We’re only a few days away from being back at ARC Music Festival for another hotly anticipated weekend of house and techno in Chicago. Auris Presents has brought yet another star studded lineup for the third year of the festival, with global powerhouses as well as bright up-and-coming talent coming together for what is sure to be three days of incredible music.
The festival starts at 2:00 PM on Friday and goes until 10:00 PM Sunday night, with a host of afterparties to choose from each night as well. With such a great lineup, it’s almost guaranteed we’ll have conflicts, but here are five of our can’t-miss sets of the weekend below.
ARC Music Festival 2023 Must-See Artists
Portals & Parachutes, Friday 2:00 – 3:00, The Grid
Local longtime Chicago resident DJs RJ Pickens and Hummingbird make up Portals & Parachutes, who came together to form a duo during 2021’s climate of cultural re-emergence. They share a combined 30+ years’ experience in delivering driving, melodic grooves across the spectrum of progressive house and techno.
This will be a special hybrid live set with guest artists like Anna Marcella, DCBolt, FJ9, Josh Burca, Mattheo, Mo Kabre, and Zehv sharing the stage. We’ve previously seen them perform before Paul Kalkbrenner at Concord Music Hall and at other shows across the city. Combining live visuals, vocals, and instruments throughout the performance, this will be one of the most diverse and unique sets of the weekend.
Mall Grab b2b KETTAMA, Friday 4:00 – 5:30, Expansions
A highlight of this year’s lineup is the various back to back sets, bringing artists together to share the booth that you wouldn’t usually see on a normal night out. With so many to choose from, our most anticipated B2B comes from Mall Grab and KETTAMA.
Australian born and UK-based Jordon Alexander, aka Mall Grab, meanders through genres like house, techno, garage, and acid with ease during his sets. He will often favor playing his unreleased original productions with no two sets being alike. Evan Campbell, aka KETTAMA, was living at his mom’s house in Galway, mixing tunes on a tiny Bluetooth speaker given to him by an ex-girlfriend a few years ago. Now he’s on the global stage, pumping his distinctive, hard-hitting style of house-adjacent dance into enthralled crowds. This will be quite the pairing behind the decks with a single constant motif: pure, raw energy.
Ilario Alicante B2B Dennis Cruz, Saturday 8:30 – 10:00, elrow
Another b2b you won’t want to miss is Ilario Alicante and Dennis Cruz closing out the elrow stage on Saturday night. Elrow parties have become renown worldwide for their whimsical themed production, live performers that interact with the crowd, and a consistently solid lineup of artists. Dennis Cruz brings his signature brand of European tech house combined with Ilario Alicante’s darker, more techno-centric music for a potent combination of hard hitting four-on-the-floor sounds. The closing sets at elrow always go out with a bang and this back to back will certainly live up to the hype.
Kevin De Vries, Sunday 4:00 – 5:00, The Grid
Kevin De Vries is one of our most exciting artists of the last few years, enjoying a meteoric rise with his flavor of melodic techno released on Sven Väth’s Cocoon, Adam Beyer’s Drumcode, and most recently, Tale Of Us’ label Afterlife. He has become a firm favorite of the Afterlife faithful and a vital recording artist, with many event appearances and contributions to the label. Kevin’s DJ sets translate the singular energy of his own music into extended journeys from cutting-edge sounds to 90s classics and back again. He has quickly become an in-demand DJ worldwide, consistently delivering standout performances at huge festivals and intimate clubs alike. Get your Sunday started with some of the best melodic techno Afterlife has to offer with Kevin De Vries at the mainstage.
Sara Landry, Sunday 7:00 – 8:30, Area 909
The ARC Car has been updated to Area 909 for this year’s festival, and the lineup on Sunday is all about peak time industrial vibes with some of the biggest names in techno. The standout artist you won’t want to miss here is up and coming artist Sara Landry. Sara is a self-taught producer, audio engineer, and DJ known for her dark, driving, and divinely feminine brand of industrial techno. Though only a few years into what is sure to be a long and storied career, Sara has quickly emerged as one of the most exciting new voices in the genre, with her releases on T-Minus, Kraftek, and mau5trap quickly attracting an ever-growing community of loyal fans. As a DJ, Sara is an explosive presence and open channel, consistently delivering thunderous, hammering sets that have won the hearts of techno fanatics the world over.
Story: @en_berg
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