“What do we do it for? We do it for the love,
y’all.”
- Forest Casey
- As the sun sets on Hart Plaza on the first night of the festival, Amp Fiddler shows that bands do not have to spin vinyl to be considered “electronic.” (Forest Casey/DAILY)
- Forest Casey
- Macomb Townshop resident Graham Meyer, 16, leaves light trails while dancing in the darker Underground stage. (Forest Casey/DAILY)
-The Dubphonics, Movement Performers
This Memorial Day weekend, a strong band of artists, united in
their integration of electronic styles and textures into music,
formed to carry on a four-year-old tradition. The artists, like the
masses of fans (over a million of them across the three days of the
festival) came from all areas of Detroit and the world to perform
at the Movement Detroit Festival, the largest electronic music
festival in the world.
The incredible amount of work necessary to produce an event as
enormous as this one can also contribute to disarray at the
festival itself. Schedule and stage changes have plagued Movement
since its birth, with volunteers saying that the festival almost
didn’t happen this year due to miscommunication between
festival organizers. Further complicating matters, an unnamed
Movement artist said that organizers tried to get bigger artists
(Radiohead, De La Soul or the Neptunes) to close the show, but they
simply lacked funding. As a result of this budget shortfall, few of
the performers are being paid at all.
Even with all of the setbacks that Movement has had over its
lifespan, the community and goodwill created between the thousands
of concert-goers would have been incredible to see in any city.
Detroit’s fragile economy gets the boost of a million
visitors, technoheads get their fix and local artists get the
spotlight, even if they are only doing it for the love.
Click
“http://www.michigandaily.com/pages/pdf/2004-06-01efest.pdf”>here
to see this story as it appears in print.