In just its fourth year, Proper NYE is beginning to cement itself as a premier West Coast music festival. For two days, Petco Park, which is graciously loaned out by San Diego and the Padres, is home base for Proper, where thousands descend for an incredibly stacked two days of music.
The festival and lineup curated is carefully curated by the FNGRS CRSSD crew to bring in not only some of the best names in dance music but also to do it in a way so the entire festival feels like one living, breathing event as opposed to a bunch of standalone concerts all shoehorned into one stadium. Think of it as an artist putting together a tracklist for an album and the album flowing together perfectly. The energy has to slowly grow throughout the day in a way that will culminate in a crescendo of your choosing.
But let’s talk about a huge elephant in the room, which is one of the things that made Proper shine this year and propelled it to what might be a yearly tradition
The 2024-2025 rendition of the festival was stacked with a lineup that had fans salivating, but was also littered with logistical issues. It was only the third year of the festival, so I filed it under “growing pains” but moments like this are make-or-break situations for fledgling festivals. Going to a music festival with an incredible lineup, but the first thing you do when you get home is complain about the logistics is an absolute killer.
“If you build it they will come” can only take you so far if the people who come had a terrible experience and then are posting about it.
Within just a couple of hours of being there, you can tell that Proper not only listened to the feedback from last year’s festival but improved on almost every facet of it.
Remember, mistakes are only bad if you don’t learn from them.
Proper boasted reduced capacity – and one could feel the difference immediately. Entering from any of the four entrances was an absolute breeze, and with added traffic routes for people walking from stage to stage, it helped reduce the number of bottlenecks where it not only felt packed last year, but at times, unsafe. Perhaps the most infamous photos from last year came from festival go-ers when they tried to get on the field at 4 pm and could not make it on even while being that early. Luckily all of the changes Proper put in place made this a thing of the past.
I’ve never been happier to support a festival that not only takes accountability for their prior mistakes but uses them as a learning opportunity to improve the festival for the next year. This is how the best festivals continue to thrive.
In a world of maximizing profits by any means necessary, seeing Proper take these steps to “Slow down to speed up” was such a breath of fresh air – and one that many festivals should take note of.
Proper chooses to have their festival take place on December 31st and January 1st. So while most people rest and recover on New Year’s Day, the people of Proper dance.
Proper’s 4 stages were spread out throughout the grounds, with the de facto ‘main stage’ being placed right on the baseball field where the San Diego Padres play, giving the main stage a ‘massive feel.’
The 1-2 punch of Tinlicker, followed by It’s Murph was an absolute delight as they both showed their prowess across a handful of different sub-genres under the very rare San Diego rain. But rain did not stop the Proper crowd from dancing or smiling. We donned our ponchos while Tinlicker took us on a journey, and boogied our butts off while It’s Murph’s future hose started to set the tone for the next few hours.
The highlight of Dec. 31 came from Gorgon City’s absolutely massive DJ set at Proper’s Lot stage. For 90 minutes, they played the crowd like their personal puppets in the best way possible. The duo was tucked away in a tent due to the rain but that didn’t stop them from connecting with the crowd and feeling their energy through every transition and drop as they picked songs on the fly to take the crowd into 2026.
Proper has historically been very house forward – and different sub genres that fall under that umbrella – but they did for the most part stick to that four on the floor vibe. This year they expanded, if even just a bit, by booking none other than the legendary Chase & Status to an absolutely massive main stage Drum and Bass set. I was a bit worried going into their set – would straying from Proper ‘tradition’ be welcomed? And after being on the floor for the entirety of that set, I can safely say it was not only welcomed, but I think everyone agreed that a bit of straying from the norm of the lineup was SUCH a breath of fresh air – complete with being out of breath from Chase & Status’ signature drum and bass BPM. Like a palate cleanser during a 9-course meal. The switch-up was completely necessary.
But Proper had to go out with a bang – and that they did. Proper closed out the night with two legendary sets. Skrillex b2b Four Tet, followed by an extremely rare DJ set from French powerhouse Justice. The only bad part about it is that 2026 may have peaked less than 24 hours into the year
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to what might end up as a legendary Skrillex and Four Tet set everyones favorite Youtuber DerekD2 uploaded the entire set. My absolute favorite thing of a modern day Skrillex set is that there is no way of knowing what you are going to get but if you are on OG Skrillex fan than you could not have asked for anything. He played through timeless tunes such as “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” “Where Are U Now,” and a rinsing out of “Kill Everybody” that had me feeling like the critic in Ratatouille when he tastes the food. Skrillex even made sure to shout out Chris Lake who was originally slated to go b2b with Four Tet but due to visa issues, a quick adjustment needed to be made to the lineup.
And as the lights dimmed and we said goodbye to Four Tet & Skrillex, Justice reminded everyone why they are icons by opening with “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns and Roses – a perfect introduction to an hour-long dance party built for saying goodbye to Proper 2026. Their set included some notable Justice classics along with some very welcome peeks into what they are listening to including Gesaffelstein, Mr. Oizo, and Boys Noize. My favorite moment of the festival came from an unexpected drop of “Voulez-Vous” from the legendary ABBA. If you looked in any direction during this moment you would have been met with the same thing – everyone singing together at the top of their lungs.
Thank you Proper. See you next year!
‘Proper NYE Delivers A Proper Entrance to 2026
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