Sun City Music Festival Turns Cohen Stadium Into House Music Utopia

By Aaron Martinez

High-energy crowds covered in neon glowing outfits packed the Sun City Music Festival to experience the loud thumping and pulsating beats of local and international DJs Sept. 3-4 at Cohen Stadium.

“It was great music festival. It was fun and we had world class Dj’s come to us,” said, Charles Liming, who was one of the first people to enter the event. “El Paso showed up to support the festival and to help bring many more like this. It was a massively successful event.”

The two-day event featured more than 30 artists with the performances starting at 6 p.m. and lasting until 2 a.m. with three stages set up around Cohen Stadium with non-stop performances on each stage throughout the night. While the official attendances numbers have yet to be released, thousands of El Pasoans turned up to take in the sights and sounds.

The opening day of the festival was highlighted by performance by Armin Van Buuren, Gabriel & Dresden and Afrojack. Armin Van Buuren closed out the night on the main stage with his performance making the crowd go wild with them jumping and dancing to his sounds throughout his set.

“My favorite performance had to be Armin Van Buren, the man is a genius,” said HYPERLINK “http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=576616262” Julio Vargas, an aspiring DJ who took the opportunity to listen and learn from some of the best DJs around the world. “Great music and great feel for the crowd. A perfect way to end the first night.”

Afrojack’s performance garnished one of the biggest crowds of the festival with the artist tapping in to material from his yet-to-be-released new album. The duo from San Francisco, Gabriel and Dresden, put on the most energetic and crowd pleasing session of the first night.

“Gabriel and Dresden were just amazing,” Liming said. “They had me dancing and jumping the whole time. The whole crowd was very in to them. It was electric.”

The second day of the festival was highlighted by performances by Crystal Castles, Paul Van Dyk and Sander Van Doorn.

“Sunday was awesome. It was a beautiful cloudy night filled with great music. Crystal Castles was one of my favorites,” said Krystal Rivera, who danced the night away. “Everyone went crazy trying to get a good spot. It was definitely energetic, I couldn’t stop dancing.”

Some of the local artists that got a chance to showcase their talents were Esteban Carrasco, Jay Hernandez, Midnight Response Saturday and Bulletproof Tiger.

“We not only got to see great internationally famous DJs, but the concert showcased some of the rising talent in our local house music scene,” said Irma Almanza, who saw Carrasco perform at both Sun City Music Festival and Minerpalooza. “So this concert was great for young artist here in El Paso.”

After the success of the Sun City Music Festival, El Pasoans are hoping this event will become a staple of the city and will encourage other big house music concerts to come to the Sun City.

“With the way we showed up to this event, I was proud to be an El Pasoan,” Liming said. “We showed we can handle festivals like this and will support them. Bring them on.”