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FESTIVAL REVIEW: CRSSD's Fall Edition Brought The Moves and Grooves

It's been a few weeks since San Diego's CRSSD Festival but ever since, I cannot stop raving about it. The annual festival occurs twice a year, Spring and Fall with different lineups for each. The Fall lineup this time around included sets from Portugal. the Man, Hot Chip, Kaytranada, FISHER, Yaeji, and many more. The two-day festival was perfect, between the crowd, weather, sets and venue, it was a groovy time to be at San Diego's Waterfront Park. This happened to be my first CRSSD ever, since the lineup was way to good to pass up and at the time I purchased a two-day pass, it was roughly around $160 at the time.

Prior to heading in, I got a chance to take a look at the set times and the layout of the festival, where the stages would be and so on. Luckily, I did not run into any conflicts with set times. The first day, I got in roughly at 2:30-3pm, and first got a chance to check out SG Lewis. I was not familiar with his music but from what I heard, it was a great show. Within about 30 minutes, I did get a chance to roam around and happened to stumble upon Little Boots on the The Palms stage, which, in my opinion was not only the best stage for both days, but was jam-packed all weekend with the crowd groovin along to house and techno with some shuffling in between (shoutout to LMFAO)

Little Boots put on a great DJ Set with each of her transitions from song to song being spot on. She opened with "Juanita," and then proceeded on to "You Won't See Me Cry," "Sugar," and "Power" before ending with "Never Get to You." She even had an aftershow and was tempted to buy a ticket to check her out one more time but the night ended up getting a little hectic.

Then I hit up Friendly Fires, who also did a stellar job performing their hits and then some. I was bummed I missed Green Velvet as I heard they put on a great show, but decided to stay at the Ocean View stage in anticipation of Polo & Pan. I have heard great things since them performing at Coachella and I must say, it was a highlight of the weekend and the best performance of that day for me. The French-based duo put on a mesmerizing set with trippy visuals and their music that perfectly matched with little interruptions. It was also the most crowded set I saw all weekend also.

Hot Chip and Yaeji were sadly missed due to another concert I had attended with a friend that was going by themselves so being the good person that I am, I tagged along to check out Charli XCX. Within 20 minutes into the set, my friend was not feeling well and ended up leaving. It did indeed suck but hey, I beat traffic

Sunday I arrived at the same time, catching a glimpse of MASEGO at the Ocean View stage, who was really good from the two songs that I did get to see him perform. I then went to Anna Lunoe for a bit and was groovy, then back over to Ocean View to check out Moon Boots, who's front woman was vocally on-point. Kaskade was up next and man, what an awesome show at golden hour. It was a redux set of his, which is rare, so to be apart of that experience is something I can tell my children one day.

Things tamed down after Kaskade, which I then saw a little bit of MK, and then headed back to Kaytranada, who is one of my favorite producers/ Dj's in my lifetime. His set did not disappoint and both the crowd and himself was both into it. He did some of his famous produced tracks "All Night" on Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book, and "Girl" by The Internet as well as some his amazing mixes of Sade's "Kiss of Life" and Rihanna's "Kiss it Better."

FISHER was great from what I saw but after seeing how huge his crowd was, I opted-out and stood by the City Steps stage. After maybe 20 minutes, I saw Portugal. the Man perform of what sounded like a cover, but since I was far back, I could not hear as clear.

Merch:

I had no idea merch would be a big thing for CRSSD, as they have this dope jacket that says House x Techno on the back for $65. It came in various colors and each of them sold out by the end. Hopefully the next one I can go to I can get a shirt or possibly one of the jackets that does say House x Techno. Other than the jacket, it was just festival merchandise; artist merchandise was not sold unless if I missed a tent.

Crowd:

The crowd overall was by far one of my favorites (Camp Flog Gnaw being my actual favorite) While it looked like everyone was trippin on something, everybody was grooving with bold/dark fashions, umbrellas, and onesies. A highlight moment was a woman in the crowd who appeared to be in her early 70's dancing to tunes with an umbrella in her hand. That will be me at 70.

Weather:

The weather was a little overcast on the first day, but then cleared up with a nice breeze towards the end of the day. The Sun came out to play on Sunday with a nice breeze as well. It was enough for me to put on a nice windbreaker both days, which was perfect all in all.

Venue:

Waterfront Park has to be one of my favorite venues for a festival. It's nicely spread out and there are water fountains (ones you see in front of nice houses) and people were able to dance in the water and just have a great time. I hope more festivals will be able to hit this venue and could be something similar to Long Beach's Queen Mary Park, where they hold Smokin Grooves and Tropicalia.

Overall, the festival was one to remember. I hope to make my way back to the festival and maybe try spring the next go-around. Definitely a festival to check out at some point for newbies.

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