Chicago’s impressive festival season kicked off Friday, June 14, at Soldier Field with the second annual Spring Awakening Music Festival. The three-day electronic music festival brought some of the brightest artists in the dance scene to the house of Ditka for what was easily the city’s biggest party of the weekend. With a main stage situated in a Bear’s end zone, Spring Awakening featured what is one of the coolest locales of any Chicago festival this summer. Soldier Field is a magnificent venue, and should definitely be considered for more festival style events in the future. The infield makes for a spectacular dance floor, and the outer concourse provided plenty of room for three more sizable stages, food trucks, various vendors and a silent disco.

This year’s Spring Awakening was boosted most by its lineup, arguably the strongest of Chicago’s four separate electronic dance festivals this year.

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Friday, June 14:

Friday was a lighter day at Soldier Field with the first acts going on around 3 p.m. The crowd’s smaller size in no way held back the energy that was booming out the main stage. DJ duo “PANTyRAiD” fresh off the release of their sophomore LP “Pillow Talk” heated things up early with a set of carefully-produced jumpy beats that lay somewhere between house music and the bass-y dubstep that dominated so much of Spring Awakening.

Just in time for sundown, U.K. producer Nero took stage for a massive DJ set. The result was an ear-shattering romp featuring a number of the high profile tracks from names like Knife Party and Dog Blood. The set was solid, but could have used more original work from Nero, like we saw at the producer’s full-fledged Lollapalooza set last August.

Closing out the night was Moby, a 47-year-old dance music icon whose reign more or less took place before most of us were old enough to drive. Hitting the decks today, Moby has adjusted well to the times. His signature house sound was accentuated  perfectly by relentless bass. This wasn’t anything I’d heard before, and Moby’s set was a perfect intro to what was in store for the rest of the weekend.

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Saturday, June 15:

Spring Awakening’s busiest and most bustling day is easily attributed to its headliner, Bassnectar. A founder of the American dubstep scene, Bassnectar, whose real name is Lorin Ashton, has established himself as a titan in the realm of modern dance music. Bassnectar solo shows in Chicago are surefire sellouts, but with headlining a festival on the same day as stars such as Zedd, Flosstradamus and Wolfgang Gartner, the house was sure to be full.

Starting my day with the aforementioned hoodie clad boys of Flosstradamus, it was obvious that Chicago’s own dance music scene is still cranking out some of the best in the business. Backed by a vibrant background that featured the Chicago flag and their signature “Exclamation” logo, Flosstradamus ran the trap all over Soldier Field and the late afternoon crowd.

Next came Zedd on the smaller Equinox stage located just outside the walls of the field. The hourlong set was far too crowded to be anywhere other than the main stage, which speaks to the ability of the young producer, who will be performing a New Years Run at the Aragon Ballroom this December. Coincidentally, the set was followed by dubstep duo Zeds Dead, who have made their way through the Windy City several times in the last year, bringing a set of hip-hop beats mixed with dancefloor shakers and even more bass.

Closing out the night, Bassnectar performed on the main stage for a field that had transformed into a sea of bodies, LED lights and a general sense of pandemonium. This was the sole set that sold out Saturday at Spring Awakening, and Ashton had this crowd eating out of his hand with every subtle adjustment in his pounding mix.

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[Editor’s note: The writer was unable to attend the third day of the festival, Sunday, June 16, due to illness.]