Foam Wonderland is a nationwide concert that brings along DJs around the country to come and play tracks in a dark room filled with people moshing in a pit. Flashing lights are a big part of the concert and so is the bass. Lights range from strobing colors, multicolor lasers, visuals on the big screen and giant subwoofers that line the stage. The biggest part to this concert, however, is the unique aspect of shooting foam into the crowd to get soaking wet and dance around to the music. The foam is launched from two canons on each side of the stage all over the crowd. What doesn’t sound fun about that? I, for one, was sold.

Friday night, Aug. 29, I pulled up to Austin Music Hall at 9:30 p.m. only to be told I couldn’t bring my bag in. This was a huge upset. I had my extra clothes, my GoPro, my wallet, and my keys. I was very worried about where to put them and I contemplated calling the person who dropped us off but she was far away by then. The security guards told me to put the bag under the stairs, and they would guard it all night. Fantastic, that’s what I wanted, some low key security guard not watching my bag with valuable stuff in it. But what choice did I have?

When I entered the pit, I scanned the minimal crowd jumping to a local DJ, Gamma. I was underwhelmed as I expected the crowd to be like other EDM shows I have been to; huge, loud, and sweaty.

After my three other friends and I walked to the back of the crowd, we found our spot and began to observe the people around us — people in masks, no shirts, bathing suits, and even ski goggles. We began to question what we had got ourselves into. We stuck around listening to rap music and slow house music played by Gamma, which neither we, nor the crowd, seemed to be too into. Then the show began. Triad Dragons entered the stage after Gamma with a fast intro highlighted by strobe lights, lasers and trap music blaring.

As the smile crept on my face knowing what was to come, I turned around to see the crowd behind me had grown twice the size. Hundreds of people lined the floor in front of the main stage, ready to dance. Pleasantly surprised, I turned back around to the duo on stage. After Triad began their intro, they yelled to the crowd “are you ready to get f***** wet Austin?”

The crowd cheered and put its hands in the air. It was then I realized, in the heat of hiding my bag, I forgot my bandana and sunglasses. So, I tied my shirt around my face to prevent foam from getting in my mouth. A man with a gorilla mask on manned the foam gun and waited for the bass to drop from Triad. When the strobe lights started flashing and the lasers started glowing, foam was sprayed into the pit full of girls on their boyfriend’s shoulders, 20 year olds and everyone in between. We danced to the music and jumped into the foam trying to get soaked.

The concert continued as ETC! ETC! came on next and played close to one of my favorite EDM shows to date (next to Pretty Lights). We progressively got more and more buried in foam and slowly lost our hearing to the music in front of us. Chainsmokers came on later that night at 1 a.m., putting on a great show mainly because of how excited they got the crowd. Each light was exhilarating and each blast of foam was more fun than the last, but hit 2 a.m., I was ready to go home.

Foam Wonderland was great. I went with a good group of friends, the music was good, the foam and lights were awesome, but it had its downsides.

I would do Foam again but differently. I wouldn’t bring a bag, I would wear my bandana and clothes in, and I would have gone way later than I did. Overall the concert was great but not my favorite. I would give it a 7/10.