A Look Inside the Second Year of John Summit’s Experts Only Festival

After a sold-out debut last year, Experts Only Festival returned to New York City to close out the summer season. Did John Summit’s second edition meet expectations? This past weekend, in true John Summit fashion, it seemed like the superstar was everywhere in New York City all at once. There was footage of him breaking a sweat at a fitness class, playing a pop-up show at the New York Stock Exchange, partying at the new Pacha, and, of course, performing at his Experts Only Festival. Back for a second time, the event was held again on Randall’s Island, one of the very few parks in the city boasting a vast number of trees and large, open grass fields. Not much changed in terms of its layout, which had the shape of an obtuse triangle with the stages as the corners, but what was immediately noticeable to new and returning festival-goers was the great detail of the Main and Mirror stages. Compared to last year, both stages received a striking makeover. The Main tweaked its previous design by anchoring a massive Experts Only logo above the DJ booth. Where the chandelier over the 2023 Electric Zoo mainstage lay bare and distracting, here the prop was impressive and used tactically, lighti...