Over the weekend, Insomniac’s Escape: Psycho Circus event transformed the NOS Events Center into the biggest Halloween dance party of the year, with 125,000 attendees making their way to San Bernardino to experience more than 70 different electronic music artists who performed on four oversized stages over the course of two days. I realize that living in Southern California means I’m privy to some truly jaw-dropping Halloween-themed events and activities, but Escape weekend has quickly become my favorite time during the entire month of October, as it feels like two of my worlds colliding—electronic music and horror—into one unforgettable experience. And with each year, Escape: Psycho Circus continues to get even bigger and better, with this year’s festivities being the best time I’ve had to date.
For this year’s Escape Halloween celebration, Insomniac really amped up their overall efforts throughout the entire NOS Events Center. The Psycho Circus itself featured more performers roaming around the midway area, mixing it up with fans, and they even set up several great photo op locations for folks around the Events Center grounds, featuring several twisted themes (like being electrocuted, put in a coffin, or being attached to a wheel with knives being thrown at you), and I really appreciated that they made this event feel way more fan-oriented by giving folks a chance to indulge in their own delightfully demented Halloween photos throughout the weekend. Plus, there were more event installations in place this year, including a UFO that crash landed and an oversized Medusa head with snake hair tendrils that would spit fire (seriously, it was so BADASS) randomly throughout each evening.
As usual, the Wonderland Asylum was the highlight of the Escape Psycho Circus weekend, as I once again donned my straitjacket and hockey mask for the third year in a row, prepared to take on all the lunatics running amok within the attraction. While I don’t know this for a fact, this year’s Asylum felt even more grandiose than last year’s haunt, and I also interacted with way more performers this year than I had in previous years (shout out to one of the actors who decided to tickle me while I was inside my jacket—talk about the perfect way to get me all riled up, in the best possible way of course). With an event that uses most of its focus to amplify the music acts each year (which it should do), I love that Insomniac still puts a ton of effort into their house of horrors as well, making it one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had throughout this October.
This year’s lineup for EPC was insanely stacked, which made it tough to choose between some of my favorite acts. On Friday, we started off with Lady Faith and Junkie Kid on the Chopping Block stage, then dashed over to enjoy some of Martin Garrix’s set at Slaughterhouse, and then ended our night with the trifecta of Joyryde, GTA, and Excision. Saturday night was filled with even more tough decisions, with Diplo, Eric Prydz, and Green Velvet with special guest Claude VonStroke capping off a killer night of music (ultimately, we chose Eric Prydz). Prior to that, we kicked things off with Dombresky at the Chopping Block, then hit up Claude VonStroke’s solo set at Cannibals’ Tea Party (also, kudos to Insomniac for making this stage an outdoors setup this year), then we enjoyed the Tchami x Malaa “No Redemption” set (I’m still not quite sure how I feel about Malaa skipping "Diamonds" this time, but I’ll forgive it since I did get a chance to see them perform together at EDC earlier this year), and capped it all off with two hours of Eric Prydz. Truth be told, I almost wish the Escape Psycho Circus event went three days, because there was just so much that we missed and I would have loved just one more day to indulge in all the fright-filled fun and festivities.
To experience some of the sinister sights from this year’s Escape Psycho Circus celebration, check out our photo gallery below. And to learn more about all of Insomniac’s upcoming events, you can get more information by visiting their website HERE.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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