3, featuring an eclectic lineup of some of electronic music’s biggest names and rising stars. It was a picturesque mild summer weekend, with a coastal breeze, clear skies, and planes flying overhead to LAX over the 80,000+ fans bopping below at the sold-out event.
Saturday headliners included Feid and Kaytranada, with Gesaffelstein and Dom Dolla closing out Sunday. Acts ranged from young blasters like I Hate Models and Euro hard-knocker Sara Landry, to pioneer Four Tet, to legendary rappers Busta Rhymes and Juvenile — you got all brands of techno, house and everything in their global orbit.
Speaking of global, Gordo can be seen behind the decks in any of the international electronic hotspots, but last weekend, HARD was a return home. “I lived here for six years before moving out but it’s always been a city that has shown me so much love. I love playing in LA,” Gordo tells us.
Gordo (Demian Becerra for HARD Summer)
Born in D.C. to Nicaraguan parents, he spent part of his childhood in Guatemala. HARD is where he was able to express his Latin heritage — “I know HSMF is super Latin focused so it’s one of those times I can get into my bag and really play out my records with Emilia, Eladio Carrion, Bad Gyal, and all the artists who are crushing it and don’t get enough respect from fans in the states.”
Post-HARD, he has no plans of slowing down, promising “more music, more TARAKAs, more collabs across a few different verticals. IT’S GORDO SZN!!”
We saw the big Latino crowd at the fest show out for the Latin DJs, like Gordo, and Deorro.
As a Mexican-American from LA, HARD Summer is Deorro’s stomping grounds. “Playing in my hometown feels great. It’s always an honor performing in LA,” he told LA Weekly ahead of his set. “This city made me, raised me and gave me my first shot. So to have the opportunity to perform at events like this feels incredible. I want to make this set special not only for my fans who I call family, but also for the younger me who dreamed of getting here. I’m bringing all the Latin energy and I want to make sure LA feels it.”
Deorro (Jake West for HARD Summer)
Want LA to be filled with Latin energy? You’d be hard pressed to find a better way of doing that than an “Insane in the Brain” remix. To achieve that, Deorro brought out B-Real of Cypress Hill to close out Sunday night at the HARDER Stage on an Insane note. Here’s a taste in case you missed it:
Deorro seems to be in every conversation about electronic music in LA these days, and we should expect he keeps popping off — “I have a lot of exciting projects in the works. Right now I’m in EP mode. I’ve been locking in on that, playing around with a lot of different sounds and different styles. It’s been such a fun, creative process and I’m really excited to be able to share it with you all soon.”
Earlier that evening at the HARDER Stage, it’s murph brought the heat, debuting 11 unreleased songs. “Some collabs with big artists, others just for my project – love seeing what reacts well,” he told us about the new tracks.
Just a few years ago, it’s murph was playing house parties at USC (I’m going to guess a more apt descriptor would be “rager”). Now he’s rocking some of the biggest stages in the game with his unique blend of tech-house, bass, and some poppy sounds for good measure.
“Being able to play such an insane venue and then sleep in my own bed at night is pretty insane,” says it’s murph, who grew up in Nashville playing piano and singing in the choir before heading to LA.
“From graduating down the road at USC a couple years ago to today feels like a lifetime,” he continued. “I remember when my project was at its early stages and an artist missed his set time in 2023, and I was called up to play super early in the day, starting off the set playing for 10 people. Coming back this year to such a huge and engaged crowd was amazing.”
This fall, he will be embarking on his biggest headline tour to date, which he said he’s very excited for. And check out his AM.RADIO set to see what his Venice vibe sounds like:
Alex Chapman and Zoe Gitter brought their WeHo queer bash GAG to the Purple Stage at HARD on Saturday, to the delight of the colorful crowd, where they played their unreleased track “2 B Fun.”
“13-year-old me was freaking out when we got booked. I’ve been a baby raver all through high school so this was pretty exciting,” Zoe told us. And Alex said getting booked made him feel sexy — “LA is home, and it was so fun to play a fest as big as HARD and then end my night Postmating McDonald’s to my apartment.” You know that 20-piece McNugget will get you HOT.
Alex Chapman and Zoe Gitter (Julian Bajsel for HARD Summer)
Read about GAG in our sister magazine PAPER, here, and stay tuned to their IG @gagtheparty because they’ll be “bringing [their] energy around the world,” teasing that they have a big announcement coming up.
The LA Weekly team met up with friends throughout the weekend at the fest and got a little taste of everyone’s experience. There was a big, mostly online, response to the fest (with some criticisms, and we’ll get to that), but first, here’s how it all went down for us:
TL;DR, we thought it was a big success. We had so much fun! It was an amazing bang-for-your-buck lineup. We all appreciated SoFi/Hollywood Park as a venue. It was clean, generally well-organized and laid out. The stages were secluded enough to isolate sound, but close enough that you weren’t walking miles to get from one to another. There were plenty of water refill stations. Cell service was solid. Bathrooms weren’t terrible. Lots of food and drink. Getting in and out of festivals is always crazy, and there will always be a steep price tag for parking if you decide to drive. But this year, that all was perfectly tolerable, as SoFi is built to handle a mass of people.
HARD has bounced all over Southern California since its debut in 2007: the Shrine, The Forum, a stretch at LA State Historic Park, Whittier Narrows in El Monte, the Fairplex in Pomona, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Glen Helen and Nos Events Center in San Bernardino, Expo Park by downtown, and last year was the first at Hollywood Park.
Each spot has its pros and cons, but given the more distant options, we prefer having it in the heart of LA — and SoFi is a better layout than the winding chaos of Expo Park.
On Saturday, we caught some of Busta Rhymes, but left before he apparently got mad and negative. Oh Busta. We made our way to Purple Stage for Overmono, then The Blessed Madonna at the Pink Stage. The Pink stage, at the end of the festival grounds, was maybe the smallest stage, but was a constant party with infectious energy. Purple was consistently great too.
Kaytranada (Jamal Eid for HARD Summer)
We grabbed a bite at the start of Kaytranda’s set at the back of HARD Stage, then made our way into the crowd, which was a little clustered, so we had to find our dancey pockets. For his part, Kaytra did not stop dancing throughout his set. His stage presence has gotten better and better throughout the years.
It was starting to get dark for Gordo’s set at the HARDER Stage, and as the sun went down, the wild energy kicked up, which matched him perfectly. We stuck around for Sara Landry, getting even closer to the stage, and witnessed the hard techno of HARD’s namesake.
We left halfway through to try to catch some Crankdat at the Green Stage, but it was too insane, so we headed over to HARD Stage, and ended the night with the electric Feid, who brought up Snoop Dogg, a reliable favorite.
The temps on Sunday were a bit higher, but the overall lineup was groovier and mild. Still, there was more palpable excitement coursing throughout the day, likely multiplying from Saturday’s energy. We started with D.O.D., Barry Can’t Swim and Prospa — three sets we couldn’t stop dancing to. James Hype at the HARDER Stage lived up to his name, and the crowd agreed.
We then started making our way to the Green Stage for I Hate Models and 999999999, but again, the crowd was getting uncomfortably dense as we approached the entrance, to the point that we gave up. We caught a bit of the stage from the other side of the adjacent lake, and witnessed how the bridge that connected the main festival grounds to the Green became so packed, it was at a standstill. We heard from people who left the Green Stage that it was a shitshow — their quote — and that festival staff were stationed at the entrance telling new entrants the stage was closed.
We went back to HARDER, caught the start of Juvenile, before ending the night bouncing between Dom Dolla, Deorro and Gesaffelstein, who were the weekend highlights for us.
Gesaffelstein (Julian Bajsel for HARD Summer)
Taking both days together, the music and vibes were great. We appreciated how many different kinds of acts we were able to see, and by keeping in groups of two or three, we were able to nimbly get across the festival to catch many of them. Big tip — going with a big group is fun, but if you keep your group small, you’re able to avoid the inevitable chaos of trying to corral and parade a large group.
Now for the not-so-great. There were a lot of criticisms leveled against festival organizers online and on social media, some of which were valid, and a lot of which were overblown. (Remember, people don’t normally go out of their way to post something if it’s decent or good, so you’re always going to get a skewed version of events based on what people make the effort to report.)
So here’s what we actually saw that was worth addressing:
The biggest lapse in organization was that there was only one way in and out of the Green Stage, which was the stage closest to the main festival entrance — a bridge over a lake that became clearly too narrow to accommodate the fans. As mentioned, on Saturday, it was pretty crowded and uncomfortable to get through, and by Sunday afternoon, it was too packed to even try.
Organizers seemingly underestimated the demand of the artists they booked at those stages, and it didn’t help that those were some of the most turnt-up acts. During the I Hate Models and 999999999 sets on Sunday, some fans got out of control, being pushy, climbing up set-ups and being general hooligans. Many people inside reported that it was uncomfortably packed.
The second complaint was that the festival ended at 10 p.m. both nights. HARD 2024 went til 11 p.m., but the rumble of the bass caused noise complaints miles away. The 10 p.m. curfew was the compromise to allow the festival to continue at SoFi. Of course, 10 p.m., basically two hours after sunset and often when things really kick into gear, is pretty darn early to end a rave, especially when EDC, ULTRA and festivals abroad can go all night.
(Jamal Eid for HARD Summer)
But this one is a bit out of the hands of Insomniac, HARD’s organizer. It sounds like they had the choice of either ending at 10 p.m. or moving to another location, and like we said, we like SoFi … but would it be worth the drive out east if we could go til midnight or 2 a.m.? Would we be down to shell out extra cash for a motel in San Bernardino? These are all big maybes that I’m not sure we’re going to find a consensus on. So this is an issue that won’t go away any time soon, unless the whole city miraculously decides to not go to sleep later, or become generally cool with bass rumbling into the night every once in a while. Thankfully, we have a lively afterhours scene, so all that leftover festival energy has a place to go that’s not too far away.
Now for the criticisms that had less merit:
Social media is filled with videos of massive gatecrashers and fights. We witnessed both firsthand.
In the case of the fights, yes, they happened, yes, they sucked and were decidedly not PLUR, but of the ones we saw, they were quickly broken up.
As for the gatecrashers — this is an unfortunate fact of festival life. Yes, it means the festival becomes more dangerous (fence hoppers aren’t checked for weapons, and by the nature of how they got in, are probably more prone to stirring up trouble), and pushes the festival past its capacity, making it more cramped. But we did see some crashers going over the fence — one sprinted and made it in, but the two others were quickly apprehended by security.
The safety and well-being of attendees is our top concern when attending a festival, and from our view, it’s Insomniac’s as well. Their “Ground Control” — sweet-faced but responsible younger festival crew, probably fans themselves, whom Insomniac describe as “Guardian Angels committed to keeping people safe, being a friend to those in need, and reminding our community that it’s okay to ask for help” — were everywhere you looked. And there was a strong security presence, plus uniformed cops, always nearby.
Do we want there to be so much security that you feel like your every move is being watched? No. “Ground Control” is a nice proactive in-between, and I saw them helping people constantly. At packed stages, they were stationed regularly along the perimeters, distributing free water bags for the overheated, and getting people out if they were feeling unwell. They manned the “Oasis,” a sort of quiet lounge zone by the main stage for anyone who wasn’t feeling great.
(Demian Becerra for HARD Summer)
This is the kind of responsible approach you want at an electronic music festival in 2025, where some young people will be drinking alcohol and … whatever else (which of course we don’t condone, but we’re talking about a rave here). You want there to be staff they feel safe to confide in, who will get them back on their feet without the fear of getting them kicked out, or worse.
Remember, it wasn’t too long ago that people were dying at raves. It’s basically why EDC got kicked out of LA. We have come a long way from that, and Insomniac should be commended for striking the right balance to promote safety.
The HARD Afterparty shooting that wasn’t
Adding fuel to some online sentiments, early Monday morning following HARD was rocked with the tragic news that a shooting at an unofficial HARD afterparty left two people dead and six others wounded. Even if it were an unofficial HARD afterparty, that would have nothing to do with the fest itself, but those early reports associating the shooting with HARD turned out to be phony baloney.
The LA Times, like many outlets, first claimed the party was a HARD afters, but to their credit later updated their article with a more accurate accounting that explained the shooting was totally unrelated — “A law enforcement source not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation confirmed to The Times that the event where the shooting occurred was a warehouse party that was part of a local gang’s ‘hood day’ celebration.”
Still, many local and national outlets never corrected the narrative.
Final thoughts
When reviewing people’s complaints, we couldn’t help but notice that they weren’t complaining about festival planning or organization, they were mostly complaining about attendees — other fans. Our fellow Southern Californians. If I were a festival organizer, I’m not sure I’d know what to do with that.
The best you can do is show leadership with the faces you put forward. All the interactions we had with festival staff were loving and positive. In turn, nearly every interaction we had with attendees was lovely. Every bump was followed by an “I’m so sorry!” Thus tends to be the nature of the best PLUR raves, and HARD Summer 2025, with a few minor exceptions, was no different. The vast majority of people we saw and spoke to had a great time.
Given all the reasons we discussed, it’s impossible to throw an event in SoCal without figuring out compromises. Was it too packed? Well, if they don’t have enough capacity, more kids will try to crash gates. Add more security, then you need to raise ticket prices, which will price out a bunch of fans, especially the younger ones (which is who festivals are for). Move to a bigger venue, and you’re pushed to the outskirts of SoCal, which will be hotter, and mean people will have to spend more cash, be more tired, and drive further on longer trips while sharing the road with drivers who might be inebriated. Etc. etc. etc.
(Jake West for HARD Summer)
As we collectively mull over our imperfect options and try to imagine the ideal setup for the raves and festivals we want, let’s remember — festivals are good. We want festivals. We want people to have safe environments to dance and meet and laugh and wear fun outfits and exchange kandi and get their ears blasted so hard they forget about homework or emails or getting dumped or whatever else it is that is sucking the life out of them when Monday comes back along.
HARD Summer 2025 helped achieve that for tens of thousands of people, as they have for almost 20 years. We want HARD Summer to continue so long as it can keep doing that.
So let’s remember we all have a stake in this, and while we can’t control the gate crashers, pushers and thieves among us, we can be the best ambassadors for our communities and party with peace, love, unity and respect.