The largest Halloween fest in North America hit San Bernardino over this past weekend, as Escape: Psycho Circus took over the NOS Events Center for two nights of music and mayhem. With 125,000 people in attendance during the course of two nights, Escape hosted over 50 performers on four stages during the 2017 event to create one of the biggest Halloween parties from the team at Insomniac.
Friday night saw powerhouse acts like DJ Snake, Flosstradamus, Nero, Marshmello, Rezz, and Datsik play to packed crowds on the three main outdoor stages, while the likes of Green Velvet, Joseph Capriati, and Jamie Jones held things down at the Chopping Block Warehouse. On Saturday, the NOS Events Center had to be at capacity (there were thousands of people everywhere), while attendees enjoyed shows from Tiësto, Afrojack, Duke Dumont, Zedd, Eric Prydz, Slushii, Nicole Moudaber, Chris Lieber, and Boys Noize playing an unprecedented live set, complete with a special lighting rig that capped off Saturday night.
On the Halloween side of things, their Asylum maze was awesome as usual, but for 2017, they expanded the haunt to 30 different rooms, complete with hordes of surreal maniacs running about. There were also a bunch of demented clowns throughout the Asylum who really enjoyed tickling their victims (and I mean REALLY—I had one clown who followed me into three rooms), especially since we were all put into straitjackets at the start of the maze and were completely unable to avoid their devilish pranks. They also utilized some impressive multi-media components to this year’s twisted attraction, which added a lot (we were greeted by an oversized TV head, and holy hell, was it ever badass), and I was completely entranced at one point when we entered a dark, wooded area and clips from the finale of The Witch were playing around us.
Last year, the Asylum was my favorite haunt I had the chance to experience for the Halloween season, and to me, the 2017 Asylum experience was even better. I wish more mazes would go to this level of immersion, because it really makes all the difference. Just killer stuff all around.
Here’s a look at some of the sights from both days of Insomniac’s Escape Psycho Circus 2017 festivities. And for more information on any of Insomniac’s upcoming shows, click HERE.
Photos by Daily Dead:
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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