MP3 Takes: Escape Halloween 2024 Was Halloween’s Favorite Surprise

Escape Halloween, Southern California’s premier electronic music festival, has transformed the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino into a Halloween wonderland since 2011. Produced by Insomniac Events, the festival blends world-class DJs, immersive production, theatrical performers, and interactive art installations for a one-of-a-kind experience.

The 2024 edition, held October 25-26, continued its legacy with themed stages, spine-chilling décor, and a diverse lineup spanning bass, trance, and house music. Evolving from a Halloween offshoot of Electric Daisy Carnival, Escape Halloween has become a cultural phenomenon, drawing tens of thousands of costumed revelers annually.

Top Stages

Escape Psycho Circus 2023 transformed the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino into a haunting Halloween spectacle during the final weekend of October. The festival’s crown jewel, The Grimm main stage, dominated the landscape with its imposing haunted cathedral architecture, where headliners like Ben Nicky delivered mind-bending performances enhanced by spectacular pyrotechnics and spooky visuals.

Just across the grounds, the Feeding Grounds stage, also known as the Sewer District, embraced a gritty industrial warehouse aesthetic, becoming home to earth-shattering bass music from notable acts like Luda Chris, Level Up, and Netsky. The stage’s raw atmosphere perfectly complemented the aggressive sound design, while Casa Bacardi added another dimension to the experience, showcasing massive producer sets that left bass music fans in awe.

Boiler Room

The Boiler Room stage made its highly anticipated debut at Escape Psycho Circus 2023, bringing its signature underground atmosphere to Southern California. Known globally for their intimate, authentic dance music experiences and iconic live streamed sets, Boiler Room created a space that transported attendees straight to the heart of Europe’s most revered club culture. The stage featured Chloé Caillet, who’s known for her eclectic mixing of disco, house, and rare groove selections, alongside Clara Cuvé, whose hard-hitting techno sets have made her a rising star in Berlin’s underground scene.

Young Marco brought his signature blend of obscure electronic cuts and left-field house music, while Justin Jau delivered the kind of hypnotic, genre-bending performance that has made Boiler Room’s reputation for showcasing cutting-edge talent.

The stage setup maintained Boiler Room’s famous minimal, raw aesthetic, with the DJ booth positioned at crowd level, creating their trademark intimate connection between artists and dancers. This setup, so different from traditional festival stages, offered Escape attendees a rare opportunity to experience the authentic, no-frills approach to electronic music that has made Boiler Room events legendary in cities like London, Berlin, and Amsterdam.

Techno

ESCAPE delivered a world-class experience with a diverse lineup of techno heavyweights. OGUZ brought relentless, hypnotic rhythms reflective of Istanbul’s industrial scene, while Ben Nicky’s high-energy “Xtreme” set fused hard trance, techno, and psytrance, showcasing his global appeal.

Clara Cuvé represented Berlin’s underground with dark, driving techno, while Maddix infused big-room energy with underground credibility. Patrick Mason bridged purist and accessible sounds with his sophisticated, groove-driven style. This expertly curated roster highlighted ESCAPE’s commitment to showcasing techno’s regional diversity and subgenre depth.