Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival – Day 2

The two day Forbidden Kingdom Music Festival was back in Orlando this weekend for the fourth straight year-in-a-row and OEN came out for Day 2. 

Located at the Central Florida Fairgrounds, there were 5 stages of music and so let's give you a tour beginning at the massive Mystic Stage located up near the entrance. 

DJ duo Kill Safari (USA) was on when we first arrived. The duo is made up of DJ Kill The Noise (USA) and DJ Bro Safari (USA).

The dome was already packed.

Forbidden Kingdom is all about Dubstep/Heavy Bass and it draws the younger crowd.

Continuing clockwise around the grounds, we came to the Mystic Stage next. It's open air but covered so the shade provides a bit of relief from the relentless Orlando summer sun.

There was already a crowd in here too.

Orlando-based DJ Haylee Wood (USA) was on stage playing mostly Bass House. She's previously played at local clubs such as Elixir Bar and Celine.

Dance floor still had capacity in here.

Continuing our tour we come to the far rear of the fairground, home to the Village Stage. 

Big crowd gathered for DJ Shiverz (GB) aka "Shiverz the Butcher" doing a Dubstep & Riddim set.

Saturday morning had begun with a massive thunderstorm across central Florida but the clouds cleared by 3PM and it got hot. There were several shade tents to provide a respite.

And a few mister stations too.

The next stage is up these stairs.

Officially known as the Orlando Amphitheater, this weekend it was known as the Cyberian Stage.

DJ Midnight Tyrannosaurus (USA) was on during our visit.

Dubstep, of course.

Between the stage and the grassy area is this paved dance floor area. DJ Trance duo/trio Above & Beyond (GB) play here at Orlando Amphitheater on Friday, September 12th. The event is sold out but resale tickets are available here. Prior to that, the Metamorphosis Music Festival ft. Alison Wonderland (AUS) and Duke Dumont (GB) takes place here on Labor Day weekend. Details here.

Officially known at the Orlando Warehouse when ticketed events are played here, the fifth area of music was known this weekend as the Dragon's Den stage.

Typically local area DJ's play here but we did not know this guy.

Small crowd on the dance floor. Air conditioning and House music provide a break from what is going on outside but the A/C was not functioning right so it wasn't very cool.

Back in the day we used to call these electric outlets but nowadays they're called charging stations. They are located in the Dragon's Den and are free.

There was also a small branch of the FKMF logo store with a larger one outside.

People pics!

Thank you for your poses!

Like we mentioned above, not very crowded in here because the A/C wasn't working well. We recall last year when it was absolutely jammed in here!

But hearing House music at Forbidden Kingdom was great!

To get into position for the Deadmau5 set coming up in an hour, we had to stand through a Dubstep set from DJ Zomboy (GB).

But you know what? He was really good; so animated! A lot of the song names were posted on the wall behind him but to be honest, Dubstep all sounds the same to me.

But he had the head bangers banging heads!

The place was SO packed!

Zomboy has changed a bit since we last saw him at the Miami Massive in 2016 as seen from this Blog archives photo.

So much fun!

And then, there he was, the headliner.....

DJ Deadmau5 (CDN)

Advertised as a Drum & Bass set, I simply don't know what he was playing up there. It was fast BPM's but it wasn't Liquid, it wasn't Jungle, it wasn't Ambient, I don't know what it was. There were a couple moments when he dropped the refrain of "Baddadan" and we're thinking ok now he's gonna unleash the good stuff but it never happened. Wasn't expecting his mouse head for a DnB set and we didn't get it. The people around us all just stood there watching but there was no movement as we had seen for Zomboy moments earlier. This is opinion of course but we were disappointed by his set.

The 3-day Electric Daisy Carnival-Orlando comes to town November 7-9 and includes not only Dubstep and Heavy Bass but also House, Techno, Trance and DnB. We should see some initial DJ announcements by the end of summer. More EDC info and advance tickets here. Last night overall though, a good time was had by all.