This year was the debut of Middlelands, a med-evil themed EDM Festival held on the grounds of the Texas Renaissance Festival, organized by Insomniac Events.
Pulling in an impressive 66,000 attendees, the 3 day festival may have worn their welcome out early as the small town residents of Todd Mission made it clear they do not want Middlelands back next year, mostly due to the sound camps organized by the attendees on the campgrounds.
Recently, Pasquale Rotella, founder of Insomniac Events and Middlelands tweeted this to his attendees:
“IMPORTANT Middlelands UPDATE: Happy to say we received an incredible amount of positive feedback and support from attendees and many local businesses. Thanks and love to all of you! We did experience some issues with sound complaints in the community, but these are not problems that are isolated to our shows. These are normal growing pains for any first-time festival… and there are always solutions. I flew to Houston with the intention of speaking to the community face to face in a Town Hall meeting. To spend three hours on a plane only to be told on arrival by a TRF official that they were cancelling the meeting is disappointing to say the least. Despite what the media is saying, I showed up, as I always do. I will always fight to the end for our culture. This is not the end of Middlelands. We will be back! Here’s a pic of me and Rainbow rocking out on the Bassrush stage!! #footloose2017”.
The search continues for the next location of Middlelands 2018, but Rotella seems determined to solve this issue and bring his festival back and stronger than before.
Chris Zane is a DOD contributor and DJ, who has held club residencies at Rich's, Fbar and renowned techno club, Gravity . Zane also hosts the house & Techno Podcast "The Zephyr Lounge" which you can catch on The Department of Dance Radio, Friday's at 2pm.
