SEATTLE — An army of bass heads, raver girls and ready-to-rage bros 10,000 strong descended upon Gas Works Park. In a blur of neon and personal flotation devices, hundreds of paddleboarders and kayakers—plus another 50 or so motorboats and mini yachts—formed a buoyant party flotilla under the watchful eye of the Seattle police boats keeping a close eye on the proceedings.

The land-and-sea infantry of electronic dance music fans assembled on short notice last month for what was unequivocally the party of the summer, if not the year. The crown prince of American dubstep, Skrillex, made his long-awaited Seattle return, transforming one of the Emerald City’s most iconic locations into massive rave grounds for a mini festival with help from the Showbox crew, who have been on fire with their outdoor shows since launching a worth-the-drive concert series on Tacoma’s waterfront last summer.

Tickets to the impossibly hyped pop-up concert sold out in nanoseconds and all that lead-up buzz carried over into the eager crowd that waited in snaking, multi-tailed lines to see Skrillex play back-to-back sets with supporting artists for nearly two-and-a-half hours. Over the past 15 years, Skrillex has evolved beyond the grimy, bass-heavy dubstep subgenre he helped mold, pushing into cleaner house sounds at times. But it was clear much of the crowd had come for the filth.

War zone bass lines rippled through the air as Skrillex went track-for-track with Dylan Brady, the brain-scrambling producer of 100 Gecs fame. As the crowd headbanged in unison with every guttural bass snarl and synth-laser mortar round, smoke billowed from both the stage backing up to the shoreline and the neon armada, as well as eight lighting towers that surrounded the crowd. (Later, those towers became a circle of apocalyptic flame geysers during Skrillex’s after-dark solo set.) Every so often the smoke — which looked like a raging boat fire from the Ship Canal Bridge — cleared, offering sweeping views of the downtown skyline to the right of the stage.

While the iron and steel remnants of Gas Works Park’s industrial past withstood the assault of the pop-up concert’s stellar sound and production, the ultrasonic weaponry seemed capable of obliterating the glassy towers across the water in South Lake Union, had those speakers pointed south.

As indie-centric summer festivals like THING and Day In Day Out have faded in recent years (outlived by Bumbershoot), big-tent dance music events have flourished, fueling an EDM renaissance in a city that prides itself on its grungier legacy.

Fans with means have more interesting options than ever before as creative and well-heeled promoters have turned the Emerald City into a summertime EDM playground. While Skrillex’s “day party” — which will go down as one of the most memorable Seattle concerts of this decade — was the capstone of a summer that featured the Brownies & Lemonade fest at Seattle Center and the Day Trip Festival (pioneers of the Gas Works megarave), the party ain’t over yet.

This weekend alone, Soundwavs at the Park, headlined by Louis the Child, sets up shop at Lake Union Park with a secondary stage on decommissioned ferry On the Hiyu — a floating event space run by local dance music promoter Jody Ramsammy. Down in Sodo, Los Angeles-based powerhouse Insomniac throws a pair of outdoor shows at Victory Hall, continuing its series of Day Trip block parties that sprouted up as a festival offshoot.

Go outstate to The Gorge Amphitheatre, where EDM weekends have become a big part of its business, and U.K. trance greats Above & Beyond bring its Group Therapy events back to their “North American home” in the famed Washington venue this weekend.

Look deeper than some of these splashy summer blowouts, and throughout the year dance fans will find parties in Magnuson Park hangars, indoor/outdoor gigs at The Shop in Sodo, infamous “paddle raves” and “renegade” mountain parties with snowy forest crowds getting down in ski bibs.

So what’s driving the proliferation of unique bigger-ticket EDM events? As with anything in life, just follow the money.

For starters, booking a headline-caliber DJ for a one-off “fly-in” date where the artist can simply plug in and play is far easier than dealing with the complicated routing logistics of a touring band.That carries the added expenses of multiple gear-toting members and their crew driving tour buses across the country or staying in five hotel rooms instead of one. It also doesn’t hurt that ready-to-party EDM crowds are more likely to outspend, say, acoustic folkies at the bar, as drink sales are a critical revenue stream for promoters and venues.

While there are a number of smaller promoters around town like White Rabbit Group(the party-throwers behind Soundwavs at the Park), Live Nation affiliate Insomniac became the big dog in the yard coming out of the pandemic, filling a void left when its former Paradiso Festival partner USC Events financially imploded. In the past five years, Insomniac has greatly expanded its presence in the Pacific Northwest, even opening the 1,800-capacity club Level 1 this year in the basement of the Cannonball Arts building, which is run by the team behind Bumbershoot.

For all the potentially lucrative incentives, it’s not like these groups are forcing electronic dance music on the unwitting masses. Clearly, there’s an appetite for it. Drive around the Seattle area long enough and Excision car decals are almost as common as Suburus these days.

And speaking of Excision, the Canadian dubstep juggernaut has somewhat quietly carved his place into Gorge lore. Only Dave Matthews Band has played the landmark venue more times than the DJ behind the annual Bass Canyon festival, recently surpassing Phish. Perhaps not coincidentally, Excision hosts another one of his signature events, the Thunderdome — a three-day arena festival — each year at the Tacoma Dome.

Seattle may lack the club culture of larger cities like Chicago, L.A. or New York — and still sorely misses the more underground-focused Decibel Festival — but lately EDM has become the soundtrack to its paddle-raving summers.

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(Michael Rietmulder is the music reporter and critic at The Seattle Times.)

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