Looking Back On Ending 2021 With Lights All Night

It’s wild to think that we’re more than a week into 2022 and as such, there’s never a better time to reflect on last year – more specifically, Lights All Night, the longest-running electronic music festival in Dallas, TX that has rang in the new year for 11 years now. Having gone as an attendee in 2017, it was amazing to return this year and see just how much had changed and how the festival had grown even in just a few years.

Hosted at Dallas Market Hall, the festival had four stages that saw a variety of artists all within the electronic music scene over the span of two days, totaling roughly 16 hours. With vendors and two stages outdoors, it was nice that the weather cooperated and held off on a cold snap until after everyone was back home to recover. The rain even held off until right when the festival let out at 12:30AM on day 2, and it was a good call on the part of organizers to push the set times up to keep the grooves going but get everyone back home safely.

EDM fans were guaranteed to find a stage that would fit their mood at any given time. The two indoor stages, Supernova and Intergalactic, saw bigger ticket acts that spanned dubstep to bass house to progressive trance, and everything in between. Artists like Deadmau5, Illenium, Slander, and DJ Snake utilized the large LED panels on the big room Supernova stage to their full capacities. The overall visual experience, crafted by Onstage Systems, Showtech Prodcutions, and LaserWolfFX, was enhanced by plentiful lasers, pyro, cryo, and confetti. Moving to the second room, attendees could get all of their bass-centric needs fulfilled. A smaller room adorned with overhead canopies, Intergalactic caught all of the heavy bass beats and became headbanger central, particularly on day 2 with Apashe, ARMNHMR, SVDDEN DEATH, and Black Tiger Sex Machine all being one after another.

For anyone who needed reprieve from the indoors, because it certainly got hot on the second day, Planet Prime and Space Station offered just that. Spread out on opposite ends of the outdoors with vendors, bathrooms, and the water station in between them, there was no sound bleed, which was nice given the variety of music that was being played. On Planet Prime, the first day had a more bass-focused lineup with artists like Nik P, HOLLY, and Jantsen while the second day was more house-focused with artists like Devault, OMNOM, and J.Worra. Space Station gave attendees a more intimate experience of anything and everything that you could think would fit with the name. It gave a platform to Texas-based artists like Oats & Honey, Playboy P, Know Good, and Colson XL. We were given a multitude of genres at this stage – progressive house, experimental bass, future dance, electronic pop, and so many more.

To tie together the festival experience, there were art installations that made for great Instagram backdrops, since you have to commemorate where you were when 2022 started! Also because festival fits need to be shared, especially some of the ones that were at Lights All Night! There were also roaming performances by Cirkus Zirkus, Infinite Entertainment, and more performers brought together by Lady L Productions. All of the glitz, glamor, and confetti of the festival made for a memorable end to 2021 and a remarkable beginning to 2022. On a personal note, I had never seen Above & Beyond before and was extremely excited to see them, so it seems fitting to end with a displayed note from their set – 2021 was a fu**er of a year, but 2022 is gonna be way better!