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The Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) was a hugely successful electronic dance music showcase held on Memorial Day weekend in Detroit from 2000 to 2002. Featuring performances by musicians and DJs, and emphasizing the progressive qualities of techno culture, the free festival quickly became the biggest annual music event in Detroit. Patterned on high-profile dance festivals in Europe, the DEMF became the biggest electronic music festival in the United States, attracting a substantial number of international fans.
In 2003, the DEMF was replaced by a new techno festival, Movement.
The DEMF was sanctioned and financially supported by the City of Detroit, a politically surprising move in an era when American civic leaders often negatively associated electronic music with drugs and rave culture. The festival was held at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit, and was the first high-profile acknowledgement and celebration of the city as the birthplace of techno music. The DEMF went off with few hitches and no reported crime, and was applauded by city leaders and tourism officials as a vital injection of youthful energy into the aged city.
The festival was launched in May 2000, surpassing expectations by drawing an estimated one-million-plus visitors during its three-day run. Subsequent festivals drew even bigger crowds, though some in Detroit -- including media observers and local businesses that saw little economic boost -- disputed the attendance figures[1] (http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/demf23_20020523.htm).
DEMF attendance estimates, based on visual estimates by police and city officials:
- 2000: 1.1 to 1.5 million
- 2001: 1.7 million
- 2002: 1.7 million
By its second year, DEMF weekend emerged as a full-scale explosion of techno music events around Detroit, with independently organized and even impromptu parties packing clubs and makeshift venues early into each morning.
The DEMF was founded and produced by Pop Culture Media (PCM) under the command of firm president Carol Marvin, a former sponsorship organizer for Detroit's Montreux Jazz Festival. Programming and artistic direction was contracted to Detroiter Carl Craig, an internationally acclaimed techno DJ and recording artist. Craig was fired days before the 2001 DEMF amid a budgeting and deadline dispute, lending controversy to the 2001 and 2002 festivals as many attendees galvanized support for Craig.[2] (http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1443707/20010514/story.jhtml) Marvin came under increasing fire from fans who believed Craig had been unfairly dismissed.[3] (http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=3296)
In January 2003, city officials turned down PCM's request to renew its contract for Hart Plaza, awarding Memorial Day weekend control to Detroit techno musician Derrick May. With the DEMF name trademarked by Pop Culture Media, May dubbed his festival Movement and held his inaugural event four months later. Fans catch a groove at Movement. Detroit, May 2003. (Movement publicity photo.) But despite its seeming success on the surface, the event's fate was up in the air by the time the 2004 festival wound down. Facing significant financial losses and with no cash contribution from a budget-cutting city government, May and associates expressed uncertainty about continuing the festival.[4] (http://www.freep.com/entertainment/music/move1_20040601.htm)
In 2003, Pop Culture Media announced plans to organize festivals in Detroit and elsewhere under the DEMF trademark, though by late 2004 no events had yet taken place.
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