Once again, Insomniac’s Escape Psycho Circus took over the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino this past weekend for yet another thrilling two-day event highlighting some of the best electronic music acts from across the world with tons of spooky shenanigans, just in time for the Halloween season. For 2019, Escape not only revamped its stages, but also several key areas of the festival, and these improvements were very welcome, making it the biggest and best year in the long-running festival’s impressive history.
More than 65 artists played on Escape’s four stages, including the likes of Deadmau5, Dillon Francis, RL Grime, Dombresky, TestPilot, Eric Prydz, Excision, ATLiens, Valentino Khan, San Holo, Nicole Moudaber (who performed a B3B set with both Dubfire and Paco Asuna), Alesso, i_o, Bear Grillz, Chris Liebing B2B with Charlotte De Witte, Timmy Trumpet, Headhunterz, and so many more.
This year, a giant fire octopus became one of Escape Psycho Circus’ main focal points at the NOS Events Center, and they also changed up their haunted attraction with a smaller maze called The Butcher. For those needing a break from the music, you could either hang out in the Psycho Circus-themed area, which has become a festival mainstay over the last few years, or you could head over to Crazy Town, where they had festival-themed blackjack going on, as well as a performance stage that could only be experienced via headphones that those entering the area were given in order to reduce noise.
This was Daily Dead’s fourth year attending Escape Psycho Circus, and by far, it was the best time we’ve had, with the highlight of the weekend (besides the crazy awesome lineup of talent) being the jaw-dropping redesign of the Grimm stage, which featured a stories-high skeleton who would occasionally bop around to the music.
Here’s a look at some of the sights from Escape Psycho Circus 2019:
[All photos by Brian Smith.]
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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