Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival

By in Festivals

Whether you call it Bass, Heavy Bass or Dubstep, Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival is fully dedicated to that popular genre and an impressive DJ lineup had us out here for Day 2 of the event.
Taking place at the Central Florida Fairgrounds, the Insomniac event featured 5 stages of music.
We began our wanderings in this covered area named the Mystic Stage.
While indeed the entire festival was dedicated to the hard stuff, this stage on Day 2 was dedicated to the fast stuff: Drum & Bass.
An opening DnB set from MC Dino and DJ Fury (USA).
Out of eleven Electric Daisy Carnival – Orlando events over the years, we counted that they’ve played at 8 of them, the most of any artist. We counted them in this article here.
The Forbidden main stage.
DJ Artixi (USA)
First time seeing this quite-lively guy play.

The festival grounds opened around 12:30PM and would take awhile to populate.
Shade was always a popular place to hang-out. Both Florida’s summer sun and famous summer humidity were in abundance.
Often called the Orlando Warehouse, this indoor space was home to the Dragon’s Den stage.
It was dark…..and air conditioned!
Nice looking early crowd.
Atlanta-based DJ Kroniik (USA).
Besides the A/C, this spot also offered something else. We used to call them electrical outlets but I believe the more-modern term is “charging stations”.
Also known as the Orlando Amphitheater, this large outdoor stage was titled the Cyberian Stage for this festival.
Nice looking crowd here too under the scorching mid-afternoon sun.
Audio + Energy = DJ Audigy (USA).
Scorching beats too! DJ Illenium (USA) will be doing an evening show at this stage on July 8th with advance tickets here.
The fifth and final stage at FKMF was way in the back and appropriately-named the Hide & Seek Takeover Stage.
Just a few had gathered around 1:30PM.
DJ Raaket (USA)
First time seeing him as well.
He definitely has a following though.
Two weeks ago at Sunset Music Festival we had seen several machines spewing out a cooling mist. Yesterday, we saw robots spewing out a cooling mist!
There were lots of vendors at Forbidden Kingdom.
There was always a long line to get into this booth for “body marbling”.
Just some of the many food and drink booths.
Clothing
Scummy Bears!
A double dutch bus!
We had seen the Beatbox crew at Sunset a couple weeks earlier.
GA+ and VIP had access to real restroom facilities.
Meanwhile WC’s for the rest of us, lol!
The open-sided Mystic Stage was covered and often had a cooling breeze blowing through it.
And the Drum & Bass made it my spot to hang-out.
DJ Airglo (USA) had taken over while it looked like MC Dino remained.
Back to the main stage.
Getting crowded!
DJ Dirtysnatcha (GB)
Followed by the mostly-masked DJ OG Nixin (USA).
Quick, needed some air conditioning!
Hard to capture in the dark, DJ Fieldz (USA). We’re really not commenting on the music being played on these stages because except for the DnB at Mystic, it was all Dubstep/Heavy Bass.
Spotted in the field: DJ Derek Fereal (USA) & Kristin. (They actually spotted me since I generally walk-around obliviously!)
Spotted in VIP: Sarah P.
Sarah is so popular she has to walk around with her own Security detail.
We met lots of new peeps at Forbidden. Thank you everyone for the poses!
Back under the awning…..one of only a few female DJ’s playing on Day 2.
First time seeing DJ Skellytn (USA).
She reminded me a lot of Reid Speed (USA).
Skellytn is based in Los Angeles.
If you weren’t dancing, this shady place was a great place to cool down.
IMO, Drum & Bass is the fastest-growing genre of electronic dance music. Insomniac has definitely been supporting it.
One of the Insomniac animation teams coming through.
Moving directly into a DJ Slippy (USA) set.
Good crowd for another L.A. based DJ.
He seemed to crossover into Hardstyle at times!
Giving up the shade to go back over to Hide & Seek.
One of our favorite Dubsteppers, DJ Steller (USA).
We had last seen Steller at Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival back in March as shown above.
Always great to see her!
Photo op!
On the side of Orlando Warehouse, more great spots for photos and selfies.
Home to a sloping grass lawn great for laying and listening, the Cyberian Stage.
DJ Rated R (USA)
He was quite animated last night.
We had last seen Rated R on the CircuitGROUNDS Stage at EDC-Orlando in 2021 as shown in the file photo above. BTW, the next EDC-Orlando is happening November 10-12 with the lineup to be posted soon. You can get advance tickets here and keep in mind Florida is in the middle of a sales tax holiday on event tickets right now meaning you can get tickets for less than normal overall so don’t delay!
At Mystic, crowded in the back!
Crowded in the front!
That masked man had arrived!
DJ Reaper (USA)
It made me feel good to see so many “youngsters” experiencing Drum & Bass, often for the first time. Some came in for the shade but it was suddenly like “OMG, what is this?” and then bouncing to it!
Took my union-mandated dinner break at this time and got to hear all of Reaper and the beginning of the next set.
DJ Grafix (GB)
Afterwards, headed back into the Warehouse for a cool-down. I wasn’t alone; jammed in the back.
Jammed in the front.
Hard to see in the dark: DJ Dejavu (USA).
You can never go wrong with Go Go girls.
DJ Share (USA) coming on next.
Mustaches are back, guys! Saw a lot of them out there.
Back at the main stage, a huge name in the Dubstep world, DJ Borgore (IL).
He’s played Orlando numerous times but first time seeing him.
But right in front of me a circle was cleared-out and some heavy duty Raging began. So I backed away to let them have their fun without being dragged-in, lol.
As darkness arrived, we saw more pyrotechnic effects being displayed.
Nothing like the main stages we’ve seen at EDC-Orlando over the years but it still had some cool features.
The sky got dark and I felt a few raindrops so I headed inside.
DJ Devowr (USA) was on.
He was borderline House at the beginning of his set before delivering the expected Heavy Bass.
Initially it wasn’t crowded but apparently it was raining hard outdoors and a number of wet people arrived to sit near me.
And then they had to enforce a ground stop on all stages due to the lightning and rain.
They recommended everyone evacuate but coming outside, the storm had already cleared and it was sunny again. They just needed to wait until any lightning strikes were a certain distance away for a half hour.
The grounds were soaked though.
The next few acts I had on my list to see were Rusko (GB) and a Pendulum (AUS) DJ set, both taking place here under the Mystic awning. But the entire middle section contained at least an inch of water.
The ground stop lasted until a little after 8PM and then the show would go on. We cut-out at this point though. It was a great concert and a good time was had by all.