The 2nd annual Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival (BEMF) was a real life yin-and-yang experience: daytime and nighttime, indoor stage and outdoor stage, PBRs/Booze (dehydrate) and Zico Coconut Water (hydrate), one-man shows and full-on bands, hi-tops and low-cuts, clean cut and just plain ol' dirty. Enveloped in the brick-love of The Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, BEMF ripped the crowd apart at what felt like 540 bpm.

I arrived just in time to catch a Prince cover by Jupiter One, a Brooklyn-based band reared on a carton of green apple Pop Rocks; deliciously interactive yet saccharine. Between sets a good friend and I roamed the festival quarters, peered down the alleyway to find a small subset of 21+ folks dabbling in the makeshift hooch, shimmied past gyrating boys and girls dressed alike, and sampled the fresh baked goodies from local shops in the area (so BK!). At some point, the roving RUDE bear got on stage and roused the crowd by getting involved with cans of beer, thus proving that four claws and minimal use of an opposable appendage will never stop the party.

Notable acts included Designer Drugs, Juan MacLean, DJ Ayres, Anton Glam (no ka oi!), Awesome New Republic (poor name but Top 40-bound), and Purple Crush (leotarded gal with moves to make a staccato series jealous). To be honest, I couldn't really tell the difference between this DJ or that DJ. Alls I know is that I shook a leg and woke up with sore feet.

Nicole Velasco