Everyone is now settled into the second semester, and the end of winter is finally here. Hopefully your winter break was enjoyable and full of holiday festivities. The highlight of my break was a very unique experience: a music festival…in the snow! For three days, my friends and I danced, sang, met new people, and huddled for warmth in a winter wonderland of music and snowflakes as we celebrated the end of 2014 and the start of the new year. Check out all the photo galleries as well as our awesome recap video of the event!

I’ve had my festival-hungry eyes set on SnowGlobe ever since I first heard of it in 2012, when Deadmau5 was a headliner. Since then, they’ve kept hosting more and more big-name artists, and this year’s lineup was a smorgasbord of popular talent. With an abundance of electronic artists like Disclosure, Flume, Porter Robinson, Skrillex, Zedd, Flux Pavilion, Odesza, Bro Safari, Justin Martin, Thomas Jack, Trippy Turtle, Branchez, Djemba Djemba, Party Favor, Le Youth, and more, SnowGlobe drew in countless EDM fans and ravers alike. To add some variety to the festival, SnowGlobe also featured great artists from other music genres like rapper Atmosphere, indie band Phantogram, electronic-indie duo Cherub, and so on. With 3 stages: the outdoor main stage, the Sierra Tent with its dangling icicle decorations, and the warm and cozy Igloo, there was always someone great to enjoy.

The main factor that made SnowGlobe such a unique festival was its setting. The venue is located at the campus of Lake Tahoe Community College, only accessible via vehicle drop-off or the shuttles which transport the thousands of festival attendees. The festival is nestled within a wooded area surrounded by huge pine trees, which when lit up at night in a spectrum of colors, looked absolutely magical. Add the effects of bright stage lights and laser light shows, and it was like some kind of futuristic enchanted forest. The main stage was on the school’s sports field, complete with independent vendor booths around the perimeter, fancy VIP tent in the back, and an epic snow ramp adjacent to the stage for talented snowboarders and skiers to show off their backflips and 360’s during the time between the main stage’s sets. The Sierra Tent was a partially-indoor stage fit with large cartoon-like icicles that glowed all different colors and flashed to the sound of the music. And lastly, the Igloo was a dimly lit fully-indoor stage with dark fabric hanging from the ceilings and walls and dangling disco balls to add to the nightclub feel.

Outside around the stages, there were delicious food vendors to feed the crowds, a healthy abundance of portapotties to reduce restroom wait times, hammocks strung up between the pine trees for people to lounge in, walls of beautiful murals, and art installations that doubled as fire pits to warm up by. The festival was mindful of protecting its attendees from the harsh cold, so in addition to the fire pits spread throughout, there was another decorated tent for people to gather for warmth, sit down, and socialize.

Okay, let’s talk about the performances. With such a solid array of talent, SnowGlobe threw an amazing end-of-the-year celebration. My favorite sets (and by favorite I mean I physically could not stop dancing) included Disclosure, Flume, Le Youth, Thomas Jack, and Max Manie (who I discovered at the festival and instantly fell in love with). I now realize why SnowGlobe has been adding more and more electronic dance artists… the more people dance, the less cold they are! Trust me, dancing was the best method of staying warm. And if it was ever too hot, the sub-freezing air outside cooled us down in seconds. Enjoy the final gallery, with some of my favorite close-up shots of the performers!

Make sure to mark your calendars and make plans for SnowGlobe 2015 for an unforgettable New Year’s celebration.

Thanks to SnowGlobe for the amazing opportunity to attend the festival and share its splendor with SDSU, and thanks to Andie Nguyen for being so awesome at photography and videography and just about everything in general. Good luck with the spring semester, everyone!