By Thomas Zhong, Courier Co-Editor-in-Chief
ZEDD, along with Broods, led the 6th annual Frost Festival at Stanford Stadium on Saturday May 20th. The festival is an occasion for Stanford students to perform alongside with Grammy-winning artists, while providing a relaxing yet artistically exhilarating break for students’ from intense mid-terms.
Before the festival began, Stanford students had already started partying. Across the campus, various groups of Stanford students were playing beer pong in different locations, sometimes even setting up ping pong tables in the middle of fountains. Under the chilling shades and in the pools, Stanford students started their pre-rave parties, waiting for the musical festival to start.
The festival started at 5:30 PM, with different amature bands playing to set up the atmosphere. The sun was slowly setting, projecting an orange aura all over the stadium. People slowly walked into the stadium. Some are laying on the grass areas, hiding away from the harsh, lowering sunlight. Others were dancing in the gigantic shadows casted by the stage and the stadium walls. As lower bleachers became slowly filled up, the staff members walked up and down the bleachers, selling water and frozen lemonade. Underneath the burning sun, everything was coated in a sense of playfulness, as people danced, laughed, and slowly got ready for the main acts.
Once Broods came up stage, the crowd soon became heated. The duo brought a refreshing momentum to the stadium, with catchy and upbeat anthems bringing the crowd together, despite the burning hot summer sun blaring at the audience. As Broods worked through their setlist, the anticipation for ZEDD grew more voraciously than ever.
The sun was setting, the orange sun had then turned the sky into a mosaic of fiery clouds and red sky.
The digital screen suddenly displayed a tree that was splattered with lights and different shades of colors. It is the symbol of ZEDD’s most recent album, True Colors. At the same time, a rhythmic countdown started; its beats grew faster and louder. The crowd went into a frenzy. Everyone, either on the bleachers or in the field, all stood on their feet, shouting and screaming in anticipation.
Beautiful Now, the album’s lead single, blasted throughout the stadium as the countdown drew to a climax. Alongside, the cheers, screams, cries, hands in the air, and people’s singing, all exploded to a climax. At the height of the crowd’s excitement, ZEDD appeared.
The popular DJ mixed his own hit songs with classic pop songs, bringing unimagined yet harmonic combinations to appeal to the audience that was filled with both young college students and older couples who were experiencing EDM music for the first time. Some of the combinations invoked memories that are shared by both generations, such as mixing his original EDM beat to the classic Michael Jackson song Billie Jeans. Songs after songs, the DJ used different methods and troupes to keep the crowd engaged, oftentimes mixing colorful stage shows with direct interactions, while keeping the music upbeat and full of unexpected turns.
As the show drew to a close, there was an energy in the audience, one that couldn’t be simply extinguished by the end of the show. It was the energy of all the performers, of all the audience members that were moved by the music, and of the music that was live and loud. The music shook the entire stadium, with the metal structure squirming and vibrating accordingly to the beat. Fireworks burst into the air, blasting lively colors above the Stanford sky.
