Recap: Sunset Music Festival 2023

Credit: @alivecoverage

Date: May 30, 2023

Each year, for the last 12 years, we have welcomed summer with my favorite music festival in Florida – Sunset Music Festival. This year’s headliners included Rezz, LSDream, Chris Lake, and Slander.

On day one, the most memorable set had to be LSDREAM who completely destroyed the crowd. His set was versatile as he incorporated a unique blend of tracks and added his inspiring quotes throughout his set. LSDREAM (formerly Brillz) continues to captivate audiences with his new persona. Complementing these mind-melting mixes, were his visuals which took the crowd through an epic journey.

Earlier that evening, we stopped by Dr. Fresch’s set at the Horizon Stage. The Horizon Stage this year was an elevated stage with a 360-degree view of the entire crowd. Dr. Fresch dropped a variety of tracks from house to hip-hop/rap to create a unique forward-thinking sound.

Credit: @alivecoverage

Closing out the night, Rezz rounded out day one at the Sunset Stage (main stage) with her unique dark sounds. Playing her hit tracks, “Edge” and “Signal” the crowd was enchanted by her psychedelic visuals and set as fireworks shot off in the background to close day one.

REZZ – Credit: @tylerchurch

After we recovered from the insanity of day one, we began our second day at SMF with WUKI on the Sunset Stage. This man knows no boundaries – and we’re perfectly fine with that because he KILLED it! He played tracks ranging from disco, trap, house, and alternative rock.

For those sunset house feels, we paid the Horizon Stage a visit to go check out San Pacho. He definitely got us vibing to “Trompeta” and “LA Pasion”, setting the tone for day two as we mainly stayed around the Horizon Stage to enjoy many of the house acts including Westend, Habstrakt, and Wax Motif.

We did however head to the main stage to see one of the top house artists in the industry, Chris Lake. With house music on the rise, it was great to see a house artist on the main stage. Chris Lake turned heads and had the main stage crowd dancing and shuffling throughout his entire set. He played “Turn off the Lights”, “In the Yuma”, “Beggin”, and some ID’s (unreleased tracks). Chris Lake by far had my favorite set of the entire weekend.

Credit: @tylerchurch

Following Chris Lake was Slander, the duo from Los Angeles, CA. Slander graced the main stage to close the entire weekend. Slander had the crowd absolutely T-U-R-N-T from start to finish. They gave us a well-rounded set featuring heaven trap, dubstep, and EDM which had us jumping and headbanging the entire set playing “Love is Gone”, “Superhuman”, and “First Time”. Slander’s set brought us to electronic euphoria – a perfect way to end the festival.

Overall, Sunset Music Festival still remains one of my favorite weekends of the summer. Despite the Florida heat, the vibes were alive and well at the Sunset, Eclipse, and Horizon stages. We were also pleasantly surprised with the number of water fill stations and cooling tents at SMF this year to keep all spectators hydrated. A special thanks to Disco Donnie Presents and Sunset Events for putting on yet another killer event!