Nestled on the breathtaking waterfront Downtown San Diego, the bi-annual CRSSD festival really takes the cake for us for unique and fun Southern California festivals. This March CRSSD will again deliver a refreshing and exciting line-up filled with great acts from all over the house, techno, indie, realms.

The thing that makes CRSSD so special is the fact that it combines some of the best acts in electronic music with a scene that’s a far from the candy kid rave circuit. Combine that with a great selection of gourmet food and craft beers all under the beautiful Spring San Diego climate and you’ve got one of the best weekends you’re going to have in a very long time. The venue itself boasts 3 separate stages, huge fountains for cooling off, and a grassy landscape comfortable enough to picnic on. If you’re in the area it would not be wise to miss this incredible weekend and did we mention the festival is 21+ so get ready to roam around with your cocktails freely from dancefloor to dancefloor.

This Spring’s line-up includes:

Empire of the Sun, Cirez D, Sasha, Gorgon City (LIVE), Bonobo (LIVE), Jai Wolf, Shiba San, Anna Lunoe, Nicole Moudaber, Tchami (LIVE), Little Dragon, Lee Burridge, MK, Alan Fitzpatrick, Amelie Lens, Boys Don’t Disco, Camelphat, Charlotte de Witte, Cristoph, DJDS, Eli Brown, Henry Saiz & Band, JP Soul, Kartell, Kyle Watson, Mark Knight, Max Chapman, Medasin, Molly, NoMBe, Nora En Pure, Patrice Baumel, Rodriguez Jr. (LIVE), Sébastien V, SNBRN, The Presets, Walker & Royce, Wax Motif

You can buy tickets here!

Romiro Lopez and Coyu – That’s Not Happening (Nicole Moudebar remix)

MK featureing A*M*E – My Luv 4 U

Tiga – Woke

Cirez D – In the Reds

Bi-annually, the gorgeous San Diego Waterfront Park plays host to one of the most unique and certainly by far one of our favorite festivals in existence: CRSSD Festival. CRSSD Festival can mostly be described as a fusion of electronic and indie pop acts with a good mix of rising young talent and seasoned veterans. Going into the weekend, we were highly anticipating this year’s March iteration. Not only have we been craving the delicious gourmet tri-tip selection but this specific line-up had our mouth’s watering all the same. Let’s take a look at who threw down the hardest sets last weekend:

Josh Wink

Many people have no idea who Josh Wink is. This is a damn shame. Not only is he a native Philadelphian but he’s also been one of the the biggest godfathers and pioneers of acid house as we know it. Just as mean on the 303 as he is on the decks, Wink’s CRSSD set was hard, gritty, and pure acidic bliss. Tracks like “I’m Talkin to You” and Ben Klock’s remix of his own record “Are You There” thundered out of the speakers at the City Steps stage on Saturday to an elated crowd who ate up every beat.

Jackmaster

Jackmaster is a unique soul. Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland this legend of the underground is known for his crazy afterparty shenanigans and his insane crate diggalicious song selection. Probably one of the best selectors of the weekend, Jackmaster featured an eclectic mix of house, acid, tech house, and everything else under the master of jack’s dirty bass heavy rainbow.

Justin Martin

Dirtybird’s lieutenant of the dance floor is making a strong push for General. Justin Martin has been perfecting his own brand of bouncy bass house for well over a decade now and his meticulous attention to detail of his craft was put on display for the San Diego crowd in full force. In our opinion Martin’s biggest track of the night was actually Christian Martin’s remix of Justin’s original track “Back to the Jungle.”

2manyDJs

What else is there to praise that hasn’t already been praised about the brothers Dewaele a.k.a. 2manyDjs. The Belgian duo (who are also both in a little band called Soulwax threw down our favorite set of the whole weekend. We have been big fans for as long as we can remember and their closing set on Saturday night was a testament to our love for their emphatic style. You can tell these guys are just huge fans of music. They played everything from the techno classic “OG Trommer Bass” by Andre Bratten to “Underwater” by Harry Thumann and seamlessly blended dark and light-hearted tones.

Aluna George

British electro-pop superstar act AlunaGeorge is actually a duo comprised of Aluna Francis and George Reid. Facts of the day aside, their performance at CRSSD was simply magical. Incorporating stunning visuals, well-choreographed dancing, and Aluna’s remarkable singing voice. They truly owned the main stage using every square inch of it to connect with the crowd and belt out classics like “White Noise” and “You Know You Like It.”

Over the last few years, I’ve come to consider CRSSD Festival one of my most looked forward to events all year. The bi-annual San Diego shindig boasts one of the most unique festival atmospheres and music curations on the planet. The Waterfront Park is the perfect setting for the 2-day, 3-staged, 21+ weekend long event. Views of the water, gorgeous sunsets, pirate ships, and a smorgasbord of gourmet food and microbrews all combine to make one of the best music festivals in the country. Here’s my recounting of one of the best weekend I’ve had in a long while.

After entering the festival I bee-lined it straight to the City Steps stage to check out my man Brodinski; the hip-hop and techno don threw down a heavy set, weaving in and out of every transition from banging techno to dirty south hip-hop with ease and flair. Up next was San Francisco’s own Matrixxman who played a booming hard techno set that set my eardrums a blaze and had me headbanging harder than metalheads at a Pantera concert. After scarfing down some delicious tri-tip, I caught Louis the Child’s set at sunset. The young tikes did not disappoint as they perfectly captures the sunset’s balearic mood and then got much darker and heavy once night fell. It’s refreshing to know these two boys from Chicago are killing the game right now in an otherwise saturated future bass scene.

The illustrious DJ Harvey was up next. I did not know much about Harvey coming into Saturday but I left amazed at the man’s knack for finding obscure old school disco tracks that mix perfectly with his more modern house-y selections. The whole set was a unique experience of hearing records that haven’t been played anywhere else in decades. After Harvey’s very culturing set, it was time for the Dirtybird all-stars to get behind the decks. First up was Shiba-San who mixed in tech house, classic house, techno, and the dirtiest of Dirtybird tracks throughout his set. Justin Martin may have been the most disappointing set all weekend. His set lacked any dance-able cohesion and he kept getting on the mic a bit too much. All in all, Saturday was a great day for music.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! I arrived a bit later in the day as I usually do on day 2 situations. I went to one of the after parties the night before and it’s safe to say I wanted to sleep in. The first artist I checked out was Lee Burridge. Lee put on a very groovy and smooth techno affair. Although I only caught the end of his set I really enjoyed it and definitely want to check him out at future events. Next up was Maya Jane Coles. Maya threw down a hard and banging techno set. She had the crowd hanging on every track and just embodied pure badassery. The rest of the evening I spent going back and forth between Kaytranada and Dubfire while making stops at the bar in between both stages. This is one of CRSSD Festival’s huge advantages; there are only 3 stages and they are all so close together that it makes it easy to take in as much music as possible. Kaytranada was certainly a treat. In the past, I wasn’t really a fan of his live sets, however, he changed my mind this time around with an amazing set that was very upbeat and fast paced. Dubfire’s set, though not the live Hybrid setup, was superb in progressive techno flare. His set was extremely packed and had great sound from front to back.

Time and time again, I’ve returned to the San Diego Waterfront for the biannual event. Good food, good drinks, great music, and amazing weather all combine to make one of the most well-organized and fun festivals in the United States. See you in March!

Kaytranada – Whateva U Want

21 Savage – No Target (Produced by Brodinski)

Louis the Child – Fire

Procedure – Matrixxman