Photos by:
Duy Tran
Graham Meyer
Andy Fundeneanu
Scott Ahn
Sexy Fitsum

"88's Dave Fogel had really planned for last weekend's weekend plus one day-long Forward Festival to sync with cherry blossom time, not SXSW. The geeker tweets from Austin last week had me wondering about the coincidence, then making comparisons between the two events. Scale of execution and 22 year history aside, I think the DMV(groan) is on course for being home to what could be one of the nicest music and media parties in region, if not the country. Four days, five venues, three combined sound systems, the sweat and tears of five photographers, many many djs, musicians and artists who performed or just hung out, and a few hundred of you who came out (and the fewer numbers of you who took the deep breath and did the entire festival). The following is what I and a couple of other folks think happened.

Thursday
There were tweets and status messages (and a comment on this site) about how tonight's
party was being hosted at a bondage club in a warehouse in southwest. But that fact ultimately never affected the turn out. It's probably the festival's strongest night. At first, almost everyone was crowded into the second room where Dan Amatai and later MNMLife's Sanath and Fisher played. A late crowd hit around 12:30AM and the party stayed on all the way til close. This is about the time, I decided risk injury and climb those insane steps into the dj coop with Pan Pot who were so serious. The space amazed everyone, especially dj/promoters, all of em stroking their chins thoughtfully as they scanned the place. Repspect to Will Eastman and Derek Plaslaiko who was rocking the main room when I made it through, and Everybody Loves Music's Dimitri Max who closed out the second room strong. And big up to chains and suspension.

Friday
The workshops were laid back and fun with presenters getting involved in each other's presentations.
Later at LODA, many of you braved the cold to hang outside in the alley at Lovegrove's chillout set. You were probably as insane as his drops were awesome. Inside at the DC area label showcase, Everybody Loves Music's Joe L. played an early set of Odds & Ends tracks that was fire by all accounts. In the main room Mochipet – in purple dino suit – sang someone "Happy Birthday" and later Jeremy Ellis mesemerized and destroyed with his improvised MPC set. 88 partner Graham called the show "unreal" and "probably the best live performance I've ever seen".

Saturday
At 2:15AM when I got to BeBar, there was a live singer performing with Docindo.Dorsey and Measax were still about 30 people dancing like it was midnight. Everyone else there was stuck to the couches either making out or passed out. The night kicked off with X at 7PM. At 11PM the party transitioned into Pulse with a deep melodic live techno set from Montreal's PHEEK that caused the dancefloor to fill. By the time Dan Berkson and James What got on the floor was jammed. Dorsey and Measax closed out afterwards with vocalist Robert Manos, who I heard when I arrived.

Sunday
The seventh day. The day of rest, and all that. Graham's voice was toast but he was happy. The night before, a bunch of people came back to Space88 after Pulse and kept going until 7AM. Apparently they were hungry when they woke up because all the BBQ was gone when I got there.