Movement Festival is a Detroit tradition that started over twenty years ago. An underground electronic music festival in the birthplace of techno music, Movement Detroit is an incredible event with a focus on Detroit’s history.
Held in downtown Detroit at Hart Plaza, Movement takes over the city’s waterfront park and the entirety of its clubs and venues. In addition to the 3-day festival, Movement also offers a diverse amount of afterparty options.
This year’s Movement Festival was even more enjoyable than the last. In fact, every Movement in the last few years has only gotten better. It’s a festival that’s ideal for discovering new music and exploring different artists and genres. It’s also a great place to see familiar artists on the lineup like Chris Lake, Fatboy Slim, and Ludacris.
Hart Plaza is a smaller venue than the average festival. However, the layout of the place works well for Movement. The setup has largely been the same since we started attending years ago, with little sound bleed issues throughout the grounds. While crowd control was a bit of a problem last year during big acts like Skrillex, navigating the crowd at Movement 2024 was generally comfortable.
Thunderstorms shut down the festival for a few hours on Sunday night, but Movement still prevailed with a successful weekend. The festival went 30 minutes later than scheduled on Sunday, with I Hate Models, 999999999, Richie Hawtin, and James Blake closing out the night. Some sets were cut short or canceled, like Fatima Hajji and Nicole Moudaber, but the weekend generally went by without any major issues.
Our favorite place to be at Movement is always the Underground Stage. With the hardest hitting techno artists in the scene and an energetic crowd in a dark basement area, the Underground Stage is the place to be for hard techno fans. There were both classic styles of techno like British Murder Boys and Paranoid London as well as more contemporary sets from Patrick Mason and Indira Paganotto.
The main Movement Stage is in a built-in outdoor auditorium in Hart Plaza, which makes it easy to find an elevated spot in the crowd with a good view. The same can be said about the Pyramid Stage on the other side of the festival, but it does get crowded quickly here. With a view of Canada and the Detroit River in the background, it’s still one of the festival’s most iconic stages, with artists like Floorplan, Honey Dijon, Will Clarke, and Carl Craig being some highlights.
The Stargate Stage and the Waterfront Stage host house music and a variety of other genres like drum n bass, hip-hop, experimental beats, and techno. A growing tradition at Movement is a drum n bass day at the Waterfront, as legends like Goldie and LTJ Bukem give the lineup even more variety. There’s also the Detroit Stage, which showcases a major theme of the festival: performers and electronic music pioneers from Detroit. The fest also has a museum area every year with more info on some of the city’s legends.
Whether you’re discovering artists that literally created techno or new artists that are pushing the genre’s boundaries, Movement is a festival experience unlike anything else we’ve ever had. There is simply so much new music to discover here, and it’s an opportunity to expand your horizons when it comes to electronic music.
Many of the Movement afterparties have curated lineups that reach far beyond the festival acts. There are plenty of official Movement afters, with venues like the Russell Industrial Center and Spotlite Detroit hosting official Movement artists. And there are even more unofficial afterparties, where music collectives and event promoters from all over the world come to Detroit to throw their parties. DVS1 at Bert’s Warehouse and Perc at Leland City Club were some personal favorites, both via L.A. promoters 6 AM Group, Dirty Epic, and Synthetik Minds.
There are so many amazing venues in Detroit to choose from. This year, we attended afters each night during our visit, stopping by TV Lounge, Bert’s Warehouse, Russell Industrial Center, Magic Stick, and Leland City Club. These venues are a great place to start if you’re deciding on after shows for your first weekend in Detroit.
The festival experience at Movement is unique. There are attendees from all kinds of music tastes and age groups, and the festival vibe is very eccentric. Everyone comes to Movement Detroit with a love for house, techno, or both, and you can feel that kind of passion when you’re at the show.
Movement was a life changing experience when we first attended in 2017, and it has only become a bigger part of our festival life since then. It’s an amazing place to explore some of the purest forms of house and techno, and Movement 2024 was another unforgettable experience. There’s just something special about the festival vibe and the phenomenal afterparty options that it makes it easy to stay out all afternoon and all night listening to amazing music.
Movement Detroit 2024 was another massive success for the festival. The lineup was impressive and the experience lived up to our expectations. We can’t wait to return to Detroit and see how Movement weekend blows our minds once again next year.
Photo Credit: Movement Detroit & Electronic Groove & Adam Tirado
Article: @michael__premier
Premier EDM 