North Coast Music Festival: Top Artists to See

Article by: Grant Soffer

North Coast Music Festival is returning to Chicago this Labor Day weekend. North Coast debuted in 2010 and has been an annual tradition in the Windy City every year for the past 12 years, except for 2020 due to the pandemic.

One of the first EDM festivals to return in 2021 after COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed, North Coast sets the bar extremely high for all other festival organizers. Not only did it relocate to a bigger venue at Seat Geek Stadium, it also dropped its best lineup in 2021 with Kaskade, Louis the Child, Green Velvet, and so many other Chicagoans headlining the festival.

With such a great showing in 2021, North Coast has even higher expectations for 2022 and it has already delivered in a big way with another stellar lineup for 2022. Headlined by artists like Armin Van Buuren, Illenium, and Porter Robinson, this lineup features artists in almost every genre of dance music, featuring something for everyone.

North Coast will feature five stages this year: The Stadium, Canopy, Vega, Fire Pit, and a silent disco stage. The silent disco and Fire Pit stages will feature some incredible local Chicago talent, while the other three stages — The Stadium, The Canopy, and The Vega — will feature the main acts.

This is a festival that is going to have fans running between stages to catch all of their favorite artists. While North Coast hasn’t announced its official set times quite yet, it has released the planned order of appearances for each stage. This allows us to make an educated guess about which set times will likely conflict and should help with some initial planning.

North Coast has already confirmed that it will not be scheduling any sets conflicting with its three main stage closers: Armin Van Buuren, Illenium, and Porter Robinson. This is consistent with what it did last year and will relieve every attendee of at least one difficult set-time decision. Despite best efforts, there will be plenty of set-time conflicts which is the down-side of such a deep, stacked lineup. Thankfully, Moon Lvnding has you covered with our top picks of artists to see each day at each stage based on the planned order of appearances:

Friday

The Stadium — Moksi

One of the first few sets on Day 1, this Dutch duo is one of the most unique artists on the entire lineup. Inspired by the sounds of 90’s UK garage, Moksi dabbles in a wide variety of genres, from bluesy house tunes like “Slow Burn” to bass house songs like its debut song “Getting Higher.” Diego and Samir always bring great energy with them to all of their sets and will definitely get The Stadium going with the right vibe early on Day 1. This is a great way to start off the North Coast experience

The Canopy — CID

DJing from the young age of 12, New York-based producer CID is one of the most talented house DJs on the North Coast lineup this year. CID has such a vast library of tunes to his name including some of the best remixes of pop songs that one will ever hear, including his Grammy-nominated remix of “Audio” by Sia. This Grammy award-winning artist always brings high energy and great mixes, and he will be one of the best sets at The Canopy stage.

The Vega — Subtronics

Friday at The Vega is home to the Cyclops Recordings takeover with one of the best single day lineups — a huge part of this has to do with Subtronics, the label head. One of the best bass artists in the scene today, Subtronics is constantly pushing boundaries and pioneering a new era of bass music. Subtronics delivers unique, unforgettable sets. His most recent album, FRACTALS, released earlier this year and set the bar incredibly high with some of the best dubstep and riddim tracks he’s ever released like “Into Pieces” and “Gassed Up” with Zeds Dead. Even if you are not a fan of bass music, this set is the perfect way to close out Day 1 of any festival.

Saturday

The Vega — Gem & Tauri

One of the best up and coming artists right now, Gem & Tauri will be one of the first sets on The Vega for the Ophelia Records takeover Day 2. The duo recently opened the main stage of EDC Las Vegas back in May and has been hard at work producing some incredible tracks such as “Hear My Call” and the All You Need EP. The Seattle-based duo produces and plays some of the best melodic house and techno around, so set an alarm early for Saturday!.

The Stadium — Mersiv

If you like bass music, this is the set for you! One of the few bass artists to play The Stadium, Mersiv is going to bring an energy like no other. His dark-bass melodic style is truly unique and is hard to compare to other artists in the scene. This Louisiana-based artist is our choice for the surprise set of the festival. Do yourself a favor and make your way to this midday set to see what all the hype is about.

The Canopy — Yotto

Day 2 at The Canopy is sure to be one of the chillest with the most relaxed vibes of the weekend. This stage features a ton of talented artists, but our pick for this stage is Yotto. He has had some collaborations with massive names such as Above & Beyond, Lane 8, and Rufus Du Sol — and even had one of his tracks, “Song From The Sun,” featured in the Netflix original movie, “XOXO”. Yotto continues to impress his audiences with a wide variety of deep house music. Yotto is the perfect set to chill and take it all in.

Sunday

The Canopy — TSHA

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