There’s no debating that North Coast Music Festival has been an absolute staple of the electronic music scene since it was first founded nearly 15 years ago. It’s been through several transformations and venue changes over its history, but North Coast 2024 was undoubtedly one of its best years yet.
The first-ever edition of NCMF came in 2010 at Union Park, which is now home to ARC Music Festival. It briefly moved to Northerly Island in 2019 before settling at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois in 2021. The suburban location seemed like a detriment at first, but the way the festival uses the entire stadium campus actually makes it an advantage.
The Stadium stage hosts the lineup’s biggest acts like Subtronics, Illenium, Seven Lions, Two Friends, and Alan Walker. Reminiscent of the arena atmosphere at the extinct Spring Awakening Music Festival at Soldier Field, North Coast opens both the stadium concourse and the field level to give fans plenty of room to enjoy the show. The festival goes until midnight (past Chicago’s 10 PM curfew) on Friday and Saturday with fireworks and lasers filling the sky until the very last minute. The Stadium has comfortable seating areas and clean bathrooms, both massive advantages when it comes to being a festival veteran.
While The Stadium is arguably the focal point, the exterior stages could be main stages themselves. The Vega continues to improve every year. Set up on artificial turf usually used for soccer fields, it features an elevated stage platform with ample space on both sides of the crowd. The production here is on par with the stadium, and there really isn’t a bad viewing spot in the field. Other than the Silent Disco awkwardly being placed in the back of The Vega, sound bleed is completely non-existent at North Coast. Highlights at this stage included an unforgettable show from Above & Beyond and sets from Hamdi, ACRAZE, Crankdat, and LSZEE.
Just a short walk across the pathway is The Shipyard, which hosts a mix of both house music and bass. Stage takeovers here came from Tchami and Malaa’s No Redemption and Los Angeles collective Brownies & Lemonade. IsoXo and Knock2 stole the show at the Shipyard, with the DJ booth being fully raised over the crowd by a crane during their Sunday night closing set. Even though this resulted in the majority of festivalgoers at one of the smaller stages, the Shipyard still held the huge crowd rather comfortably.
What set apart North Coast 2024 from other recent editions was simply the overall vibe of the event.
From the very start of the festival on Friday, the energy was high and the vibe was positive. The crowd was full of both people from Chicagoland and others that traveled from miles away to attend. With New York’s Electric Zoo in the festival graveyard, North Coast takes the trophy for the place to be when it comes to Labor Day Weekend.
2024 was the year that North Coast truly set itself apart from the competition. Now in its fourth year at the SeatGeek Stadium campus, it utilizes the space unlike any other event held at this location. Combining the interior and exterior of the stadium results in what feels like a complete festival venue just outside of Chicago. They really push the limits of the space, with other stages like The Chill Dome in an indoor soccer arena and Club Coast in the press boxes of the concourse. The iconic Fire Pit stage is an art installation that has also been used at events like Burning Man, Lost Lands, and Elements Festival.
North Coast has expanded to a point that wouldn’t have been possible in its previous locations. It’s such a considerable change from the other EDM festival at this venue: Freaky Deaky from 2015-2017. That literally only used the parking lots; comparing the current NCMF to Freaky Deaky almost seems unfair.
Additionally, there’s a solid argument to be made that North Coast utilized Union Park better than its current tenant. With production delays, artist cancelations, sound bleed, overcrowding, and other issues brought up in post-event discussions, North Coast felt like a better festival than its crosstown competition. Anyone that has historically attended both with an open mind and a diverse taste in electronic music would likely agree.
Chicago is making history every Labor Day Weekend with two top-tier music festivals. ARC afters dominate the city’s late night scene, with dozens of exclusive events only available to 3-day ticketholders. North Coast got seriously creative with their afters lineup in 2024. We attended Deathpact at Joe’s on Weed St (usually a country bar) and Ship Wrek at The Pavilion, an outdoor event space at a restaurant across the SeatGeek Stadium parking lot. Both shows were amazing and provided a nice change of pace compared to the clubs downtown that we often frequent throughout the year.
Overall, North Coast Music Festival 2024 was not only the best event we’ve attended at SeatGeek Stadium, but it was an all-time great event in Chicago’s decorated EDM festival history.
It’s hard to beat North Coast during the Golden Era when it was hosting Knife Party, Axwell, The Chemical Brothers, David Guetta, Kid Cudi, Wiz Khalifa, and much more. But there was something about North Coast 2024 that made it one of the best NCMFs ever. I guess that’s a sign of an exceptional festival…the weekend just feels special for a bunch of different inexplicable reasons.
2025 will be North Coast’s 15th anniversary. This was officially announced via a drone show over the Shipyard Stage, and presale for next year’s fest is already complete. North Coast has evolved into a festival of epic proportions, and we can’t wait to see how it continues to build on this momentum well into the future.
Photos & Story: @michael__premier
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