Chicago may not be known for its sand and sun, but Mamby On The Beach music festival sure knows how to make Chicago shine. Despite the fact that Mamby On The Beach 2016 marked only the second year of the festival, the event brought in a huge crowd, an awesome array of house and indie-dance jams, plus, featured a ton of local talent, which is always nice to see! Mamby 2016 was put on by Chicago powerhouse promoting team, React Presents, and, ran this past 4th of July weekend (July 2-3) along Lake Michigan at Oakwood Beach on the city’s South side.
The lines getting into the venue were consistently short both days when upon arrival. React’s event staff was friendly and seemed to want to get festival-goers in just as quickly as they wanted to get in and start the fun. Once inside Mamby On The Beach, we were greeted by a summertime setup complete with colorful flags, live art exhibits, palm readings, temporary tattoos, a hair braiding tent and yoga workshops. Deeper into Mamby, was a Tiki Bar, a plethora of food trucks and wide array pop-up shops.
When it came to Mamby’s VIP package, the luxuries were well worth it. Not only did fortunate attendees get to avoid typical festival porta potties, VIP ticket-holders had access to air conditioned bathrooms, special viewing areas, access to a solid selection of cocktails and special seating on the side of the Beach Stage, but they also had exclusive beach access, complete with lifeguards and a gorgeous view of the Chicago skyline.
My friends and I laid out in the sun listening to Jerry Folk play in the stage next to us, beers in hand and toes in the sand. After taking plenty of photos of our view, and chatting with some friendly festival-goers, we went back into the main area to play a game of life-sized Jenga with some friends. Next to us, a game of beach volleyball pursued, and in the distance was a Mike’s Hard Lemonade stand complete with a bull-ride-esc shark spinning around and throwing around girls and guys in swimsuits. The best part? Amongst all of this, we were eventually surrounded by the music of FKJ (French Kiwi Juice) playing at the main stage.
Mamby On The Beach is a smaller festival than some, but the intimacy made for a great setup. I appreciated not having a long walk in from gates to the stages. Plus, because the stages were fairly close to each other, it was easy to get from one set to another if you wanted to catch part of multiple acts on different stages, or like us, lay in the sand and still catch a set or two!
The first night of Mamby, it felt necessary to wear a bandana over my face to protect my nose and mouth from the wind, but thankfully, the weather on Sunday chilled out a bit. It was pretty dope being able to walk around a festival in bare feet and not worry about stepping on rocks or getting splinters from wood-chips. The best part of listening to music in the sand is that between sets you can do whatever tickles your fancy; lay around, chill out, build sandcastles, you name it!
As far as the Mamby On The Beach 2016 lineup was concerned, artists created an excellent environment for live music and beach-time fun. Milky Chance and Chet Faker were by far two fan favorites from the weekend, but everyone was really blown away when Chicago-native, Chance The Rapper, made a surprise appearance Saturday with Towkio during Lido’s set. Saturday ended on a high note with a beautiful sunset for Atmosphere just before Animal Collective closed out the Park Stage, while Hannah Wants, Shiba San and Tale of Us closed out the Mixmag DJ Tent.
Sunday was a great day for music as well, with tons of special guests. June Marieezy was brought out by FKJ to debut a new song they collaborated on, while Lupe Fiasco brought out Matthew Santos, and, Marcus Marr hopped on stage with Chet Faker to perform not one, not two, but three collaborations. Chromeo also brought the heat by charming audience members with their unique spin on electro-funk/disco music.
The only real complaints floating around were lack of schedules as no one seemed to have one unless they had the app on their phone, and, the insane prices of Uber rides (of course this had nothing to do with festival curators) at the end of the night due the heavy foot traffic after fireworks closed each night out. Mamby did a pretty great job of separating the way home for different modes of transportation with bike racks, car parking, shuttles to the CTA and clear directions to the taxi lot.
Overall, Mamby On The Beach 2016 was a great time. There is definitely some improvement that could be done in terms of coordinating more workshops, adding more art installations, and, the size. At the same time, however, the crowds were chill and laid back just like the environment, which was fun and carefree. Finally, the location itself was close to perfect. I can only see Mamby growing from here and soon enough, React Presents will have to find an even bigger venue. Despite a possible venue change to handle more festival-goers, like myself, I’m sure the majority of attendees at this year’s event will be back with high-hopes that Mamby On The Beach 2017 will be just as special!