Zeds Dead "First Contact" at Hampton Colisuem 4/12-4/13/24

4/13/25

60 F

Ticket Price $100 (online 2 day pass)

8k Approx. Attendance

Ray Ready

"First Contact" at the Hampton Colisuem can only truly be encapsulated by the song “Walking on a Dream” by “Empire of the Sun”. I’m curious if I truly have someone special watching over me and making sure that I have excellent experiences when I truly trust the process, but going to this show was the epitome of a great time where everybody ate. 

My first experience at the Hampton Coliseum for music was back in 2021 for Griz’s “Space Camp” which will always hold a special place in my heart. This being my first time going to the Colosseum since Griz’s current break/haitus, it was bittersweet feeling the butterflies the week before the show as I coordinated finding a ticket into places to stay while figuring out which of my friends would be attending. Although I mentioned the ticket price for the event was $100 for both nights. I think it is imperative that I mention the community that the EDM (electronic dance music) scene is building and how generous as a collective they are. For this particular show, I waited to the last minute to get a ticket and eventually found a gentleman “Corey” off Reddit, who was selling two day passes for $100. After about four direct messages and confirming that we were both real people, Corey said just to meet him at the entrance of the Coliseum when we arrived and that we could work out the money tomorrow as we were arriving around 9 PM and the show would already begun. 

Personally, I love shows that are high energy with excellent rhythmic base and beats that make the crowd dance shout and even sometimes act “feral or primal”. By that I mean, when the Music is so good that the crowd cannot stand still and must express themselves by dancing, moving or whatever type of happy expressive form that is, even in some cases, crying crying. Nothing about this weekend was boring from the openers, to the outfits, to the pure joy that was emanating from every person in the Colisuem. 

Night one we arrived during the middle of the last opener by the name of “Skream” and they said the tone for what was three hours of nonstop, dance music mix in with popular classics, such as “living on a dream” by “we are the people” and a number of iconic hits. One of my favorite things about the Colosseum is that they’re really isn’t a bad place to be during the shows. The massive oval shaped dance was floor filled with every type of person you could imagine wearing both everything and some people almost nothing. The openness and almost free flowing carelessness of the EDM community reminds me of what I was told by elders about the ole Grateful Dead/hippie acid community in the days of yore. To be more specific as well, this genre of positivity through dance, self awareness and promotion of community really amazes me as I experience more scenes because this is by far the friendliest crowd of people you could ever stumble into. I highly recommend it if you have the chance to do it responsibly. 

Nevertheless, back to the music, Zeds played for 2hrs almost to the dot, ending at midnight and leaving the crowd on a euphoria high that could only be calmed by more face melting, yet melodic bass music. A special feature of almost every Hampton Colisuem big weekend is the pre/after parties that happen around the event as they often times are filled with quite notable artist from my experience. This particular weekend after parties, both nights were hosted by Kouch Kollective a event group that through some excellent dance and bass music shows to say the least.  An interesting facet of these particular Afterpartys hosted at the Hampton Convention Center conveniently across the street from the Coliseum is that there is no alcohol served at the event so many people use these shows to dance off whatever they taken earlier in the day and rehydrate with Gatorade and water. It also is a place for local vendors to sell art of all sorts. One of my favorite things about these after parties is that they also have a reduction in information with everything from condoms to narcan and information on how to properly use everything available as well as candy. Although we may mention the use of extracurricular items in our blogs and videos, I never encourage anyone to use anything without any proper knowledge and education on how to use improperly and safely so I love these booths that encourage safe use. #NoJudgements 

After an epic one, I woke up at the Holiday Inn, roughly 2 blocks from the Coliseum, and began to mentally and physically prepare myself for the adventures of day two. Thankfully, the friends I was staying with, and I chose to remain relatively levelheaded throughout the day and began our evening festivities around 5 PM after a short walk over to the Colosseum around 8 PM, we were able to find optimal viewing space in the upper deck and secured ourselves some seats so we can enjoy the evening. I wasn’t sure if could even possibly have a better set than they did night one or have better openers than they did one but yet again it did not disappoint. The energy Of the evening as the Colosseum filled with something that is truly indescribable. I ran in to Corey again, who ventured all the way from Pennsylvania for this event. I thanked him for helping me enjoy this experience and allowing my friend Martin to get a proper Hampton Colisuem Rave experience. Zeds could not have a more happiness inducing set that left many folks in a state of just wanting to melt into earth in happiness and preserve the moment forever. 

Music: 9/10

Concert & Show Production: 10/10

Overall 9.5/10