By Seth Miller
First Annual Festival Wows with 3d Art Installations, Production and Atmosphere
Read more for Quotes, Music & Our Recap Video
The primary take away from CounterPoint, regardless of who you are talking to- is that the festival went off without a hitch. Visitors from Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, South and North Carolina and Georgia packed out the west camp grounds on the first day, causing east camp to open up for a large crowd on Thursday night. Friday and Saturday night saw the venue come to life, the crowd glowing both figuratively and literally.
There was a lot going on at CounterPoint – below are observations that were found after completely throwing the schedule out.
Quotes
I lost my keys while crowd surfing last night
… best experience of my life
People were fishing their tents out of the Chattahoochee River
Did you see Skrillex last night???
Bassnectar killed it.
Who was your top sets of yesterday?
CounterPoint changed my life
Who is this?!?!
Our camp was destroyed by the storm
Taking a look at these quotes, we can 100% promise you that each of them was said with a smile on someone’s face. Even though the weather completely ruined camp sites, some stage equipment, art installations and brought the festival to a screeching halt for half an hour, one thing that was not removed was a group morale that can best be compared to the feeling that one gets when making it to the summit of a mountaintop.
The Need
The Southeast is a virtually untapped, hotbed of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) activity
Metros like New York City and Los Angeles are well known for procuring top EDM talent, so perhaps CounterPoint was some what of an audition for regional talent from a variety of genres in the Southeast. The site is nestled on Georgia country roads, but easily accessible from Atlanta, and featured legendary artists such as Big Boi, who rocked the main stage on Saturday, but also up-and-coming acts like heRobust, Heroes and Villains, and Reptar – who are all quickly starting to gain traction.
“ATL Hoe!”
The Dirty on “Trap Music”
The term, originally coined by T.I. when he released the genre titling album “Trap Musik” – represents heavily sampled, deep bass party music. Influenced by hip-hop, electro, glitch and dubstep, trap music stimulates audiences by building up a sound landscape, and then providing a wrecking-ball sized drop that sends the crowd into a frenzy.
Local ATLien heRobust had the crowd chanting “ATL Hoe!” – representing CounterPoint’s ATLroots. Without a doubt, Atlanta had the largest representation at the show.
One set heard from a distance garnered a “Who is this?!?” Heroes & Villains – we’re told, and a casual jog ensued to the Back Beat tent which was only about 100 yards away from the Grooveshark Media Lounge. H&V had just been in the media tent as it turns out, something that goes a long way on our list.
the Stonehenge of CounterPoint
Photo courtesy of iWallyPhotography
There was a really nice 3d art installation right in the middle of the venue, between the main stage and the Beat and Back Beat tents that was up until the crazy, half hour storm on Friday. We had a chance to sit down with Rich Müeller, Owner at Müeller Design Lab, and he was nice enough to provide us with some of his design files for this amazing art installation.
L4LM: Up close, was it really well done?
Rich: Well here’s, the thing, it could have been improved better, the actual cardboard. With being the temperature change here, the moisture would saturate it in the morning and late at night.
L4LM: So did they take it down after Thursday?
Rich: No it never went down, it took us 30 hours to put it up.
L4LM: It’s still over there?
Rich: The storm demolished it.
L4LM: So it took you all 30 hours to put it up and 30 minutes to completely destroy it.
Rich: “Light showers” that the Weather Channel said was coming through. “Light shower” – my ass. But hey, I’ve never worked with cardboard on that scale before, the biggest risk is not taking one.
L4LM: So how would I find you to look at your work?
Rich: MuellerDesignLab.wordpress.com
Photo courtesy of Facecandi Lightning Productions
Rich called his structure a “Geo-Garden”. Below are some of the design files he was nice enough to provide us with for a little extra something special!
Now, back to the music
Here’s our full festival recap video
Is CounterPoint Camp Bisco of the South?
Southerners don’t always get a chance to make it to upstate New York, so maybe the grounds in Fairburn, GA represent our version of Camp Bisco? Indian Lookout Country club in Mariaville, NY is quite a distance from the Southeast, so maybe this is our chance to have a world renown EDM experience in our back yard. The production was there, the vibe was there, and we had internationally recognized artists setting up camp on the same grounds as their loyal fans. Time will tell, but we are very curious to see what CounterPoint could be molded into over time.