In the most unapologetic cliche of terms, Electric Zoo was pretty kick ass.

This past labor day weekend in NYC, thousands of dance and electronica music fans gathered together for the first, and hopefully annual Electric Zoo Festival on Randall’s Island to celebrate Electronic Music. The festival lineup featured over 50 acts which included Steve Aoki, Busy P, Danny Tenaglia, Benny Benassi, Dadmau5, David Guetta, Markus Schulz, Tom Middleton, Kaskade, and Armin Van Burren over the course of two days.

While the festival attendees were partying hard by the visually stunning five stages, dancing and rolling around the sprawling grass field, jubilantly enjoying festival goodies from the beer and cupcake concession stands (yes cupcakes, and they were awesome), making their own music in the festival’s “sonic forest” (a set of electronic trees that emit sounds when near human motion), and getting their face painted to match the sea of quirky and colorful graphic t-shirts in the crowd, one particular stage showcased the very man that literally created the genre known as house music.

On the second day of the festival, house music icon DJ Frankie Knuckles alongside Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) blessed the turntables with a raw and authentic classic house music set that made you feel nothing short of spiritual. After an almost thirty year career as a DJ which was catapulted at the legendary Chicago Warehouse Club in the 80’s, and has spanned accolades such as being the first DJ to win a grammy for remixer of the year in 1997; having the Mayor Of Chicago declare August 24th “Frankie Knuckles” day in 2004; and having the street where the legendary Chicago Warehouse Club was once located changed to “Frankie Knuckles Way” by an ordinance walked through by then Illanois Senator Barack Obama, DJ Frankie Knuckles still manages to cracks a smile from the simple cheer of crowds on the dancefloor in a metaphysical place that he sometimes describes as a “poorman’s paradise.”

“Music belongs to everybody,” Frankie says after stepping off stage from his Electric Zoo DJ set. “Believe me, If I had the ability I would really just make it possible so that any and everybody could just show up (on the dancefloor)…a lot of times that’s all you got to hold onto.” To that end, it seems rather fitting that his biggest commercial hit was the ethereal and optimistic Whistle Song, which just might make him the pied piper of dance music who tries to leads the masses to a state of bliss.

Dropping next month is Frankie's Motivation Too album, which is his first compilation in six years. When asked about his own personal tactics for motivation, Frankie notes: “I normally get up early in the morning, like seven or eight o’clock. Musically I’m listening to things that are very spiritual and classical while I’m moving through the morning and getting myself together. I pretty much block out a lot of things that could possibly feed me any kind of negative energy, because my day has to be right…I figure why not get up on the right side of the bed and focus and maybe I’ll get through the day and it will be alright.”  

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