Sunset Music Festival (Tampa)-Day 1

By in Festivals

Memorial Day weekend in Florida means it’s time for Sunset Music Festival in Tampa.
It takes place in the field just north of Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (American football).
There are three stages at SMF. This is the Horizon Stage, home all weekend to House music.
In the far corner, the Eclipse Stage is home to Dubstep & Heavy Bass music. Please note that we will use the terms Dubstep, Bass and Heavy Bass interchangeably in this article to represent those genres.
The festival’s massive main Sunset Stage is set with the stadium as its backdrop.
Needing some of the good stuff, we began the day at the Horizon Stage.
DJ Taylorlace (USA) was the opener delivering the House.
He’s a resident DJ at club Ritz Ybor here in Tampa.
Small crowd already on hand as these girls were getting cheeky with it.
Each stage at a shade tent nearby and in the day’s relentless sun, this was the place to be!
Next stop, the Eclipse Stage.
DJ Flozone (USA) was the opener over here.
Most of the sets yesterday were one hour or slightly longer but for some reason Flozone’s Dubstep set only had a half hour time slot.
The shade proved popular here too.
Time to visit the main stage!
The opener here was still on.
DJ Myr (D) was playing a mix of both Heavy Bass and EDM.
Still early but already a crowd here.
A couple stages had these massive machines which would later deliver a cool breeze with water droplets. Had never seen these before.
Back to the Eclipse Stage because the next set had already begun.
DJ Sharlitz Web (USA)
She was the first of three female DJ’s in a row playing this stage.
Back to Sunset Stage.
For DJ duo Yookie (USA).
Like their predecessor on this stage, a mix of EDM and Bass.
The Heavy Bass segments had the heads banging!
Team EZ (USA) was providing some fancy steps.
You can never go wrong with Go Go girls.
Back to Horizon.
DJ Odd Mobb (AUS)
House music, of course.
The usual assortment of merchandise is available at SMF including tee shirts, eclectic clothing, sundries.
Clacker fans! Who doesn’t love clacker fans!
There’s a cannabis shop for those that have their cards.
Not a lot of art installations compared to Okeechobee and EDC-Orlando.
Shade was at a premium.
At the Bass stage, DJ Jeanie (USA) was on.
She looked familiar so we checked the Blog archives and sure enough she had played EDC-Orlando last November.
She kept telling the crowd to “go harder”.
Did we mention that shade was popular?
At the main stage, DJ Nurko (USA).
His bio mentions that he’s a Future Bass artist.
Not sure what that is because it sounded just like present Bass.
Killer bees.
Nice views.
Didn’t run into a single person we know from the scene but we did meet many new peeps. Thank you for the poses, everyone!
Over to the House stage for some more of the good stuff.
From DJ Honeyluv (USA).
The Cleveland to L.A. based DJ has really been making a name for herself this year.
One year ago we got to see her playing at Skyline Music Festival in Orlando.
Some girls brought their boyfriends. Some girls brought their…..animals.
Taking over next, DJ Mason Maynard (GB).
House music, all day long.
He had the dance floor bouncing.
We had previously seen him play at ARC Music Festival in Chicago in 2021.
Views from the field.
Time for a sunset set at the Sunset Stage.
Audien (USA)
Like he usually is, very animated as he played a number of his roster of top EDM hits.
We last saw Audien at Gilt Concert Venue in Orlando in 2021.
It was beginning to get really crowded.
Indeed, when we returned to the Eclipse Stage to see DJ Ray Volpe (USA), this is as close as we could get.
Never could get a good pic of him.
We actually discovered a fourth, secret stage! It’s marked only by this Entrance sign.
This local DJ was playing EDM.
It was air conditioned too!
One more visit to the Horizon Stage to see DJ Hugel (F).
This was as close as we could get. We would call it a night at this point because as it got darker, photography would get impossible and there was really no one else we needed to see.
Hugel was in there somewhere, lol. Day 2 of Sunset begins at 4PM this afternoon and single day tickets can be bought at the stadium box office. Tonight’s lineup is headlined by DJ duo Adventure Club (CDN), DJ Wax Motif (AUS) and DJ Chris Lake (GB).
Whether it was banging heads to Dubstep or Shuffle Dancing to House music, Day 1 at Sunset Music Festival was a lot of fun and a good time was had by all.