I Went to Art Basel and I Didn't Even Look at Art

Photos by Michelle Layne Lawson

Who doesn't love Miami?

You can go to the beach in December, breathe the ocean air, and drink champagne under the stars until they disappear into daylight. And you never get tired because there's the Cuban espresso to keep you jacked the whole time you're there. So when one friends turns to another and says those six magic words—"are you going to Basel this year," the answer is usually yes, even though not a single one of them is an art collector (or even an artist).

Art Basel has been held in Miami beach since 2002, but your friends only started talking about it a few years ago. It is a meeting place for over 50,000 art dealers, collectors, critics and observers and it is one of the biggest art festivals in the world. It's held on Miami Beach, but as the Wynwood district begins to woo the art world with its edgy, warehouse-chic reputation, the area's club kids have taken the opportunity to hold their own sub-festival near the Downtown area.

Everyone from Kanye West to DJ Harvey got a piece of it this year. De La Soul performed, Kendrick Lamar played a show, and Basel Castle had headliners like Chance the Rapper, clothing designer-turned-DJs Been Trill, and Gesaffelstein. Luke from 2 Live Crew hosted Peach Fuzz, Miami's well-known hip-hop party, and Miami night clubs like Electric Pickle, Grand Central and Bardot held parties with artists from Friends of Friends, Body High and a slew of other top-notch dance acts. Richie Hawtin even played a Red Bull night. It felt a lot like Winter Music Conference before Ultra went and blew up the spot.

Before EDM turned into a giant cash register for old men in suits, Winter Music Conference, now known as "Ultra Week" or "Miami Music Week" was pretty chill. There were always a ton of smaller events around it, with secret DJ sets by everyone from Benga to Justice and small, intimate beach parties organized by independent labels. Fast-forward to 2013, and the fuzzy boots and fist-pumping bros have taken over. Now it is a traffic nightmare, and the little parties don't do that well anymore. Like Ultra week, Basel too is a traffic nightmare. We probably spent more time in traffic than at parties, and getting a cab is nearly impossible.

So now that artists have stopped attending the music conference, they have started making their yearly pilgrimage to Basel, with Basel Castle as a growing replacement for Ultra. The first year I went to Basel Castle, it was thrown at an actual castle in Wynwood where the promoters, Overthrow, apparently have the lease.

You may know Overthrow from their Lil Death parties (and mix series here on THUMP) and their Hard To Leave strip club parties that historically have wrapped up both Basel and Ultra week festivities with lots of ratchet tittays. They're pretty wild. Meanwhile, their Basel Castle event kept the name despite outgrowing the castle, and is now held in Grand Central Park, an open field in Downtown Miami.

Basel Castle made sure to stay true to the whole "art" thing. There were a ton of visual artists there, including Nychos, who was painting a skeleton with cool guts coming out of it that everyone flocked towards, and Brooklyn clothing company Mishka premiered their new Spongebob collaboration.

There was also a skate park and people getting haircuts paid for by a liquor company? Dangerous.

I stepped into the park and immediately realized that this was more or less a rap show. Heroes and Villains were on stage with The Fat Jew, who was yelling funny things into the mic as usual. It was early in the night, but already a gaggle of hype kids were jumping up and down in unison in the middle of an empty dancefloor, while HXV went in and out of festival trap and real actual trap rap. The Been Trill crew went on and played a bunch of dance music mixed with Kanye songs and some drum & bass. Is drum & bass considered trill now? We walked around talking to kids in the crowd and 90 percent of them casually told me they were "just here to turn up." I think I heard that sentence 25 times by the end of the night.

I finally got to see what the hype around Chance the Rapper is about. He put on a great live show, which was reassuring because a majority of the "turn up" crew also told me that Chance was who they were there to see. Most of the attendees probably couldn't tell you who else was on the line-up, but Brodinksi, Gesaffelstein, and SBTRKT managed to keep them on the dancefloor, which was impressive given the attention span of your average Tumblr hipster. Along the way, I made some new friends:

THUMP: Are you guys from here?
Chicken: Yeah, we're from Miami. We came here to turn up.

You are dressed like a chicken.
Chicken: Yeah, I dress like this every time I go out.
Egg: And I am his hype man.
Chicken: They call me chicken man, or el pollo loco.

How long have you been dressing like that?
Chicken: I have been dressing like this for maybe two years now? And him—since August.

Did you guys see any art this week?
Egg: We saw some art in Wynwood.

Who are you looking forward to seeing at Basel Castle?
Chicken/Egg: [In unison] Chance the Rapper.

THUMP: Where are you guys from?
We're from here.

Have you guys seen any art this week?
We went to Wynwood to see the art cars. We're working at Space tonight so we just came in early to enjoy the weekend.

Are there any DJs or rappers you came to see at the Castle?
No, we're just here to party. And we are happy to see Pale Horse and Skinner here with their art.

THUMP: Have you guys seen any art this week?
Dude: I don't really remember what I looked at, but the best thing I went to was Scope, on the beach. They have the hoverboard from Back to the Future.

Are you at Basel Castle for any specific music act?
Dude: I'll be real—I can't wait to see Gesaffelstein. He smashed it at Webster Hall the other night in New York City.

Are you guys here to turn up too?
Dude: We out here on that trill yoga shit.
Girl: Last night's highlight was Richie Hawtin
Dude: Yeah, I somehow got in dressed like this.
Girl: Then we went to the Le Baron party at Nikki Beach. And Nicolas Jaar's set at Bardot was the best set ever. We also went to Kendrick Lamar.
Dude: I did not go see Boy George's acoustic set, and I am not going to see his DJ set—ever.

THUMP: Are you guys from here?
Yeah, we live here.

Who did you come here to see?
Dude: Travis Scott, Chance the Rapper—we wanted to see Rob Banks but it was so early we didn't make it

I feel like not a lot of people have a music act in mind but they came anyways.
Girl: Yeah, none of out friends know why they are here.

THUMP: Where are you from?
Girl: New York.

How long have you been here?
Girl: Since the 29th. I work for Jeremyville.

Are you guys looking forward to a specific music act?
Dude: The Fat Jew is the only musical act I've met today. What's his deal? I saw him in a movie.

Sure, it was hilarious to be surrounded by confused socialites with no idea why or how they got there, but it was also heartwarming to meet a bunch of open-minded kids learning to love new music. The Overthrow have done wonders for bringing underground artists into the city, and hopefully a crowd member or two will leave with a favorite new mixtape. So if you are sick of stadium EDM, Afrojack, Tiesto groupies and million dollar cover fees during your yearly Ultra week pilgrimage, why don't you just do Art Basel instead? It's warm out, nobody played "Clarity," and I only saw two hula hoops the whole time. Art Basel is the secret music conference that isn't really a music conference.

Jess loves to hang out with chickens, but hates eating them. -@JubileeDJ