20 highlights from NXNE 2013

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NXNE is a hard fest to navigate. Imagine being told you could eat 1,000 meals over seven days for a menial ticket price. Several options would arise: 1) get really picky (involves a lot of research); 2) shrug and gorge yourself until you're burnt out on food for weeks by day three; 3) nibble and wander noncommittally; 4) eat what your foodie friends tell you to eat (possible indigestion); 5) get stressed and don't end up eating anything: read reviews and feel bad about what you missed.

Hey, if you're in category five, don't feel too bad. The truth is thousands of bands perform in Toronto every month or so anyway, and they usually have time to soundcheck. If you're really into beating yourself up, though, here are some (mostly visual) highlights of the fest, from the fans to the bands to surprising aesthetics of Toronto's lack of bike parking.

We collected a hell of a lot of photos over the course of the festival, check out the whole lot of them in our #NXNE stream. And read on for more highlights from this year.

BEST SETS

Absolute faves: Montreal's Blue Hawaii (how about that dance set? ps: DO NOT WORRY, guys, I know how these things work and they will be back soon); Air Dubai (did not understand kilometers when crossing border but made it to their show alive anyway); and of course the Induced Labour one-time-only reunion at Double Double Land. If you missed that, sorry but you really did mess up. The smiles were walls to wall, and vocalist Leslie Predy (Doom Tickler) held the best mosh pit seance, well, ever.

We were also down with Dan Deacon (dance tunnel!), White Lung (one of our writers just dropped the word gnarly), The Beaches (who got some parents dancing), Diana, Joey Bada$$, Merchandise, and last but not least Ludacris, Big Boi's last minute replacement, especially since whenever Luda asked "are there any REAL Ludacris fans in the house?" there was always the same lukewarm cheer. Hope he didn't take it personally... we were trying not to get trampled.