Express Yourself: The Festival Looks from the Stages of Sunset Music Festival [PHOTOS]
BY MATTHEW DEMARKO AND ELIZABETH WINDHAM
We had the pleasure of attending Sunset Music Festival in May (check out our recap here), the East Coast’s “first festival back.” Held in Tampa, Florida, we were greeted with sunny skies, 90 degree plus weather, and an incredible amount of creatively dressed and undressed festival-goers.
With festivals’ return, festival fashion has finally moved from the 2020 bedroom rave to the great outdoors. Summer has wrapped its loving warm arms around us all, and the festival gates of the USA are lining up to welcome the PLUR warriors and kandikids.
The butterfly and unicorn kings and queens.
The squads.
The rave couples.
And any and all who are looking for a place to express themselves creatively through the wonderful realm of festival fashion.
SMF’s layout was set up with three major stages with very distinctive sounds. With the specific sounds and artists that played on each stage we noticed very distinctive looks.
The Horizon Stage
The first sounds and sights we experienced upon entering the gates were coming from The Horizon Stage, a simple-but-very-disco stage covered with a glittered canopy. This stage was home to names like Shiba San, Green Velvet, Jack Beats and Yolanda Be Cool. The vibes of house and techno music are a very special kind; a unique shade of the calm and collected badass…
…where you can keep bouncing for hours waiting for the drop, and it may… never… come…
This stage felt similar to burner vibes, talented shufflers kicking up the dust, the silver chain ceiling sparkling against the heat of the sun. Here is where we found DIY bedazzled marching band hats.
The rave neon cowboy.
And you can’t forget your trusty steed when engaging in the techno beats landscape.
Yolanda Be Cool’s set gave us that flowing-easily-in-an-open-field-licking-our-very-own-red-lollipop feel.
The Eclipse Stage
Heavy bass hitters like 12th Planet and Zomboy were found here, The Eclipse Stage. The bass rumbled in the afternoon and long into the night. From the daytime sets of Lizzy Jane, Kai Wachi and Champagne Drip to the night hours of trippy brilliance from LSDREAM, The Eclipse Stage reached its three mind-melting tentacles out to us, grabbing hold of those wandering in. This stage invited those ready to get wild, to transform into bass-face and headbang on the rail.
We found the neon braids here.
The trippy glasses.
And those willing to just get weird.
Sunset Stage
The main stage of SMF hosted major artists who have been performing for a decade, such as Adventure Club and Seven Lions, as well as other newer but still well known artists like Rezz, Nitti Gritti, and Party Favor. This massive main stage of the festival brought a variety of fashion to its front door. We did notice some common themes to the main stage fits: one will need a FAN, a BUCKET HAT, and PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR that’s probably in the form of ski goggles.
No matter what you were wearing (or what you weren’t wearing) at SMF Tampa, the welcoming arms of the festival community were open to you. Every moment we took to look at the people around us, we always caught huge smiles, big hugs, and excited and unique dance moves. EDM festivals have always been a playground to creatively express yourself in a way you can’t find anywhere else, and the playground of SMF Tampa 2021 was a beautiful kaleidoscope of unlimited expression.
And sometimes all you need is a bucket hat and some good sunnies.
