The beats were back in downtown Detroit as fans packed Hart Plaza for the opening of Detroit’s signature electronic-music event.
Two years ago this weekend, the Movement festival team gathered at a quiet Hart Plaza, donned in masks, for an emotional champagne toast. After two decades of techno on the riverfront, the Memorial Day weekend fest had been silenced by COVID-19. On Saturday, like a switch got flipped and pent-up energy got released, the party was back in full force as Movement revved up for the first time since 2019. The rhythms might as well have never missed a beat: Hart Plaza crackled with a hearteningly familiar swirl of sounds, sights, even smells — the scent of weed blurring with the aroma of toasted almonds across the park. As always, it was a steady build, with a low-key vibe early in the day ramping up to the high-energy euphoria that typically comes at night, including a scheduled Saturday closing set by DJ Richie Hawtin. By late afternoon, the plaza was packed, as fans piled into downtown Detroit for their long weekend of electronic-music escapism, full of of body-moving music and anything-goes fashion. Movement, which took life as the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000, long ago became of the city’s signature cultural events.
