events

Back in 2012, Gregg Lillie and EmazingLights took a team of light show artists to Escape from Wonderland in San Bernardino. The team called “the FaceMelt Crew” was the first festival team of its kind, and today, the program and Gregg’s legacy lives on at 25+ festivals across America. After moving on from his position as Brand Manager of EmazingLights, Lillie has worked closely with Jeff Abel, more commonly known as world class Bass Producer, Excision.

Year after year, Electric Forest Music Festival in Rothbury Michigan plays host to a gathering of some of the most dedicated and unique flow artists in the Midwest and beyond. The very first time I experienced Electric Forest in 2014, I knew it was something unique. That year I received some of the best light shows in my life. The only regret I have from that year is that I didn’t record the fire.

FNL Level Up was one hell of an experience. Light artisans came out from all over to gather over the simple love and joy of playing with LED lights. Even though the night got off to a slow start, the overall turnout was more than expected and the vibes were beyond positive. We premiered a new Bingo Player video featuring Cypher, Blitzen and the host of the night, Rhapsode. For the grand raffle there was a custom State of Skate x Emazinglights skateboards given away along with lots of other goodies. Can’t wait till the next Level Up!

The first FNL Level Up occurred just a few short days after I released my blog post about bringing the roots back to gloving, so I figured it would be good for me to be present at the event to not only interact with the new generation of incoming talent, but to witness first-hand how much the scene has evolved over the last several years.

“Glovers give me a smile when you are ready!” …These were the words I heard as I smiled anxiously walking across the room. I knew everyone was ready, but was I? I carefully watch as I saw a group of glovers breathe in deeply while the others yelled out their team names for support. You could feel the crowd’s energy in the air. I gripped my scoreboard tightly, nervous of what could be this year’s outcome. I remember seeing a glimpse of a pink flamingo dancing around in a corner. I caught myself chuckling at it and turned my head to see Mary laughing about it as well. From that point on, I knew this Miami BOSS was going to be one for the record books. With many unexpected guests from out of state like Blitzen, Brian Lim and Krusty, I knew that many glovers were anxiously awaiting for this day.

Being at FNL Level Up was amazing to say the least. Fire was being thrown and people were having fun, this is what gloving is about.

My initial plan was to go to the Philippines and wow the locals with my light magic. Turns out I was a more than a little late to the party! There was already an established gloving scene in Manila, and some glovers had as much as 3 years of face melting experience.

Glovers were placed in headlocks. Fights broke out over security attempting to confiscate rare chips, and Facemelt Crew glovers [TNT] Havok and [PM] Cypher lost their gloves due to Insomniac’s strict “no gloving” policy at Dreamstate this past weekend.

There is always a lot of talk among glovers about what a real light show is. In my opinion, there is no wrong way to throw a light show, and I credit [PM] Pro Heavy for pointing it out a few years ago. Gloving is a type of personal expression, and there is no way to tell someone how they can and cannot express themselves.

IGC has come and gone. The 5th year of competitive gloving gives us a chance to look at what we’ve built as a community and reflect on everything that has gotten glovers to this point.