Detroit’s ManaFest Strikes Gold In Inaugural Event With An Inspiring Display Of Bass Music, Art & Community
Written by: Dan Warren
Photos by: Derek Slater
Detroit, Michigan is one of the most unique, history-rich cities in the United States. It is home to the country’s first paved highway and tri-colored traffic light. It was also the wealthiest city in America during the auto industry’s boom in the 1940s and ‘50s. When talking about this city’s history, it is impossible to overlook Detroit’s contributions to music.
Detroit is known for raising iconic names like Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and Eminem. Digging a little deeper, Detroit is also the birthplace of techno, which was pioneered in the early 1980s. One could even make the case that Detroit techno inspired and shaped a lot of what we know as “underground rave culture”, which exploded in the 1990s throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Fast-forward to today and the roots of underground rave culture are still relevant, existing as more of a counterpoint to mainstream, corporate-driven electronic dance music. When it comes to the bass music scene, a lot of the key principles that were formed during the early days of underground raves — such as an emphasis on community, personal connections, accessibility, and DIY culture — are still present today. Last month, the inaugural ManaFest event in Detroit exemplified a bunch of these principles with an incredible two-day showcase of top-tier bass music, art and community.
Presented by local underground promoters Mana Collective and Further Frequencies, ManaFest featured some of the best in the business in both audio and visual art. The two-day event took place at Tangent Gallery, a charmingly rough-edged warehouse space with quite the industrial feel to it. It was refreshing to see how well spaced out everything was with the vendors, live music, and art galleries divided by the venue’s large concrete walls. There was also a great outdoor space for attendees to hang out, including several picnic tables and a food truck.
It should be noted that there was a similar one-night event in Detroit last year featuring a strong serving of audio/visual excellence, including names like Keota, Smigonaut and Glass Crane. As you will learn later on in the article, Resonant Language was also supposed to make his Detroit debut at this event. Mana Collective co-founder Steven Heikkuri confirmed that this year’s two-night event was “indeed the first official ManaFest.”
ManaFest featured some significant upgrades compared to last year’s one-night event, including an additional day of audio/visual talent, 16 total VJs (many of which are neuro.studio partners!), a 40% increase to the LED visual wall, and live painting from Stephen Kruse, who has created and shared stunning pieces of art at events all over the country.
In terms of sound, Mana Collective brought on Adubs Audio Services to deploy a powerful BASSBOSS sound system. Prior to the event, Heikkuri told The Synapse that he has “worked with [Adubs Audio] on several events in the past and [I’ve] always been beyond satisfied with the results of their deployments. That BASSBOSS system deliver[s] crystal clear highs, bone rattling lows, and [will] have Tangent Gallery singing.” And my goodness was he correct.
ManaFest kicked off on a pleasant Friday evening with a dazzling run of local and regional talent. Cloudz got things started with a beautiful ambient sound healing set before One. (with Katfish Eyecandy on visuals) jump started the evening. Spaceship Earth (with Axiom Crux) had one of the most unique performances of the entire weekend, combining psychedelic bass music with shredding on a live electric guitar.
Ovoid (with Entity) continued the journey with some breathtaking beats, setting the stage for a phenomenal set by Somatoast (with Diethylamide). This was probably my favorite Somatoast set I’ve seen to date, which included a showcase of his PLEASE INTERACT WITH MY CONTENT album as well as some energetic, new material. This led perfectly into one of the top sets of the weekend featuring DRRTYWULVZ (with Ivy Visuals). This man had the crowd bouncing for an entire hour and to make it even better, he headlined as part of BoggDogg later that night.
Before BoggDogg, however, the crowd was treated to one of the most insane, energy-packed sets in Frequent b2b Hudson Lee (with Sh1elds). Their selections were next-level, including a ton of mind-shattering drum & bass. To wrap up Night One, DRRTYWULVZ returned with BogTroTTer for their headlining BoggDogg set. It’s hard to describe how locked in these guys are whenever they take the stage. The track selections are always top notch and BogTroTTer’s live scratching puts the crowd in a trance. Papa Bear’s visual accompaniment took attendees on another wonderful journey during this set and brought us to the conclusion of Night One.
Night Two was a full-day affair with nearly 11 hours of audio/visual insanity! Stupid Fried (with Katfish Eyecandy) set the vibe right off the bat with an all-original set, showcasing a wide range of sounds and styles with seamless transitions between them. Additional intriguing sets from the early stages of Night Two included Bismyth (with Halluc1nations), Ginseng (with VURPVisuals), and ALEPH (with Hawknn).
Unfortunately, COPYCATT was unable to make it to ManaFest due to some flight issues; however, attendees were instead treated to a 90-minute extended set by Ooga. One thing about Detroit crowds is that they truly understand the assignment when it comes to dancing. Combine that with Ooga’s infectious stage presence and you get the most lively room that I’ve personally seen in the last year or two. This was also yellowmilk’s debut VJ set and he absolutely crushed it! I’m eager to catch more of his work in the future. Even with COPYCATT’s cancellation, his VJ Seity still had an opportunity to sit in for the final 30 minutes of Ooga’s set and lay down some incredible pixels for the crowd.
Entering the late night portion, attendees went nuts for Dutch phenom Posij (with Uhnomaly). His set displayed a ton of sounds that were ahead of their time, seamlessly transitioning from drum & bass, to UKG, to dubstep, and everything in between. This set the stage for one of my all-time favorite pairings in Resonant Language and Arkitekt.
For a little back story, Heikkuri shared that, “last year’s one-night event threw us a huge curveball —we were ready to party when we received the unfortunate news five hours before doors [opened] that Resonant Language's flight was cancelled due to snow/ice/rain. Although we missed Resonant Language dearly, the night still turned out to be a great success, as Detroit hometown legend Freddy Todd stepped in to take his place alongside Glass Crane.”
Fast-forward a year later and you could tell both Resonant Language and the crowd knew what this headlining set meant for everyone involved. I have never seen a crowd get down like this during a ResLang set. In fact, I have never seen ResLang get down like that during his own sets! It was a beautiful thing to witness. His long-awaited Detroit debut was a major success. Arkitekt also blew us away with some exceptional new content. He has performed with ResLang at events such as Sound Haven and Secret Dreams, and continued to show why he is one of the very best in the business during this latest pairing.
ManaFest was such a refreshing experience to attend. The Detroit underground bass community certainly knows how to throw a party and keep it going. The combination of world-class producers, VJs, and crowd energy was very inspiring to say the least. I wish more of today’s dance floors could match the energy that was felt at ManaFest. It definitely inspired me, as an out-of-towner, to get out of my comfort zone and move my feet a lot more than I expected to. I hope that ManaFest continues for many more years to come — these people have a really good thing going. This is another good reminder to support your local promoters and sound systems, so that they can continue to put on amazing experiences for the people!