[divider]3: Growth In Number of American Artists[/divider]
A trend that’s seen a major shift over Lucky’s lifetime, which is reflective of EDM’s greater reach into America, is the growth in the number of American artists booked. In 2012, Lucky featured four American-born artists out of their 16-artist lineup, a ratio that managed to decrease in 2013 when eight-of-34 artists brought by USC Events were American.
Over the last two years that ratio has evened-out, with a slight majority of American artists in 2014, and a slight majority of International artists this year. So slight, that over those last two years, there’s been an even-split of American and International artists performing at Lucky, with a 30:30 ratio. This equal ratio of artists from America and abroad is unique to Lucky when looking at other festivals going on around St. Patrick’s day 2015. UME South Padre features one American artist out of the 15 artists booked (Destructo), while Beyond Wonderland has about a one-to-three ratio of American-to-International artists.
Takeaway: USC Events continually gives us a great sampling of what’s current and what’s timeless with their festivals, and the growth in American artists is an accurate reflection of them achieving just that.
Photo Credit: Jason Woo
[divider]4: Bringing Back The Drum & Bass[/divider]
Lucky 2015 is one of the most drum & bass filled lineups to hit the Northwest in the recent memory. Eight of the 31 artists performing at Lucky this year dabble or feature exclusively in DnB, the highest percentage of such artists (25.8%) at a USC Events festival since FreakNight 2013 (29%). It’s also more than double the amount of drum & bass, relative to the size of the show, than any other USC massive in the last year.
Even in terms of the raw number of drum & bass artists, the eight at Lucky 2015 is second only to the 10 who performed at Paradiso 2014 (which has nearly 3x as many artists as Lucky) at USC festivals in the last 18 months. This is aided by the RAM Records Tour coming to town, which features several of the DnB acts performing at Lucky this year. Delta Heavy, Loadstar, Armanni Reign, Optical, and TC are all touring North America this spring, with the majority of the tour playing at Beyond Wonderland as well.
Takeaway: A bounty of DnB such as this is a rare sight in the Northwest, so if you’re looking to scratch your drum & bass itch, Lucky 2015 is a must.
We can’t wait to journey to the end of the rainbow with everyone else at Lucky next month! Stay tuned to DMNW to get the latest news, info, our annual artist guide, and more as we prep for Lucky 2015. Let us know what you think of the Lucky 2015 lineup and how it stacks up to past Lucky lineups, past USC festivals, and festivals across the country! Comment below, on Facebook, or reply on Twitter!
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