John Summit’s Experts Only festival signals NYC house-focused festival revival
The debut two-day event on Randall’s Island blends a tight lineup, pop-up moments, and careful production that critics say could reestablish New York as a home for house music festivals.
John Summit's Experts Only festival closed its inaugural weekend on Randall’s Island with a clean, well-executed showcase of house music that many attendees and observers say could presage a broader return of dance events to New York City. The New York Post framed the event as a sign that the city is ready for more purposefully curated, house-focused festivals now that Electric Zoo is in flux and other venues face headwinds. Summit, a Chicago-born DJ now based in Miami, built the event around a single-weekend format that balanced outdoor production with an intimate, crowd-friendly vibe.
Before the main festival began, Summit staged a surprise pop-up at Vessel in Hudson Yards in partnership with Lululemon. The pop-up offered early entry to the first 400 fans at the brand's Fifth Avenue store and included a run with Summit, a pop-up concert, and a set of Experts Only gear. Those moments, described by attendees as surprisingly civilized and well organized, foreshadowed the rest of the weekend's rhythm, from careful logistics to a food program that leaned NYC staples to keep it local and approachable.
Summit, who has become a mainstay on the club circuit with regular stops at Club Space in Miami and big-stage sets at Ultra and III Points, used Experts Only to fill a gap he identified in New York: a lack of house-centric festivals. He explained to The Post shortly before the event that New York needed a dedicated gathering for house music, given the ongoing uncertainty around Electric Zoo and the variability of other events in the city. The result was a two-day program that curated a lineup with a balance of chill and peak-ready moments, with LP Giobbi providing soulful house; a high-wiring B2B set pairing Kaskade and Cassian; and a late-night set featuring Green Velvet and Layton Giordani. Attendees found the programming thoughtful and cohesive, with the vibe aimed at being immersive rather than overwhelming.
From the stage to the street, the energy matched the city’s appetite for large-scale dance events, but the logistics did require some adjustment. The festival leveraged a dedicated Experts Only ferry service roughly every 20 minutes for pass holders, a smoother option for many but not universally favored. Some festival-goers later took to social media to recount having to walk back across the bridge to Manhattan after ride-hailing options were cut off near the end of the night. The feedback points to a needed tweak if the festival returns for a second year, yet they did little to dampen the overall impression of a well-orchestrated event held in the city that never sleeps.
Friday into Sunday saw the weekend close with Summit’s two-set run on Saturday, highlighted by a remix of his rising hit Crystallized that sent the crowd into a collective surge. The second set, which included the Crystallized remix, drew strong social chatter and was widely described by attendees as a high-energy finish that captured the evening’s balance of melody and grit. By evening’s end, the overall sentiment online and in person was that Experts Only had delivered the kind of house-forward festival experience New York had long been missing: accessible, well-paced, and built with attention to sound, sightlines, and a sense of community.
Looking beyond the weekend, Summit’s return to the fold of live festival culture in New York follows a broader pattern of cities rediscovering large-scale dance events and outdoor stages. The New York Post notes that the city’s house fans have faced scattered venues and uncertain futures in recent years, and Experts Only appears to fulfill a need for a curated, club-caliber experience that can scale for festivals without sacrificing the intimate feel that fans look for at a live show. The festival’s success could signal more opportunities for NYC to reemerge as a destination for house and techno when the calendar aligns with favorable weather and logistics.
Summit has not slowed down since Experts Only. His touring calendar for 2025 and into 2026 shows a busy slate across clubs and festivals, with appearances at major events such as the Austin City Limits Festival in October, a string of LIV residencies in Las Vegas, and additional festival appearances. While the exact balance between pop-up surprises and formal festival bookings remains to be seen, the reception to Experts Only suggests there is a receptive audience for a refined, house-forward approach to New York’s festival landscape.
In sum, Experts Only offers a blueprint for how a city-backed dance festival can feel both grand and grounded: top-tier booking, smart production, tasteful branding, and a menu that nods to local flavor. If Summit can translate that formula to a second edition without the hiccups that attended the initial rollout, New York may be poised for a renewed era of house-centric music experiences.