HARD SUMMER DAY 2-August 6

August 6th was day two of HARD Summer! They are back in Los Angeles at the Coliseum for their 15th year of the festival. After a successful day one, festival goers are excited and ready for day two with water packs and sunscreen on hand. Along with seeing the headliners, hydration is a top priority, with the heat in the 90s for the weekend. There were a total of five stages at the event. Pink Stage, Purple Stage, Green Stage (which was in the Coliseum) and Hard and Harder Stages which were the main stages of the night.

At the beginning of the day, there were fewer people compared to day one. While exploring the grounds at the Harder stage, AMÉMÉ was playing at the Pink stage. Despite the heat, festival-goers found shade and AMÉMÉ had everyone dancing, playing mixes of his songs including ‘Power’ and remixes of ‘Pump Up The Jam.’

Ludacris was set to perform at the Harder stage with a 6:45 p.m. start time, despite being in the sun, his stage was full. Playing his songs ‘What’s Your Fantasy,’ ‘My Chick Bad,” some remixes of ‘Don’t Stop (Get It Get It)’ by Wolf-Cat, ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber and a weekend favorite ‘Barbra Streisand’ by Duck Sauce. While the music was fun and people were dancing around the stage, getting to and from the Harder stage was anything but that. Toward the back and sides, there was a standstill that lasted nearly thirty minutes which had people anxious and uncomfortable. There was some cause for concern especially in the heat. Once finally free from the slow crawl away from the Harder Stage, back at the Hard Stage Black Coffee was performing. 

Black Coffee was very different from the loud and hype crowd at Ludacris. They had the stage filled with artistic visuals, it was a great refresh after leaving the previous standstill. The sun was going down during his set, the perfect setting for his house almost trance-style vibe.

Doing the 15-minute walk from the Hard to the Harder Stage for the AC Slater and Chris Lorenzo duo Fly With Us was absolutely worth the mini hike. They played multiple crowd favorites including AC Slaters ‘Night Rider’ and Chris Lorenzo’s hit song ‘Mami.” They had mosh pits opening in the center and girls going up on shoulders while the duo played their remix of Fishers ‘Take It Off’ as fireworks and fire shot up into the sky.

Skrillex was back-to-back with Four Tet at the Hard stage, one of the main stages and was a closer of the night. There was a clear shift when prepping to head to the set as the crowd for the sold-out event had noticeably increased in size since the start of the festival. There was another shuffling crowd inching forward similar to Ludacris from before, but this time on a larger scale. The music was a fun mix that kept your attention throughout the night with the near constant laser shows. There were multiple unexpected fun remixes including Rosalía’s ‘Linda.” The same weekend as the Taylor Swift Era’s Tour they played a remix of ‘Love Story’ for the Swifties in the audience. The stage kept your attention and they had multiple drops that kept the party going all the way to the end. 

Kid Cudi was the closer to the Purple Stage, set in an indoor stadium. Before his song “Mr. Rager’ Cudi announced “This next one, it was a really rough time in my life when I wrote it. I didn’t even know if I would be able to sing it and as soon as I got over my drug problem. It’s amazing that all these years later I can perform this song and still get this reaction. This one’s for y’all. I love you.” Many in the audience cheered and joined in singing with Cudi. He also performed other classics such as ‘Memories,” ‘Porsche Topless” and of course ‘Pursuit of Happiness.’