Paying homage to the first year of DEMF in 2000 and to anyone’s first experience at Detroit’s internationally magnetic annual music festival, now run by Paxahau as Movement Festival, PLAYGROUND DETROIT presents a multi-media installation by Samantha Banks and Molly Soda. The work will be showcased Saturday, May 23, 2015 at Northern Lights Lounge in conjunction with GET SUMMERED: DETROIT EDITION. This is the first of future efforts by the Brooklyn-based lifestyle brand, Get Summered, whose Detroit-raised founder, DJ Jason ‘Dityboogie’ Rivera aims to get back in touch with Detroit’s music and art community. The music lineup features local DJs & Producers and New York-based Detroit-expats.

Inspired by the original DEMF entry sign, old TVs, many of which have been hand-painted by Banks, will be playing Molly Soda’s original video. The piece is comprised of content from DEMF 2000 and other references to the history of electronic music and the festival.

The TVs will be installed all over the interior and exterior of Northern Lights Lounge to enhance the experience of the evening’s ambiance. After the installation during Movement, the work will continue be then showcased in PLAYGROUND DETROIT’s forthcoming exhibition space in Corktown at The Playground. The artists on their “First” electronic music festival experience in Detroit:

Paul ‘DTCHPLNES’ Anagnostopoulos: 

Family, friends and the music that molded my youth…..Year One. Music was the blood, the people were the pulse in the heart of the city…Year One. I was young and consumed with the music Detroit was creating at the time. It was the melting pot for all cultures. Everyone was accepted and the music was our bible.”

Jefferson Davidson: ” My first thought is that if you remember much of it, you probably weren’t having fun. It was definitely a nice moment for the city. Hundreds of thousands of people and no violence. Nothing but love across races, ages, backgrounds; everyone gathered to party and celebrate another great chapter in Detroit’s musical legacy. Not only was the crowd diverse, but the lineup was too. I remember, it was dope, Slum Village got a shout out from Mayor Archer, because it was a time when they were barely even played on local radio and they weren’t even playing the festival! The Roots of course tore it down (apparently with Questlove bleeding profusely from his leg the whole time). Other than that, the rest is a fog for me. I felt like it was a great positive step for the city in recognizing some of its cultural legacy (which is sadly lacking nowadays) and a beautiful experience for the people of the city to be able to get down together in peace and love.”

Jason ‘Dirtyboogie’ Rivera: “A free festival downtown! All I can really remember from those three days were first in foremost the perfect weather. The first day I got there early. First stop was at Forans for tunes and brews […] then off to the underground stage to peep Middle School Crew [breakdance] who put on a show. Jason Hogans and Recloose made magic happen in what used to be a bum-filled piss station and raver ecstasy haven. Day two is a blur. Day three’s highlights were seeing the Roots play and Mos Def taking me and the whole crowd to another planet. All the days were dedicated to the rave; but being a hip hop head from the jump, this stood out the most.”

Samantha Banks: “Sun. Sweat. Smiles. Dancing until daybreak… I had yet to experience electronic music in that capacity of sound. This was before I frequented The Works and underground events. I vividly remember standing at the stage closest to the river’s edge, listening to Terrence Parker. There was a sudden moment that my whole body felt the excitement in the rhythm and vibrations. Right then and there became the catalyst that essentially made me physically understand this music genre; as I had only really felt drawn to dance to hip-hop and classic rock prior.”

Angela (HRT BRK): “I grew up in Flint and would drive to Detroit on Saturday nights to go to raves. I even went to the infamous Packard Plant! So when DEMF came around, it was amazing to hear this music out in the open, during the day!  I had been to Winter Music Conference in South Beach in ’99 and 2000 and loved it.  I felt proud to be a part of Detroit’s techno music journey and extremely lucky to be witnessing history.  I knew DEMF was special and everyone there did, too.”

The post PD PRESENTS: ‘YEAR ONE’ AN INSTALLATION AT GET SUMMERED: DETROIT EDITION BY SAMANTHA BANKS AND MOLLY SODA appeared first on PLAYGROUND DETROIT.