Music Festival Essay

â€Å" When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest † said Henry David Thoreau. Music was and still is a significant factor in almost every culture in the world. It is a form of art that can life the soul, or even heals a patient through music therapy. A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and often include other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines, performance art, and social activities, and even theme park rides such as the festival held annually in Abu Dhabi â€Å"Cream Fields†. Which is similar to the festival that I am going to be designing in this paper. The music festival I will conduct is going to be a rather modern based outdoor event, featuring DJs and live acts. The festival would have cartoon based theme, in which attendants would have to come dressed as cartoon characters of their choice, but no regular clothing would be allowed in, it’s either you come in costume or you get out. The idea is for the festival to be its own world for the weekend, and this would be achieved not only through the outfits, but even the stages would have cartoon decorations all around, making everything look colorful and cheerful. For each stage available, there will be a different cartoon theme for that stage, for instance the main stage would have the most famous of all, Tom and Jerry, and so on and so forth. The festival comers would feel as if they entered a world of childhood, making them forget about all the troubles in the world, and simply enjoy their time as much as they could. They can enjoy refreshments and food, along with special live acts where mimics of famous cartoons will be performed in between one artist and another. Unfortunately for the adolescents, there will be an entry age of 21 and above, all under the age of 21 would not be allowed in due to the consumption of alcohol in the region. The type of music that will be played at this festival will be electronic music. Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical audio signal that ultimately drives a loudspeaker. It may include a user interface for controlling its sound, often by adjusting the pitch, frequency, or duration of each note. This type of music can also be referred to as â€Å" Rave music â€Å". Rave music is what most people now call ‘dance’ music, or as some government wonk put it, music with a distinctive ‘series of repetitive beats’. Early ravers discovered that the combination of ecstasy and music with fast, repetitive beats was a marriage made in disco heaven. The term rave first came into use in Britain in the late 50’s referring to the wild bohemian parties of the time, and the crowds were and still are mostly young from all sections of society. The composition of this music is extremely complicated, and it requires years of practice and experience in order to master it, however, I will give a brief summary of the requirements. There isn’t a single â€Å"piece of equipment† that creates the music, it’s a joining of different elements that’s necessary to allow the creation of a full on song. The basic and most important instrument to create this music is the MIDI keyboard. A MIDI keyboard is typically a piano-style user interface keyboard device used for sending MIDI signals or commands over a USB or MIDI cable to other devices connected and operating on the same MIDI protocol interface. Not all MIDI keyboards are based on the piano style user interface. Many MIDI keyboard controllers have pads or buttons that also send MIDI signals, and most pads have a velocity sensing capability so that varying volumes of sound can be played. Then comes in the other pieces, for instance, the sequencer is where you control the audio sources and create the structure of your song, and the mixer is then used to set the levels. After the song has been finished, it is recorded and simply played through the DJ set on the stage. However, the DJ will be using a mixer and a sequencer in order to adjust the structure and the levels of the song, also to move on from one song to another without disruption, blending one song to another. The artists I have chosen for my festival are the following, starting from the first to perform to the headliner. Armin Van Buuren, Armin van Buuren, a Dutch trance producer and DJ. He is the number one ranked DJ having won DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs fan poll a record of 5 times, including winning 4 consecutive years between 2007-2010 and again in 2012. David Guetta, a French house music producer and DJ. Afrojack, who is a Dutch music producer and DJ. Skrillex, opening for the headliner is an American electronic musician and singer-songwriter. And finally, the headliner, Deadmau5, is a Canadian electro-house music producer, DJ, and performer based in Toronto. Deadmau5 produces a variety of styles with the house genre, or other forms of electronic dance music. The reason I have selected Deadmau5 to headline for such a cartoony festival is not only does his music suit the atmosphere, but also he comes in costume, as he always wears a big smiling mouse mask that does not fail to attract attention. Moreover, his stage is always colorful and full of energy, a perfect way to end the night at such a festival. The rest of the performers also provide energy to this theme, as it is a day where everything is cheerful, where everything colorful and happy, and this is aim of electronic music, to unite people from every nation, it does not limit anyone, and so do cartoons. That is the connection between my theme and the music being played, all are welcome, no culture, race, nor nationality is looked down upon, everyone is together, one love.