Thousands of SoCal ravers descended upon Grand Park for Skyline Festival 2025 this past weekend, February 15 and 16. Right smack in the middle of downtown LA, surrounded by tourists and pedestrians peering in over the fences for a peek, the fest brought some of the biggest global names in house and techno for its fourth season in LA, including Cloonee, The Martinez Brothers, GORDO, BLOND:ISH, Green Velvet, and a legendary B2B between Honey Dijon and Seth Troxler. Produced by Insomniac’s underground-dedicated brand Factory 93, the lineup fused international heavy-hitters with local talent to bring together two eclectic days of dancing underneath downtown’s skyscraper-dotted horizon.

As the home to so many international artists and fans alike, LA serves as the perfect backdrop for this melting pot of worldwide electronic music. “It’s weird because obviously, I’m not from here, but this is the place that most feels like home at the moment … I love playing here,” British tech-house superstar Cloonee told LA Weekly while reflecting on playing in the city he has come to call home over the past 3.5 years.

The festival setup split Grand Park in two, with an Eastside Stage and Westside Stage anchoring the event, both cultivating different soundscapes for festival-goers to explore.

When entering the festival, attendees were immediately greeted by the groovy, bouncing house anthems of the Eastside Stage, set in front of the iconic backdrop of the towering Los Angeles City Hall. As the sun went down, the stage lit up, shooting off choreographed lasers and pyrotechnics into the evening. The field on the Eastside was constantly packed with vibrantly dressed ravers flicking their wrists and tapping their feet along to the energetic beats.

After opening up the Eastside Stage Sunday afternoon, international Nu-Disco and Tech House DJ Leisan had this to say about LA audiences — “The crowd is pretty diverse, which is good for the artist because, for me, the main thing for the artist is to play what they want to play and what they feel inside, not to please the people. And LA people, they allow you to be who you want to be and play because they are very welcoming.” 

Having emigrated from Russia to the United States during COVID times, Leisan has found her home as an artist here, first with fellow Russian immigrants in the LA underground scene, and now playing large-scale events like Skyline. “Because I’m from Russia, we are very cold to each other, very strict, very hard to each other, and even to yourself,  but here people are very flexible and warm.”

On the opposite end of the park, tucked away in the back of the grounds, ravers emerged through tunnel-like walkways into a large but slightly ominous atmosphere deemed the Westside Stage — a space dedicated to grungier techno and more experimental sounds. The Westside attracted festival-goers looking to experience more niche curation, creating a space for more daring artists as well as huge international names to bring the deeper sounds of European club culture to masses of Los Angeles.

“I was always imagining myself on the stage, you know like I’m controlling the crowd. So it was a dream, and now it’s my reality,” said techno powerhouse Daria Kolosova after unleashing her hard-grooving techno beats on the crowd at her Sunday dusk set at the Westside. Having come up over the past decade from the underground scene in Kyiv to now touring international festivals and playing world-renowned clubs, Daria said she continues to bring the darker sounds of her electronic music roots to a wider audience. “I still play music that, for example, many of these people, they probably have never heard — sometimes it works, sometimes no — but I’m still trying to experiment and trying to educate the crowd.”

Between the dueling sides, Insomniac brought a third stage, the Arts District Stage, which served as a nod to the local underground scene. LA’s Arts District is home to many warehouse raves that fuel electronic music in this city and keep ravers dancing every weekend until early morning. The Arts District Stage featured underground up-and-comers, bringing local warehouse residents to a large-scale festival setting.

“When you hear our sets, you’re hearing like 95% tracks that come from the 90s, early 2000s, and then homies that also produce — it gives us a chance to show people that are younger, older music versus playing shit that just came out yesterday. We love that.” Kyle of the DJ duo Trax Unit told us ahead of their Saturday afternoon set at the Arts District stage. 

Kian of Trax Unit added, “Even though we come from a very underground background, and now we’re playing these more mainstream events, I don’t want to change at all. I want people to know exactly where we came from and what we believe in. And maybe some people are very much into the mainstream EDM stuff — I want them to see that there’s more than that.” The duo frequents the local warehouse scene as well as runs their own label and monthly event series called “Gyration Station,” building from scratch their own house for their self-proclaimed “old school coded” sound.

As the weekend began to wind down, anticipation among festival-goers seemed to ramp up toward a highly-anticipated headlining set from Cloonee. Throughout the day Sunday, it would have been impossible not to notice festival-goers everywhere adorned in Cloonee’s Hellbent merchandise. 

We caught up with Cloonee ahead of his set to chat about playing in LA and his current projects. “It feels like somewhat of a homecoming even though I haven’t even left.” Cloonee explained about playing in LA, the city he currently lives in. “When I’m looking through my tagged stories it’s like everyone’s in merch — big groups of friends that are together all wearing Hellbent stuff. It feels like a family vibe, it’s pretty sick.”

Over the past few years, Cloonee has exploded to not only be an internationally acclaimed tech house artist, but also a massively influential figure in global dance music overall. With countless Beatport No. 1s, the leading label Hellbent Records at his helm, and a constantly sold-out merchandise line, Cloonee aspires to set trends, not to follow them, drawing inspiration from his roots and letting his intuition guide his releases. 

“A lot of it ties back to when I was a kid listening to metal music. I’ve always wanted a label and merch with that aesthetic. I’m just glad that it’s connected with the audience. I wouldn’t produce anything that I wouldn’t wear, so I’m really happy that people really like the stuff that I want to wear because then it just means that I can just be as creative as I want,” Cloonee said about the Hellbent merch line. “And then the music, I’m just signing only records that I play as well, so it’s basically just anything that I like I’m putting out there. I’m not swinging towards trends … I’m just doing what I want to see.”

Cloonee closed the whole weekend with a crowd-pleasing mix of Bad Bunny’s “DtMF,” to which thousands of ravers stayed until the bitter end of night two to shout lyrics, dance with their friends, and soak in the final magical moments of a very successful festival weekend. 

Skyline Festival 2025 felt almost as if it served to bring solace to the Los Angeles dance music community. After a heavy month of January for the city, Skyline united artists and ravers of all different backgrounds for two days of celebration, dancing, and free expression all under the shimmering skyline of this beautiful city so many of us call home.