If you're looking to get weird, you go to Austin, Texas. If you love Electronic Music, whether it be mainstream EDM, Electronica, or Electronic Jam Bands/live performances and listen to it while you get weird, then you need to go to Euphoria Music and Camping Festival in Austin, Texas. Just a week ago, the gathering that added an extra day from years past and just about doubled in size for the camping grounds took place and it was all kinds of special. This is my second year attending the festival, and my second year covering the festival for a media outlet (now thankfully for the wonderful EDMSauce) and my opinion hasn't changed. It's a MUST GO.
While the decorations are not over the top wow like the major festivals that have risen before Euphoria, they create a scene that takes you out of reality, and that's what you need when you camp at a festival. Carson Creek Ranch is also a beautiful plot of Texas hill country right at the edge of Austin by its airport, and it gives you the quiet Texas charm so many people adore in full. The festival being so close to the airport actually added another element to the festival, with planes flying just over head of the festival at just the right intervals to keep it from being an excessive and scary feat. The festival's visuals on the L.E.D displays and the projectors projecting images on the trees behind the gorgeously redesigned Dragonfly Amphitheater saw major upgrades, and so did the actual Amphitheater's viewing areas. New and beautiful stone walls created viewing decks to the right of the stage, and a stone staircase made walking from top to bottom much easier. Behind the Amphitheater is a small lake the creek feeds from, which gave the perfect space between the trees behind it and the stage, and allowed for some pretty cool visuals to be seen in full behind the main action. Relaxing at this stage was made easy, thanks to the free hammocks for anyone to use set up in between the trees surrounding the area. The hammocks put you smack dab between all the action and you could turn your head to listen to the Main Stage, or turn it the other way to listen to the Amphitheater. If Hammock‘s aren't your thing, there were swings on the biggest tree on the main grounds, and unique sitting areas by cool art installations to tickle your resting fancies. 
The third stage was the unearth tent, and it saw the most improvement from last year in my opinion. Last years Unearth Tent was probably about a 1/3rd smaller, if not more, and did not feature the displays or quality speakers this years did. This year both the speaker set up and the displays saw huge improvements, and the tent even had a bar located inside. Conveniency is most definitely a plus. Unfortunately the Unearth Tent had a few sound glitches during Adventure Club's set on friday night, (none more to my knowledge) but only a small hiccup, and thankfully did not end any sets early like what happened with Bro Safari‘s set during 2014's festival. Two more stages were added to the campgrounds, and the party never stopped for those who elected to spend the night under the Texas sky.
The layout of the festival was excellent, and all the vendors were well placed, but I found that the staff was not always as informed as you might like them to be when it comes to knowing where other things that are relevant to their station are (I.E most of the bartenders did not know where the free water filling stations were located). While this didn't subtract from the overall experience of the festival, it's more professional to keep all staff, volunteers, and vendors well informed of things like this, and so I feel like it was worth mentioning.
The festival operators, and staff had to be the most laid back and friendly staff I have ever had the pleasure of working with. Any question I had, I could be directed to someone who knew the answer if the person I was speaking with didn't, and any issue that came up was fixed with no worries. They welcome you with big smiles, and southern hospitality.
The performances from the DJs and bands were also outstanding. On the first day all of the DJs performed at the Unearth Tent, and a few at the Amphitheater, while the mainstage boasted the bands. Saturday and Sunday showed more variety, and the stages varied more in what kind of music was playing where. The festival had this very far out, weird and rad vibe thanks to the line-up, but there were many DJ's like Kayzo, G Jones, RL Grime and Luminox to get the crowd wild.
All and all Euphoria Music Festival embodies Austin's music capital spirit, promoting the left-field line-up to expose you to new artists you might not have heard before, and the hardest performances from those you know and love. The festival that showed me PLUR was still alive last year, did not disappoint this year. I predicted growth, and I was right, and 2016 will only be bigger, now that the festival is starting to see some positive yield in profit. This is something special you need to be apart of, and I hope to be raging with you again next year as I fully intend on going back as long as it's being held. Check out Euphoria Music Festivals web pages for the most current information on the festival, and enjoy these tracks and mixes from some of the artists I become more fond of, or discovered last weekend. *Note that EDMSauce nor I own the rights to the photos in this article, and all rights belong to Euphoria Music Festival, and the photographers.*
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