Carol Marvin, an organizer of the original Detroit Electronic Music Festival, held a press conference at Ford Field on Wednesday morning to announce that there will be a new DEMF festival at Campus Martius Park in Detroit over the July 4th weekend. The event will be free, as was the original DEMF.
As far as we are aware, the Movement Festival at Hart Plaza (often casually referred to as DEMF by long-time attendees) will still be taking place in May. Marvin was quoted as saying that, “A city like Detroit should arguably have 10 electronic music festivals, and this will be one of them.”
In addition, a second event will take place at Ford Field over the same July 4th weekend. The Federation of Electronic Music Technology (FEMT) will offer a technologically advanced presentation, and it’ll work in association with the Hague. Olaf Van Winden of the Hague was at the press conference to show a video about what was achieved hosting an electronic music event in a government building in the Netherlands. One clip featured sensors attached to somebody’s head that allowed them to see a mirror image of themselves. There will be some wild attractions at FEMT.
Juan Atkins was also on hand to announce that techno pioneers Cybotron will perform at FEMT. The group, formed in 1980 by Atkins and Rick "3070" Davis, has never performed live before. “It was like pulling teeth to get Rick out, but we achieved it,” said Atkins.
“I’m proud to be involved in the biggest and best electronic music festival in the world,” said Atkins. “The future’s here. This is techno scene.”
Tickets to FEMT are $300 for the weekend. Priority access VIP tickets are $1,500. Essentially, the FEMT attendees will be "giving the gift" of the free DEMF festival.
So what do you think, readers? Will Marvin and her team be able to pull this off? We’ve been pretty scathing of her in the past. Is this her triumphant return?
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