The short: cult-like organized chaos.
The long: What if the first day of college was on a cruise ship with all of your favorite electronic artists and lasted three days? If that’s something that sounds like a swashbuckling good time to you then welcome aboard Holy Ship! With five stages of music and a magical menagerie of a line-up, I would say that Holy Ship! is the closest to perfect medium to consume electronic music.
I know what you’re thinking. Where do I get off saying that? What about all the outdoor festivals where the wind is blowing, the birds are chirping and you’re surrounded by palm trees? I’m not saying Holy Ship! is better than Coachella,Electric Zoo,or Ultra. I am saying that Holy Ship! gives you the most ideal conditions to thoroughly enjoy what these artists have to offer. The financial commitment is a bit more than other events so the crowd tends to be a little older, more mature, and way friendlier. Each stage’s speaker set-up is tuned expertly giving you great acoustics no matter where you are standing. You can walk between each of the five stages within five to ten minutes easily. Nothing feels over-packed to the point where you’re getting tossed around like a spoon in a garbage disposal. Tired? Go back to your cabin and take a disco nap before enjoying a later act. Also, there’s never a shortage of bars or bathrooms which meant no waiting in line to deal with the front or back end of your alcohol intake.
The best aspect of Holy Ship! might be the ease of access to your favorite artists. Everyone is stuck on the boat together so the Ship Fam vibes kick in early. Like someone’s set? Afterwards, you can just walk right up to them and let them know. I was able to meet a handful of my favorite artists who were just as excited to kick back with a fan as I was to take an obnoxious selfie. A few artists even participate in scheduled activities with shippers such as “What So Not’s Flippy Cup” or “Branchez’ Dolphin Race”.
Let’s get into the music. Our voyage kicked off with the b2b expertise of everyone’s favorite trapstarz Baauer and RL Grime. I take my hat off to these guys. With the dwindling popularity of the trap genre, these two have managed to stay relevant and tread the line carefully between stale mainstream and the more fresh take their sets provide. Think more Rustie than Flosstradamus.
Over the course of the next two days I was able to see Jimmy Edgar,Boys Noize, Busy P, Chromeo (Live),Marshmello, The Dirtybird Crew, Destructo, Porter Robinson and a smorgasbord of others. The point is that I never get bored. Busy P even taunted the crowd during his set by saying “You guys want EDM?…Well how about some EPMD!” The variety of music represented and delivered in such an intimate environment definitely keeps you from mentally walking the plank.
The most surprising set and one of my major highlights was Destructo’s “Sunrise Sermon”. From 6-9am Destructo went back to back with Boys Noize and DJ Tennis playing only classic house jams. An odd combo like this might never make it onto the line-up of another Hard event but somehow felt perfectly at home on board the ship.
Now, Holy Ship! had some drawbacks. Let me just say that the food aboard the MSC Divina, though included in the ticket price, is laughably bad. Food and drink is available 24/7, which was a plus but the food was very low quality and sometimes a chore to eat. I had a hard time deciding who made better pizza: Holy Ship or Chuck E. Cheese. The beach party was less than stellar as the weather was overcast and lines for food and drinks were highly disorganized. Despite those working points, I’m definitely looking forward to reuniting with the ShipFam.
