Legendary Manchester nightclub Sankeys--which has operated in one form or another since 1994--closes its doors on May 6th. While the UK will lose one of its finest clubs, Sankeys will remain one of the biggest names on the EDM scene. Club founder David Vincent explained that the decision was made to allow them to concentrate solely on their Ibiza venue. Judging by the Carnival Cities announcement, it’s a decision that will be more than worth it.

It’s an interesting concept. Building on the successful flagship Saturday night at the club, Carnival Cities involves inviting a select group of promoters and labels over to Ibiza and allowing them to show the island what they’ve got to offer. Running from the opening party on the 8th June to the closing on the 28th September, the full season sees 17 different parties from eight countries and twelve cities. The guest promoters include Bugged Out (London), Culprit (LA), D-Edge (Rio and Sao Paulo), mobilee (Berlin) and Tenax (Italy). With a mix of resident and guest DJs from across the world, including Boys Noize, Finnebassen, Todd Terry and William Kouam Djoko, Carnival Cities will certainly be one of the more eclectic offerings on the White Isle this summer.

For full info, check out Sankeys website, which also includes details of everything else the club will be offering up over the summer.

Now that HARD has officially announced HOLY SHIP!!!, we would like to remind you not to miss the opportunity to book the vacation of a lifetime. This party on a cruise ship in the Bahamas is planned for its third year, and is said to have a bigger boat than both previous years. We've made a list based on a few actual experiences from the most recent voyage, so here it is: our Top Ten Reasons to go (back) on HOLY SHIP!!!

1. The Music
One thing all festival-goers have in common is that they wanna hear great music. This boat has something for every EDM fan, whether it's acid house, deep house, disco, moombahton, trap, dubstep, drum & bass, or that weird stuff that no one wants to classify because, who cares, right?

2. Beach Party
There's a beach party. Enough said.

3. Make New Friends
People from all around the world come together for a great vacation on this boat. You'll probably meet someone unlike anybody you've ever met before. What you do from that point on is totally up to you.

4. Everybody Smells Nice
The whole appeal to a camping festival is that you can party all day and night while staying safe; no one's driving anywhere. The downfall, however, is the lack of showers. You're always a nice comfortable walk away from a shower and a bed on Holy Ship. And it takes that same amount of effort to get back out to the party.

5. Family Obligations
Anyone who's already been on HOLY SHIP! is now part of the family. It sure would seem inappropriate to intentionally miss a family reunion, wouldn't it?

6. Decisions, Decisions
From sundown to midnight, you can find everybody partying on the main deck. After midnight, however, you get several rooms to choose from, and each one has its own decor, its own bar, and its own music playing until the sun comes up. You may have to flip a coin.

7. Have Some Fun In The Sun
Besides all of the partying at night, the HARD team has ensured you will be entertained during the daytime as well. Aside from the usual Caribbean delights of enjoying the sunshine and the breeze simultaneously, everyone gets a chance to try mini-golf, yoga, or a scavenger hunt, and the DJs and the fans are all involved. You may even find yourself stumbling around downtown Nassau on a self-guided tour.

8. Meet The DJs
Everyone will have a chance to meet at least one of their favorite producers. Maybe you'll try speaking in tongues with Brodinski. Or you can host an impromptu interview with Skream in the men's room. Perhaps share a drink with Justin Martin as he scribbles a monkey onto a napkin. This might all happen in just the first night alone.

9. Nostalgia
At some point, you will hear a song that is being played just for you. The guys up on stage saw you down there in the crowd, and decided to play a track that only you would know. It's not often that you get to experience a moment of clarity on a party boat while hearing the voice of a dead rockstar from the seventies.

10. It's HARD
If you haven't been to a HARD event, now would be a great time to start planning your next one. Pick up tickets for HOLY SHIP!!! starting March 5th.

Though Ultra Miami's full phase 1 lineup announcement is due Jan 3rd, we have heard from a trusted source that Above & Beyond and Fatboy Slim will both be included in Phase One of this year's lineup. Also recently confirmed are Bassnectar, Boys Noize, Calvin Harris, Booka Shade, Deadmau5 Live, Swedish House Mafia's Final Performance and Armin van Buuren with his ASOT 600 Arena. What does that mean for you? Get to Miami this March for an incredible experience you won't forget.

UPDATE: The entire Phase 1 Lineup has been announced! View the lineup here.

UPDATE 2: Modestep, Rudimental, Disclosure, and Major Lazer have also been added to the Phase 1 lineup! View the full lineup here.

Heads up! Movement Detroit has invited Skrillex and Boys Noize for an epic New Years Eve Party called The Bang that you won't want to miss (Tickets Here). Taking place at the The Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, this event will also feature rising stars like Flosstradamus and Alvin Risk, as well as Boys Noize pals D.I.M. and Destructo. Since Skrillex and Boys Noize recently formed new group Dog Blood, there's a good chance we'll be hearing some new bloody tunes and may even be treated to some b2b DJing.

To celebrate Christmas, we're giving away a pair of VIP tickets to the event! To enter our contest simply follow us on Twitter and retweet this tweet here. Contest ends this Saturday, December 29th.

Top photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

With the expansion of the dance music bubble, the festival scene has become a staple in American culture. This past Labor Day weekend, thousands upon thousands of neon-clad ravers, self-professed music snobs, and party animals descended on Randall's Island, New York City in a massive show of this growing phenomenon. The fourth annual Electric Zoo was a showcase of music from across the electronic spectrum; dubstep, techno, house, trance, electro, trap, and progressive were all represented in one of the most diverse festivals of its genre in the nation.

Entering the Zoo gates felt like a homecoming. This was where many in the tri-state area and beyond truly fell in love with electronic music and its culture. The lineups were assembled very well for the most part and the emotion at each stage was of overwhelming elation. Sunday School in particular felt like a tight-knit family--for 3 days, you'd see the same familiar faces in the techno/deep house/tech house tent, hugs and smiles all around for the devotedly like-minded. Truly, the entire festival is as much a celebration of love and friendship as it is about the music.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

The selection of artists is top notch here every year. Whereas many other festivals play it safe and stack their lineups with the most famous and the flavor of the month, the curators of Zoo love to switch it up year after year, introducing fresh new artists and interesting combinations.

Netsky brought the earliest dose of drum & bass to the festival, lighting up the energy at the main stage with his MC and a slew of classics that included DJ Kool's Let Me Clear My Throat. Nicky Romero kept the energy high and stirred the crowd into a frenzy with his and Calvin Harris' new track Iron, while Gabriel & Dresden played a very emotional set at the Hilltop Arena's Group Therapy stage. Trance classics like Tracking Treasure Down were interspersed with crazy mashups such as The Beatles vs Dada Life, Eleanor Red Meat.

Many DJs found ways to work hip-hop into their sets as the genres continued their collision course; David Guetta notably dropped a new remix of his collaboration with Snoop Dogg, Sweat, while Dillon Francis worked in his own edits of Time Takers and Lil Jon to a massive crowd at the Riverside stage. Pretty Lights then closed out the night with his signature slowed-down beats and moving instrumentals.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

Also of note Friday was the takeover of Sunday School by the Vagabundos, Luciano's pack of tech and deep house connoisseurs. Who can forget Frivolous speaking into his bright red telephone, or the tent singing along when Reboot dropped Mike Dunn's Phreaky MF? The Ibiza standouts made a rare appearance in the states and left a tent of incredible vibes in their wake, capping off the night with an incredible performance by the Cadenza maestro himself that beautifully merged classic vocals and modern beats.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

On day two, the Bingo Players made a huge impression on the East coast crowd with the brand new Dear NY by Firebeatz & Schella, and Rusko played one of the most energetic dubstep shows of the festival with his own crazy MC work. Axwell's inclusion of The Knife's Silent Shout in a big-room mashup was also a main stage highlight.

The early Sunday School block of Claude VonStroke and Maya Jane Coles was an excellent daytime dance-fest, a mesh of ghetto tech house, UK bass, and sultry grooves. The remix that Maya played of Zebra Katz's Ima Read was absolutely brilliant, and when Claude dropped Julio Bashmore's summer smash Au Seve the tent went off!

Sasha's old-school progressive house was understated and smooth, serving as a light appetizer for the absolute beatdown that Chris Liebing provided at the end of the night. Perfectly positioned as the headliner, Liebing left many terrified and buzzing in the best way possible. Above & Beyond gave the crowd chills of a different fashion with their second set of the weekend, a techy electro-trance set that worked in a rousing salute to those fallen this past year, including a farewell to Neil Armstrong.

Photo credit: Bennett Sell-Kline for ElectricZooFestival.com

The most eclectic selection was left to the last day of the festival. Z-Trip, Congorock, Flux Pavilion & Doctor P, Benga, and Zeds Dead traded dubstep and electro blows between the Hilltop and Riverside tents, a dizzying whirlwind of bass that gave exhausted festival-goers much-needed doses of adrenaline. Better Lost Than Stupid played the most enjoyable daytime set of the weekend, Umek worked up a furious sweat, Apparat wowed with masterful diversity (and the ever-present Au Seve), and Dixon got ultra-deep, beautifully ending his set with Frank Ocean's Lost.

Unfortunately the last day at Sunday School was a bit hindered by a programming no-no: the addition of Boys Noize. While I respect the hell out of the man and think that he is one of the finest producers and DJs in the world, his acid-electro sound did not belong in this particular setting. When he hopped on the decks the Sunday School faithful seemed displaced, replaced by fuzzy boots, hula hoops, and assorted wild ones with an affinity for getting into altercations with security guards. It was an ugly demonstration of the divide that still exists in dance music culture, but this was only a minor damper on an otherwise fantastic experience.

Diplo's 3D show was really something special, a testament to the technology that the scene owes its roots and its evolution to. Finally, Marco Carola put school back in session one last time on a ride of the fullest basslines heard all weekend, and Skrillex closed out majestically with a moving piano outro of Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites.

Dazed, overjoyed, and pensive, we shuffled toward the exits, not ready for the end. New York City had been transformed into a colorful blowout for the fourth year, with 110,000 wild animals combined over three days calling the island their spiritual home. A necessary stop on the worldwide festival circuit, Electric Zoo was again a phenomenal success, turning the long weekend into a celebration of music, of life, of our generation.

Photo credit: Josh Stewart for LessThan3.com

Contains content from LessThan3 writers Toothless and Tweetie

Labor Day is fast approaching, and with it comes New York's premier electronic music festival, Electric Zoo. Made Event's young festival is only in its fourth year, but the talent is incredible, the venue improves every year, and the dance-crazed fanbase is multiplying. For part one of our preview, we'll check out two very different and very wild stages that will call Randall's Island home over Labor Day Weekend.

HILLTOP ARENA

The first day starts with a bang at the Hilltop as progressive godfathers Above & Beyond plan a Group Therapy session. New Yorker Zack Roth gets opening honors with his dark brand of prog house, a perfect segue into Anjunadeep mainstays Jaytech and Andrew Bayer. Rising stars give way to legends; the block of Gabriel & Dresden and Ferry Corsten is extremely impressive for long-time fans of progressive house and trance. Finally the curators themselves, Above & Beyond, headline the Hilltop on Friday with their signature soul-melting sound.

Progressive turns to electro on day two of the Zoo as newcomers DallasK and Mord Fustang will have fans jumping to early sets that will surely be genre-bending. The lineup then gets massive, with international stars Martin Solveig, Wolfgang Gartner, and Benny Benassi ready to blow the roof off this tent. But what's intriguing on this day is the addition of polarizing dubstep wildman Rusko--his set on the main stage last year was a bit mellow, but that can be attributed to the bright, outdoor setting. You can be certain that in a huge enclosed tent as day turns to night, this crazy Brit will have the crowd dancing and freaking at his usual breakneck pace.

Dubstep seems a logical progression after that cheeky special guest spot and day three at the Hilltop Arena delivers in the form of melodic 140BPMers Adventure Club and Mt. Eden. Electric Zoo does a great job of joining the new with the old, as pioneers Z-Trip and Andy C are going to school the young crowd on the origins of breakbeat. Live band EOTO will be a nice change of pace in the middle of the lineup but things will get mental soon after with Flux Pavilion & Doctor P followed by Excision. The three producers are known for destroying dance floors with bruising bass, so expect a killer block of monster dubstep.

SUNDAY SCHOOL GROVE

What started as a Miami institution of techno, minimal, and deep house has extended its reach to New York City. Made Event always keeps their infamous Sunday School lineup fresh and 2012 is no exception. On Friday the tent transforms into a circus when Luciano's crew of Vagabundos takes over with a collection of stars rarely seen statewide. Watch as Mendo ignites the dance floor, marvel as Frivolous plays with knives (literally), and groove as Argy gets deep and eclectic. The Frankfurt tag team of Robert Dietz and Reboot own the next three hours with an infectious sound that's been taking Ibiza by storm, followed by the Cadenza maestro himself. Luciano's legendary sets are a can't-miss affair and this headlining spot should be no different.

Day two keeps the tech house fire burning as local favorites Sleepy & Boo open up for a fresh selection of acclaimed DJ's. Dirtybird head honcho Claude VonStroke is a favorite everywhere he plays with intelligently funky sets that don't know the meaning of genre. Get techier still with rising star Maya Jane Coles, then let Paco Osuna plunge you into the depths of techno darkness before the most anticipated set of the day by Sasha. The DJ hero is known for taking the dance floor on a melodic journey and the sunset is the perfect time for a trip. Chris Liebing will follow up with a brutal, take-no-prisoners techno set of massive proportions.

Sunday sees a shift in the curriculum as techno and electro collide to create an enthralling lineup. A disco-tinged Boysnoize Records takeover with Djedjotronic and Strip Steve transitions to full-on Circoloco mode with Better Lost Than Stupid, the must-see triumvirate of Martin Buttrich, Davide Squillace, and Matthias Tanzmann. The tent is also host to an inspiring live set by Apparat and deep melodies courtesy of Dixon. At dusk this stage gets very interesting; electro beast Boys Noize rumbles through the traditional techno lineup. Will his set build on the electronic sounds he's known for, or will he steer us in a direction more closely related to his work on Cocoon Recordings? Finally the festival comes to a close with driving, dark beats from techno ambassador Marco Carola.

Only two stages in and already there's something here for everyone. Next week we share with you the Riverside and Main Stages at Electric Zoo. For now, dive into the lineup and check out the below video for an epic recap of last year's event.

Ladies and gentlemen, the hottest collaboration of 2012 is finally here in the form of Dog Blood, the monster project from two of the industry's top DJs: Skrillex and Boys Noize. The silent premier of their hot new EP, simply titled Middle Finger, dropped on 8/12, and fans have since figured out from the artists' social media outlets that the duo consists of none other than the rock star from LA and the German rebel. The resulting product is a fusion of outlandish techno and bass-heavy kicks. The careful listener will find Skrillex moving farther away from his famous screeching wobbles and closer towards elements of acid prevalent in BNR releases. The beauty lies in the ways in which their sounds blend together: head-banging beats that create frightfully groovy atmospheres.

Next Order saw the light of day even before fans knew who the producers were. To me, it sounds like a track between ages. On one hand, the energy amplified by the short, choppy kicks is reminiscent of old-school acid, but the spacey synthesizers prove it to be a slice of modern-day rave. Kooky samples and primal-sounding effects are scattered throughout the song. This track, though highly impressive, still does not out-shadow the Middle Finger's title track. Those who attended HARD Summer will instantly recognize this song; the rock n' roll metal shriekings and insanely trippy vocal samples make it an instant dancefloor hit.

Middle Finger certainly does give the current trend in electro the finger by deviating far from the norm into a place chock-full of possibilities. It's out now both on OWSLA and Boysnoize.

VIEW OUR PHOTOS FROM DAY 1 HERE. VIEW OUR PHOTOS FROM DAY 2 HERE.

When it comes to lineups, Gary Richards, CEO of HARD, certainly knows how to pick 'em. HARD has always held a reputation of being a cut above the rest in terms of exposing incredible up-and-coming talent and oft-overlooked but equally deserving headliners, and this year's HARD Summer was no different. Taking place at the easily navigable Los Angeles State Historic Park on August 3rd & 4th, HARD Summer's lineup was chock-full of some of the best names in bass music, techno, and indie beats.

Day 1 saw the LessThan3 crew starting off at the HARDer Stage with Marble co-founder Surkin. The baby-faced Frenchman's set was one of the highlights of the weekend for me; hard techno and tribal beats got the crowd jumping early on in the festival, with one of the best responses being to his summer-friendly single Lose Yourself. We stopped briefly at Magnetic Man on the main (or "HARD") stage, but quickly moved on to Breakbot as the emcee was a bit too chatty for our tastes. After taking in the laid back disco sounds of Breakbot at the Red Bull Music Academy Discotheque, it was back to the HARDer stage for a live set by Gesaffelstein, which saw the stoic Frenchman doing on-the-fly reworks of his infamous "kick, synth, and snare-only" sound. The crowd especially enjoyed his journey into what I'll call "moombahtechno," which sounds exactly like you think it does. A-Trak (pictured) made his first of two appearances as the closing act on his own Fool's Gold Clubhouse stage. The set was (perhaps unsurprisingly) trap-laden and included tracks from Flosstradamus and Baauer, both of whom have had recent releases on Fool's Gold.

The first night came to a close for us at HARD favorite Boys Noize on the main stage. His set was markedly less aggressive than last year, opening up with new single XTC and continuing on a journey through his more techno offerings, with even some booty bass thrown into the mix. When asked about the sound he went with for his set, Alex (Boys Noize) stated, "every time I DJ I really go in and do stuff for the moment. There's a bit of randomness involved, but that's why I love it so much. I don't think I would enjoy it as much if I had a set planned going into the gig. This year I played a few more techno tracks because sometimes it's good to reduce the amount of information the crowd is receiving in the music, so I threw in two or three tracks that you could also hear in a club like Berghain in Berlin."

Day 2 was noticeably more crowded, but with Skrillex headlining and his personal imprint OWSLA hosting their own stage, that didn't come as much of a surprise. My first stop was at the aforementioned OWSLA stage, where German hard techno producer Huoratron destroyed the crowd with track after track off his critically acclaimed Cryptocracy album. A maniacal grin was plastered on his face for the entirety of the set--he was having just as much fun as the crowd was, if not more. The OWSLA stage remained the place to be up until Skrillex's main stage appearance for the rest of the night, and how could it not have been? Current "it" boys Birdy Nam Nam, jack-of-all-trades Alvin Risk, moombah master Dillon Francis, and industry darling Zedd rounded out the rest of the night's lineup on the OWSLA stage, truly one of the best stage lineups I've seen at any festival this year. Zedd's stage-closing set got especially crazy after technical difficulties forced Nero to end their main stage set early, which sent practically the entire festival scurrying to OWSLA-land to see Mr. Zaslavski in action.

The sheer number of people who showed up to see Sonny Moore in action behooved HARD to close both the OWSLA and HARDer stages early and place Skrillex on the main stage rather than his own label's stage. This afforded the spry LA native the opportunity to bring out the big guns with his "mothership" of a DJ booth and mindbending, larger-than-life visuals. Sonny's set was an hour-long, crowd pleasing journey through Skrillex's greatest hits. He also threw in an as-of-yet unidentified hard techno track (drop a comment if you know it!), as well as some trap, which has become a mainstay in Skrillex's (and many of the other HARD performers') recent sets. Harlem Shake by Baauer drove the crowd wild and was surely the most high-profile drop of Baauer's career yet. He also managed to throw in both of his remixes of Goin' In by Birdy Nam Nam, but this didn't come off as redundant at all given the staunch sonic differences between the "Goin' Hard" and "Goin' Down" versions of the remix. After his set ended at around 2am, the crowd walked off filled to the brim with some of the best beats to hit LA this year. Bring it on, HARD Summer 2013.

HARD's next event, Day Of The Dead, will be taking place in LA on November 3rd, and will feature headliners Justice, Knife Party, and Major Lazer. Tickets go on sale here starting August 11th.