Forbes: How Detroit Is Monetizing Techno

Techno producer Richie Hawtin at Movement festival (photo credit: Bryan Mitchell)
Techno producer Richie Hawtin at Movement festival (photo credit: Bryan Mitchell)

As the sun sets on a warm evening at Detroit’s Hart Plaza, a silver-haired lady leans against the stage barricade, nodding her head to the pounding bass drum. Hundreds of revelers of all ages shuffle past her, occasionally grinning as they read the sign on her mobility scooter: Grandma Techno Hustles Harder.

The diverse demographics at the Motor City’s Movement Electronic Music Festival are not the only difference between this homegrown three-day party and its more commercial EDM cousins. Unlike at HARD Fest or Electric Daisy Carnival CCL -2.13% (EDC), there is not a single one of the World’s Highest-Paid DJs in the lineup. Instead, Movement‘s six stages are dedicated to the forefathers and current innovators of techno, an unrelenting largely-instrumental music characterized by a four-on-the-floor kick drum punctuated with open hi-hats and snare drums.

Though better known for motorcars and Motown Records, Detroit is also the birthplace of techno, which sprung from city in the 1980s, during the depths of its economic depression. Now the once-bankrupt metropolis is using its musical legacy to draw nearly 100,000 people from around the world for one festival each year, helping breathe new life into its downtown district–at least for a weekend.

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