How the 360-degree stage format is taking over the electronic music industry
When Sippy dials in for our Zoom call, another face, from behind her shoulder, stares into the camera. In the corner of her studio , there is a shelving unit filled with stuffed toys she's received from fans. Sitting right on top is a banana smiling down on her, as if proud to see her excelling in her DJing career.
The Australian bass music producer was gifted the banana buddy during her set at Toxic Summer in Austin, Texas, in August. The stage was set up in a 360-degree format, meaning she was surrounded by fans on all sides.
"I turn around and I saw this girl holding [the banana] out to me and she was like, 'It's for you!'" Sippy was in the middle of mixing in her reggae-infused dubstep track, The Banana Song, but once the song was lined up, she retrieved the banana and it hung out on the decks for the remainder of her set.
This kind of crowd interaction is one reason Sippy loves the 360 stage. "I felt like a raver in the crowd having fun with my friends," Sippy says. By being closer and having those interactions she can also read the crowd better, thus leading to a better track selection. "It feels more genuine and all-inclusive. It's more about the music and how it makes them feel and being really in the moment with it."
In the years following the pandemic, the 360 format has been implemented in the electronic music industry on multiple levels.
Headlining artists such as Gryffin are embracing 360 sets. He played one to 500 people at the Independent in San Francisco the same night he played a closing set in front of tens of thousands at the city's major festival , Outside Lands.
This year, Outside Lands changed the layout of Soma, their house and techno stage, from a temporary on-site nightclub to an outdoor 360 stage. Even venues with built-in amphitheatre seats are adopting the format. The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, hosted a 360-style event earlier this month with Louis The Child, building a stage on the GA floor section of the venue.
The most accurate word to describe this trend is 'renewed.' 360-style performances (which were first known as 'in-the-round') have roots in Ancient Greek theatre. Whether it's a DJ standing on a circular platform as they chop riddim or a theatre troupe recounting the story of the Trojan Horse, in that format, the performers can engage with more members of the audience, and more members of the audience can be closer to the stage.
"It feels more intimate. In this day and age, when everything can feel so separated, having that real, up-close and personal experience is something that a lot of festival-goers fans enjoy," Sippy says.
Another unavoidable truth about this day and age is that the entire world exited a global pandemic two years ago. When events were universally disbanded, many DJs lost significant income and the career gratification they got from playing live. Meanwhile, fans and ravers lost their preferred means of emotional release and personal connection.
Now, two years on, following the initial landrush back to events, the intent to reconnect from both artists and fans is causing concrete change throughout the scene.
"Post-COVID, a lot of people missed two or three years of opportunities to form deep, haphazard, fun, friendships. Spontaneous friendships that come from an accidental late night," says Henry Lu, co-founder of Space Yacht, which promotes roughly 75 global events per year, several of which are 360.
Space Yacht was one early promoter to experiment with 360 stages in Los Angeles, but Lu is quick to mention that he and his team "stake no claim" in pioneering the format. Lu shouts out the Atlanta promoter Define Everything Future (DEF) for making it their thing before them. DEF has hosted 360 events at venues all across the US including The Caverns in Tennesse , Underground Atlanta, and the Florida festival, Suwanee Hulaween.
"Everyone kind of started doing it at the same time," Lu says, also ensuring he lends credit to a vital catalyst for the popularity of the 360 set: Boiler Room .
Oftentimes, 360 formats are presented as 'Boiler Room Style' on event flyers given its history of having fans behind the DJ. While this isn't specifically accurate, as Boiler Room doesn't always ensure fans are necessarily surrounding the DJ, the disbursement of the audience was certainly a precursor to 360 sets.
Boiler Room also influenced 360 sets because the streaming format emphasized the idea of focusing on the DJ. Sure, there will be the occasional bystander who makes waves across Boiler Room's network of 4.37 million YouTube subscribers (like the yellow shirt guy who accidentally stopped the music during Fred Again.. 's famous Boiler Room in London). But, for the most part, Boiler Room built its brand on letting people around the world watch DJs in action.
Conversely, at the genesis of club culture, not all crowds were there to watch DJs. They were remanded to the dark corners of the club, hidden behind a shroud of smoke, playing music for the crowd to interact with one another. There are still some DJs from the earliest days of electronic music, like Dave Clarke, who shun the fact that DJs are now the centre of attention.
"Now it's deeply embarrassing for what people see to be a DJ. There's so much light on stage. They're all dancing. I've got nothing against people dancing, but the performance is more important than the music," Clarke said in an interview with MusicRadar .
Since the rise of EDM, the idea of DJ performing has become more associated with the culture — Steve Aoki throwing cake into the crowd; Diplo rolling around in an inflatable ball during Major Lazer sets. Now, with 360 sets, some DJs are leaning into performance more than ever.
"Having gone through the stage where DJs were put up on a big stage like superstars, now DJs are part of the club. That's not gonna go away," says Lexi Capt, who DJs under the name CAPTNNN. "So, the idea of the 360 set is the compromise of not having the DJ in the corner, having them be on the same level as the people, but also not put on a pedestal where no one can reach them."
Capt runs an event series called Dekadance , based at Forever Good in London. It's a former car garage that's been converted into an art gallery and event space. For Dekadance parties, Capt sets up the decks in a true 360 pattern which allows the attendees to dance but also fully explore the gallery while the music is playing (there are vintage cars in the gallery that guests can use for photo ops).
For a 360 set to work, the venue is the most significant factor. Sippy's Toxic Summer set in Austin was at The Concourse Project — essentially a raw warehouse space. It was easy to build a stage in the centre and adjust the sound so that everyone could dance and enjoy the music.
After the ball she had in Austin, Sippy shifted four venues on her Gremlin Mode tour into the format, so some venues can accommodate it. But in less amenable spaces, complications show up.
Lu remarks that certain venues like Sound Nightclub in Los Angeles (where Space Yacht produces a significant portion of their events) are too small and their sound infrastructure is too integrated into the venue to make it work.
In other venues with more permanent infrastructure, building a stage in the centre of the room drastically decreases the amount of floor space available for attendees, lessening the number of tickets a promoter can sell which in turn lessens the revenue.
"There's no clear argument, better or worse. It's now simply something I look at as like a staging option," Lu says.
When implementing the format, Lu likes to consider how it will enhance the attendee experience. For example, Space Yacht hosted a 360 dubstep show because he thought it would be cool for the DJs to be surrounded by headbangers.
When Another Planet Entertainment (APE), the promoter responsible for Outside Lands, shifted the format of Soma, an important factor in that decision was that when the stage was similar to a nightclub, attendees would spend hours waiting in line to see some of the DJs (just like a real club). After the change, there were no lines at all.
The new style couldn't offer the same club-style rave experience as something indoors, complete with lights and lasers. It also wasn't a literal 360. Due to the space allotted per the festival's grounds, the majority of the crowd was still front-facing while a smaller portion filled in alongside and behind the DJ. But overall, the format allowed more people to enjoy the music together throughout all three days of the festival.
"Dance music has always had a greater community than other genres. There's much more of a social aspect," says Nick Barrie, a talent buyer for APE. " The DJ in the middle of everyone speaks to more of that community, allows more of that vibe, and more of that culture of we're all doing this together."
Right now, many in the electronic music industry are adapting 360 stages; major festivals, small nightclubs, and mid-size events. If there was ever time to gift your favourite DJ a stuffed toy, this is it.
