On Saturday, Chicago DJ Shaun J. Wright and Detroit’s DJ Holographic swapped headphones and traded house music jams in a back-to-back set at the ARC Music Festival in Union Park in the West Loop.
A diverse crowd waved fans and danced as the two friends played on a stage set up to look like a truck parked in front of a wall of vibrant graffiti.
“To play together has always been kind of a beautiful synergy,” said Wright, 42, of the Northwest Side. “It’s just fun, and it’s a great way to bounce ideas off someone. It’s conversational. I like to do it with people I know well enough to know their musical breadth and vocabulary. It can be a challenge in a way that is like a fun competition.”
That spirit of camaraderie, communication and influence is a major theme of the event, which demonstrates the global impact of house, or electronic dance music. The genre has traveled not only from Chicago to Detroit and other U.S. cities, but throughout the world.
Continuing on Sunday from noon to 10 p.m., the house and techno music event features Chicago heavyweights like Terry Hunter, Mike Dunn, Green Velvet and Honey Dijon alongside international acts, including Disclosure, Carl Cox, Skepta and Dom Dolla.
Now in its fourth year, the fest is expected to draw about 60,000 attendees over its three days, according to the Chicago-based event producer Auris Presents.
“ARC is here to put house music and its origination point on a pedestal and scream that loud across the world, showing people where it came from and a reason to come back and hear it here,” said Stuart Hackley, of Auris Presents, who put on the event with partners John Curley and Nick Karounos.
By showcasing the music in all its iterations, the event attracts some people who are familiar with newer artists in the genre but maybe not the originators, Curley said.
One young attendee, Sarah Biernat, 24, of Schaumburg, said she listened to house music years before she understood what it was, but started seriously digging into the backstory recently.
Biernat, a member of the Facebook group EDM Ladies of Chicago and a fan of the Spotify playlist Housewerk, said she was excited to see Dom Dolla and many others in the lineup.
“I love the diversity, and I love how even though Chicago is the home of house, you can see the influence in other parts of the world — and how modern American DJs take influence from other parts of the world that were influenced by us,” she said. “It’s like a full-circle moment.”
A father-and-son duo from Miami, Luis Perez Sr. and Luis Perez Jr., said they share a love of house and wanted to experience the music where it was born.
“I just loved the beats,” Perez Sr., 52, said of falling in love with the genre. “The beats took my soul away. And ever since, I just learned more about it.”
His son said he grew up listening to La Bouche and Crystal Waters, and then started to get into Skrillex, dubstep and other forms of dance music.
“Seeing it come together, where you’re seeing artists jump from bass to house and house to bass and trying to be more inventive with it, it’s nice,” Perez Jr. said. “It’s a great feeling.”
Juanita Robinson expressed a sense of pride as a Chicagoan at the fest.
“We made this,” said Robinson, 54, of West Ridge, of the various sounds of house music floating around the grounds. “I remember listening to Ralphi Rosario [on the radio]. Every weekend, we would go to the Loop, roller skate and go to somebody’s house in their basement, and then we would tune in and wait to hear how hard they were going to go. I feel like we helped create it. So, hearing all of this from it is really cool.”
Festival attendees traveled between four stages, including one inside a colorful, circus-like tent featuring polka-dotted animal decorations hanging from the ceiling. They also took pictures in front of massive decorative structures, including a statue of a woman gazing up at the sky, and on a pathway through a series of giant silver rings.
In keeping with the common practice of exchanging trinkets at festivals, some gave each other small plastic plants to pin on the brim of hats.
“I would describe Arc Music Festival as one of my favorite city festivals,” said Shaun Wright, who uses they/them pronouns. “They do a really stand-up job of just making everything feel interesting and fun and cool.”
And as for their set with DJ Holographic, Wright said they wanted to bring joy.
“That’s always my intention — to participate in lifting the atmosphere with the audience so that they are less burdened or encumbered by the troubles that they face in their day-to-day lives.”