The road to Moogfest (throwback to Movement)

Two years ago during 2016 Memorial Day weekend I went to Movement Detroit, with my friends Steph and Jake. As far as music travels go, it set the bar pretty high. We ate well, danced to amazing sets, and immersed ourselves in the local art and music scene.

In a couple weeks I will be heading to Durham, NC for Moogfest 2018. I never blogged about Movement, but it seemed fitting to reflect on it leading up to Moogfest. I found an old post-it with my Top 10 Detroit Memories and decided to rehash them below:

  1. Brunch. On festival days, our meal plan usually consisted of brunch, whiskey, and some trail mix. In hindsight, I'm guessing my excitement from all the good music kept me from passing out from caloric deficit.
  2. #disconaps. When you're staying up till 4am going to afterparties every night, 5pm disconaps are essential.
  3. Steph's NYC walking pace. OMG. So fast. Like no ounce of Hawaiian time left in her body. At one point we asked her if she was trying to lose us.
  4. Jake's clutch Movement schedule. It's a hella 'J' move, but Jake made his own excel spreadsheet of all the festival set times and shared it with us. No joke, it saved my ass from walking in the wrong direction so many times.
  5. Techno Zombie // Melvin. Melvin is Jake's friend from Jackson, MI. The day before the festival our small crew headed to the Smartbar x Resident Advisor opening party at TV Lounge. At around 2am the crowd was dense, the house music flowing, and some shirtless white guy was so Special K'd out of his mind that we affectionately named his chronic, sightless stumbling "Techno Zombie." In a space where the bodies were typically packed back-to-back the crowd pretty much avoided Techno Zombie with a 2 feet radius. However he snuck up on Melvin from behind and I snapped this iconic pic.
  6. Soul Skate 2016! On the second night of the festival we went to an afterparty in Dearborn called Soul Skate. We were the only Asians there, but I didn't care cause I was living my dream of being dropped in a minefield of subculture! This place was basically Ice Palace for roller skates with infinitely more style and soul. The video doesn't do the vibe justice! And Steph has a cool timelapse too!


  7. 8 Mile. Little did I know that Soul Skate was 20 minutes outside of city center in the middle of the infamous 8 Mile Road. There was a clear moment of realization and subsequent mild panic when I realized where our Uber driver was dropping us off. It was sobering to see the recognizable blue lights of a cop car camped on every block, only to compliment the row of gentlemen's clubs dotting each side of the street. One of the rare times I felt concerned for my safety.
  8. AIM handles on the People Mover. Detriot's tiny third rail system is a 2.5 mile loop that sits above downtown called the People Mover. One morning while riding the People Mover to brunch we got into a conversation about our first AOL instant messenger handles. We shared embarrassing screen names and bonded over the cringeworthy/cliche way scene kids would try to differentiate themselves by doing the exact same thing (us included).
  9. Max Cooper // Phon.o. On our last night in town, Dirty Epic, an LA based production company, curated a Movement afterparty called Anthology 2016. The venue was total warehouse vibes, which in a gritty city like Detroit, is about as warehouse as you can get. Despite watching headline performances by Kraftwerk and Dubfire, I have to say that Phon.o and Max Cooper dialed it in for my favorite sets of the entire trip! We stayed till about 3am before ubering to catch our flight back home. Here's a short clip from Phon.o, and Jake has some extra IG love posted!


  10. La Fleur. One of the unexpected faces at the Anthology afterparty was none other than my favorite techno pixie, Sanna La Fleur. Somewhat serendipitously caught her Movement set and really enjoyed the brightness of her selections compared to everyone else. Thus began my #girlcrush with the Swedish born, pharmacist turned techno producer.

It took me two years to finally blog about Movement, but I'm really excited for Moogfest and hope to gather my thoughts more quickly going forward!

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Meet the Author

Hello, I am Jules Juke.
This is where I ramble, reflect, and refocus.