North Coast Music Festival returned to Bridgeview, Illinois for the third year in a row in 2023, and the festival continues to improve year-over-year.
Labor Day Weekend 2023 marked the third year of North Coast Music Festival at SeatGeek Stadium, and it was another great year of NCMF just outside the Chicago city limits. Using the entire campus on both the inside and outside of the stadium, North Coast is the first event to fully realize the venue’s potential, and it continues to improve in various ways.
Headliners for North Coast 2023 included marshmello, Zeds Dead, and Flume. The fest has undoubtedly won the crown for the #1 EDM festival in Chicago. The city has plenty of other fests, like the house and techno-centered ARC Music Festival or the upcoming debut of Beyond Wonderland Chicago. But when it comes to a straightforward 3-day electronic music festival with a focus on the bass music and EDM side of things, no one is doing it better in the Midwest than North Coast.
The stages and the venue layout are some of the festival’s biggest assets. It’s not uncommon for a fest to be located at an arena and only use the outside of the venue, but that’s never been the case with North Coast. The Stadium Stage fills out the entire SeatGeek Stadium interior, which allows for easy access to concessions, seating, and clean bathrooms throughout the concourse.
The outside part of the festival is set up nicely too, with artificial turf soccer fields being utilized for merchandise booths, food vendors, brand activations, and most importantly, several additional stages. The Vega Stage has production on par with the stadium and can handle similarly sized crowds. The Vega hosts a lot of bass music, which might be the genre that North Coast’s lineup does best. However, the entire event has a diverse music selection, with artists like MK and DJ Snake playing some of the most memorable sets of the weekend on Saturday night at the Vega.
The Shipyard Stage was upgraded significantly this year with a new setup and improved stage production. The third largest stage at the festival and often dominated by house music, Elderbrook, Lane 8, Chris Lake, and Cloonee brought some of the weekend’s best house vibes to the Shipyard.
Elsewhere throughout the venue, the Fire Pit stage hosted both locals and touring artists, while the Jose Cuervo Stage, Silent Disco, and Club Coast consistently provided additional music options. One of the most unique features of North Coast is the Chill Dome, an indoor field with air conditioning, bars, and special performances like a Champagne Drip ambient set and a yoga class from Evan Giia.
The music at North Coast has a little bit of something for all electronic music fans. With bass music, house music, and massive names like Alison Wonderland and Alesso, North Coast is the top EDM fest of the post-pandemic festival scene in Chicago. First taking place in 2010 and evolving since then, NCMF has obviously beat the now defunct Spring Awakening Music Festival as the city’s #1 EDM fest.
Looking at the event as a whole, there are very few major complaints about the event and the venue. Probably the main thing that comes to mind is the overcrowding at The Fire Pit when artists like Daily Bread and A Hundred Drums play. It’s a stage that can only fit a handful of people, but the stage is an art fixture that has previously been used at other fests like Lost Lands. And speaking of art – North Coast has an surprising amount of decor, art installations, photo opps, and chill areas.
Chicago is clearly the festival hub for Labor Day, with both North Coast and ARC having great weekends while their main competitor, Electric Zoo in New York, struggled mightily. It’s always a tough decision whether to attend NCMF or ARC, but for an electronic music experience that ventures beyond a driving techno or house music beat, North Coast just has more to choose from on the lineup. Another massive advantage of North Coast is that it goes until midnight on Friday and Saturday and 10:30 PM on Sunday, as Chicago noise ordinances don’t apply in the suburbs.
North Coast 2023 was undoubtedly a successful year for the festival, which was first held in 2010 and has since undergone many transformations and improvements. The third year of the SeatGeek Stadium edition of North Coast went off with few issues, outside of the traffic jam that occurs getting out of the stadium every night. It will be interesting to see how the festival continues to grow and improve in the future.
We’ll definitely be returning for the fourteenth installment of NCMF in 2024. North Coast delivers on a high quality EDM fest experience, and we can’t wait to see what they have in store next time.
Story: @michael__premier
Photos: @shanaolivero
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