Movement Electronic Music Festival is an annual electronic dance music event held in the birthplace of Techno, Detroit, each Memorial Day weekend since 2006. Previous electronic music festivals held at Hart Plaza on Memorial Day weekend include Detroit Electronic Music Festival (2000–2002), Movement (2003–2004) and Fuse-In (2005). The four different festival names reflect completely separate and distinct producers, brands and directions. All of these festivals presented performances by musicians and DJs that emphasized the progressive qualities of the culture surrounding electronic music including the celebration of Detroit being the birthplace of the popular electronic music subgenre Techno.
In late 2013, the original DEMF management announced plans for the return of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival as a free-admission event at Campus Martius Park on Independence Day weekend, 2014, along with the paid-admission Federation of Electronic Music Technology (FEMT), a concurrent conference and music showcase at Ford Field. These events were later rescheduled for 2015.[1] These events are not connected to the Movement Electronic Music Festival planned for Memorial Day weekend in Hart Plaza.[2][3]
Movement is scheduled to return on May 27–29, 2024 at Hart Plaza.[4]
History
2000
The first electronic music festival held in Detroit was the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000, produced by Carol Marvin and her organization Pop Culture Media (which included event producer Adriel Thornton, Telo Dunne and Barbara Deyo and others). It took place in Detroit's Hart Plaza. The event was one of the first electronic music festivals in the United States.
Ford Motor Company provided $435,000 for title sponsorship of the 2001 event, which was renamed the Focus Detroit Electronic Music Festival. This allowed the free-of-charge event to continue to be a gift to the fans and made the festival a profitable venture in its second year. Festival producer Pop Culture Media, with Carol Marvin at the helm, worked with Ford to create a nationwide television ad campaign featuring the music of Detroit Techno founder Juan Atkins. Controversy ensued when producer Carol Marvin reluctantly fired artistic director Carl Craig for breach of contract.
In January 2003, Detroit city Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick decided to override the Recreation Department (which controls and manages Hart Plaza) and secured Hart Plaza and the Memorial Day weekend dates for Derrick May, who had extensive experience as a touring DJ but no firsthand, large-scale festival production experience. May put a first-class team in place, which included a donation by Philadelphia-based P.A.W.N. LASERS / Louis Capet XXVI, but the biggest hurdle faced by the Festival was the City of Detroit's withdrawal of $350,000 funding that it had provided in previous years.[7]
2004
The second Movement festival took place in 2004, but despite its public success, the event faced significant financial losses and its fate became uncertain.
2005
In February 2005, May announced his resignation as festival producer, and the festival once again changed hands. Fellow techno veteran Kevin Saunderson announced plans for a Movement replacement to be called Fuse-In Detroit (later shortened to just Fuse-In, with the tagline "Detroit's Electronic Movement") to be staged Memorial Day Weekend 2005.
Successful negotiations with city officials led to 2005 becoming the first year that an event in Hart Plaza did not have free admission. A total of 41,220 admission passes were sold to Fuse-In visitors. 38,382 daily passes were sold for $10 each, and 2,838 weekend passes, covering the full three days, were sold for $25 each. The City of Detroit collected $1 per pass, and was to have collected 30% of festival profits, but admission pass sales did not recoup the festival's $756,000 budget.
2006
On February 16, 2006, Kevin Saunderson announced that due to financial losses and lack of sufficient promotion, he would not continue to produce the festival in 2006. As of March 23, Paxahau of Detroit, Michigan, an event production company that has worked with Craig, May, and Saunderson, secured the venue and dates from Saunderson to produce the festival under the name "Movement." Paxahau has been producing their festival from 2006 to present.
In 2008 the festival took place over a three-day span, May 24-May 26, 2008. Ticket prices this year were set at $40 presale or $55 at the door for a weekend pass, and $175 for a VIP Pass.
2008 Movement Lineup
Aaron-Carl Ragland (featuring Veronique & DJ E. Dubb)
Movement 2009 took place from Saturday, May 23, 2009, thru Monday, May 25, 2009, in Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan.
These two mobile friendly sites include information about after parties, lodging and an easy to read schedule[8] The weekend overlapped with CouchSurfing's event CouchCrash,[9] and with the International Sword fighting and Martial Arts Convention.[10]
Movement 2010 took place May 29–31, 2010. This was the 10th anniversary of Detroit's yearly electronic music festival. Plastikman confirmed his appearance on his website. Other confirmed artists include Mr. Scruff, Ida Engberg, Jamie Jones, and Woody McBride.
Movement 2011 was held on May 28–30, 2011 and took place at Hart Plaza in Detroit, Michigan; the same location as every year since its inception. Featured artists this year include Fatboy Slim, Carl Craig, Beardyman, Felix da Housecat, and Skrillex. This year's "secret artist" listed on the lineup is Ricardo Villalobos, who, to the disappointment of many, was not allowed entrance into the US last year.
^Jackman, Michael. "City Slang: DEMF 2014 canceled - Metro Times Blogs | Metro Times Blogs". Blogs.metrotimes.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
^Skid, Nathan (November 20, 2013). "Campus Martius will turn into global dance party for electronic music fest next summer". Crain's Detroit Business.
^Skotarczyk, Rachel (November 20, 2013). "United We Dance - FEMT Launches the Return of DEMF". Real Detroit Weekly. Archived from the original on November 23, 2013.
^"Movement Electronic Festival". MovementFestival.com. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
^ "DEMF: The Worlds Largest Free Electronic Music Festival". The Internet Archive. April 6, 2001. Archived from the original on April 6, 2001. Retrieved March 27, 2024. Artist Info[dead link]
^ "DEMF: The Worlds Largest Free Electronic Music Festival". The Internet Archive. June 11, 2001. Archived from the original on June 11, 2001. Retrieved March 30, 2024. Official fOCUS://DEMF/2001 Schedule[dead link]
^ "Movement: Detroit's Electronic Music Festival". The Internet Archive. October 1, 2003. Archived from the original on October 1, 2003. Retrieved March 28, 2024. Schedule[dead link]
^"MOVEMENT MOBILE - A Phone Friendly Schedule with Artist Info, After-Party Info and More". May 23, 2009. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009.
^"DCC1 EVENT SCHEDULE". Google Docs.
^"ISMAC 2009 ~ Schedule". March 13, 2012. Archived from the original on March 13, 2012.
^ a b"Scuba". Movement Music Festival. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
^"Movement Detroit Lineup 2014". May 12, 2014. Archived from the original on May 12, 2014.
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 19, 2013. Retrieved April 8, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^McCollum, Brian (May 31, 2005). "Tickets may help in crowd counting". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on August 28, 2005.
^http://www.detnews.com/2005/events/0506/02/E01-200820.htm [permanent dead link]
^"Kevin Saunderson Speaks About Fuse-In 2006". www.bigshotmag.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
^McCollum, Brian (May 27, 2008). "Electronic-music festival moves in a new direction, but retains its edge". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on June 29, 2008.
^Paxahau (June 18, 2009). "83,322 PEOPLE ATTENDED MOVEMENT 2009". Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
^Nunez, Jessica (June 1, 2010). "Movement Festival 2010 sees highest paid attendance in history". Mlive.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
^McCollum, Brian (May 31, 2011). "What we learned during Movement 2011's record-setting weekend". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
^"Movement Detroit Draws Record Attendance". Big Shot Magazine. May 29, 2012. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
Put your hands up: An oral history of Detroit's electronic music festival
Detroit Techno & The Electronic Music Festival: Retrospective