Italy has always been a hotbed for electronic music and there are few finer places to experience it than the Decibel Open Air Festival. This year again it took place in the famously gorgeous Florence, but in a slightly different spot – a vast and lush green field site which meant the team could build even bigger and better stages.
Some of them are indoors in big tops, some are open air, and all of them are kitted out with vast production, huge sound systems and mesmeric lights and lasers. As always the must-visit festival brought a large international following with plenty of local Italians but also a big mix of people from all around Europe. This year the on-point stage hosts included Jager, Resonance, Social Music City and Zamna over the weekend.
The people we meet – there are 50,000 who attended across the two days – are all friendly and welcoming, with lots of big smiles and no end of energy to keep dancing hard all weekend long. The different stages each have their own vibe, but for us, the standout was the Jager stage on Saturday which hosted the likes of Boris Brejcha, Moderat playing one of his explosive live sets and some dark and acid-laced techno from Nina Kraviz. Add in a more house-leaning sound from Meduza and Camelphat and you have super good vibes.
Special mention goes to the Social Music City stage on Sunday which is where we spend most of our time and have today of everyone Ilario Alicante was great at playing gems like Home – Headhunterz. HoneyLuv did an epic job of laying down a mix of big-hearted house and techno sounds to get the crowd going earlier on (Hallelujah in Heave (feat. Andrea Triana) – The Vision was a big one) then after that it gets harder with Marco Faraone laying down the driving grooves and big room energy including tunes like Capricorn 20HZ (Marco Lys Remix).
As well as the great music it was easy to stay fuelled at Decibel with plenty of delicious food that was on offer. Add in the rich local culture to explore, ease of getting about, well-run operation and vibrant crowd and you have a greatly positioned event, which has been happening annually since 2016.
