I attended the Baltimore Mad Decent Block Party. It was fantastic to see so many artists of different subgenres playing one event with a great community vibe. However, with the Baltimore stop, there were some significant problems.
1: Set times. While the last act (Major Lazer) was given enough time, all of the other acts got short-changed. While I can understand keeping sets at an hour in length to fit everyone in, we're talking 30/45-min sets for the first half of the day. And even with an hour, I don't believe Zeds Dead (second-to-last show) were able to show off their full prowess
2: Sound system. The Pavilion's sound system SUCKED (ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was not sufficient for this event). If you were on the lawn, I'm sure it was fine, but it you were close to the stage, the waves curving around the speakers sounded terrible.
3: Riff Raff. Whether you like his music or not, you would have been disappointed with him. He missed his scheduled set time, causing them to have to kill time. And when he did finally show up, he had all of 20 mins to perform. At least it was only that long, because he blew the performance. The majority of the time, he had to have his backups sing in his place for Lord knows what reason. I'm all for diversity in the lineup, but this just killed the vibe.
4: Organization. There were staffers from Embrace, Mad Decent, and the venue present. You'd go up to a staff member from one group to ask a question, and they'd direct you to different management. No one was working together, and no one had answers or help. Our biggest issues was that one person in our group had a VIP pass, and nobody could give him the information he needed or direct him to where to pick up his stuff/go to the VIP lounge. AND, although he was never notified of a seat via email or when he purchased the ticket, he wasn't allowed to go to the floor area, even though he had the most expensive ticket and wasn't assigned a seat. The medics were pretty sweet though. Mad props to those friendly people.
5: Drugs. Drugs happen, at any concert or festival. But this was a ridiculous drug presence, more than most Electronic music shows. I went without, and was just having a good time, but my glowing demeanor alone caused people to ask me what I was on or if I could give anything to them. You saw countless deals and consumptions going on right in front of you. And the staff did nothing. They were adamant about people with VIP passes not going onto the floor area, but wouldn't get involved with harm reduction. Not only that, it was all amongst the youth (I am of that age group). All of the 21+ attendees seemed content with alcohol. It was disheartening to see so many young folks partake.
The issues may have been specific to my venue (namely the sound system) so take them all with a grain of salt, but while it was enjoyable, it was also definitely my least favorite concert/festival. If the sound system was better, the staff were more organized, more thought was put into the schedule, and the young'uns eased up on the drug consumption, I think it'd be a very worthwhile event. Here's hoping they look at the issues of this year and make it even better in 2014!
