There is just something about Kingdom Rave that is somewhat difficult to express with words. Each event leaves us all wanting more, counting down the days until the the next Kingdom Rave event. There is a certain level of excitement that you feel knowing that it is just around the corner, a certain type of happiness that you can’t even describe to others who don’t know about Kingdom Rave. The most recent Kingdom Rave was held on Friday, May 30, 2014. This one was called Kingdom Rave 14: Port Royale, which was no exception to the magic that it brings every single time to its fans. Although one thing that was probably on everyone’s mind was the new venue for the event.
For the majority of the event’s tenure here in Atlanta, Kingdom Rave’s home had been at the Metro Lanes & Games on the south side of Atlanta. However for the last event, the guys behind it decided to make its new home a short drive north at the Quad Spring 4th Complex. Some people were concerned with it, while others were perhaps ready for a little change.
The venue was slightly smaller than the Metro Lanes, but the musical talent they brought in definitely made up for that. The headlining artist for this debut of Kingdom Rave’s new home were Bro Safari, Heroes X Villains, and Organ Donors, along with tons of local talent. Atlanta native, Bro Safari, came out guns blazing with his high energy style, causing the dance floor to move the entire set. Bro Safari played an awesome set only to be followed up by another hometown artist known as Heroes X Villains. As if there was not enough bass being played already, Heroes X Villains certainly added even more bass to the night. The crowd went absolutely crazy when he dropped some insane festival trap during his set. At one point there was even a mosh pit when he played his edit of Flosstradamus’s track, “Mosh Pit.” Although it was predictable, it was still cool to see the crowd had that much energy. Finally, the UK duo called Organ Donors was a great addition to the bass heavy lineup. These two are known for their unique “hard-edge” style of EDM. Even though they have a different style than Bro Safari or Heroes X Villains, it made a good transition from moombahton and bass, to festival trap, to hard-edge dance music.
Aside from the music part of the event, there were a few concerns that I got from the people attending. As I wandered from stage to stage at the Spring 4th Complex, I asked some of the other people how they felt about the new venue for Kingdom Rave. Some people gave some positive feedback, saying that they were happy for a change and they liked the venue. Others, however, were not as pleased with the venue. Most people that were not pleased stated that the venue was overcrowded and a little too hot for them to enjoy the music. This is to be expected when a change of scenery occurs and is no surprised to get mixed feedback from people.
In all, I believe that the event was a great success. The music was outstanding and the new venue was fairly decent, but honestly still enjoyable. For the most part I liked the new home for Kingdom Rave. Everything was easy to locate, and each stage was impressive. I will say that the Metro Lanes venue was a little more spaced out than Spring 4th, but I still believe there is room for improvement for this new home. It was nothing less than I expected going in to this latest Kingdom Rave, though. The change of scenery will definitely take some getting used to for all of us. I think that with time, the Spring 4th Complex will start to grow on Kingdom Ravers and everyone will learn to appreciate its new home. For now, we will just have to wait and see what the next Kingdom Rave will have to offer.
