The palace got ratchet.
Over the weekend, Basel Castle packed a couple thousand party people (Scandinavian spitter Yung Lean, NYC shapeshifter Mykki Blanco, New Wave-y crew Future Islands, rap producer Mike Will Made It, some graffiti artists, even the chicken and the egg) into an actual castle in Wynwood.
But unlike real medieval times, it was chill vibes.
See also: Yung Lean, the 18-Year-Old Swedish Rap Star: "I Saw This Shit Coming"
Orchestrated by Miami-, Atlanta-, and Los Angeles-based collective The Overthrow, this annual rager has been a mainstay of Crossfade's Art Basel Miami Beach week party plan since 2010.
Last year, it went down at Grand Central park. And that was rad and everything... But thankfully, Basel Castle returned to its ancestral home for 2014.
As Castle-goers loaded up on light beer and spiked soda, everyone milled about the palatial grounds, checking out the artsy shit.
There was a stack of TVs broadcasting static, nihilistic slogs, and apocalyptically tropical imagery. And there were some fine $85 prints, including "Dreamgirl," our fave piece, by DJ, artist, longtime Overthrow affiliate, and Playboy playmate Tamara Sky.
Of course, after browsing the Castle's gallery and refilling on booze...
It was 'bout time for some tuneage. So when rapper Mykki Blanco snatched up the mic, we Basel commoners finally converged on the stage, shuffling quick and spilling drinks.
See also: The Five People You Meet in Wynwood
Despite dealing with an early 8:20 p.m. set time (and an almost totally sober audience), Blanco still stirred up an ass-shaking sweat sesh.
A genderqueer rapper/poet/performance artist, she once explained to Crossfade: "It is interesting because, biologically, I am not transgender. I do not take hormones that alter my body. I am a transvestite... I feel two-spirited. I feel both sexes inhabit my character."
At Basel Castle, shirtless with long dirty-blonde hair, she got .
And Mykki's own official party review: "Fun as fuck."
The peak hours began with North Carolina-bred, Baltimore-based indie band Future Islands.
Or as one Basel Castle bystander described the outfit: "These niggas be old as fuck! This is some white-ass shit!"
(For the record, we'd say something more like, Country-boy Morrissey doing slo-mo hardcore punk dance moves.)
"We're in Miami," Future Islands singer Samuel T. Herring observed. "So we just gotta dance."
Though some arty partiers may have been initially unsure about the band's melodramatic New Wave pop-rock, every head was bobbing by the time Herring and crew wound down their set with dreamy cuts like "Doves" and "Lighthouse."
At one point, we even spotted a non-white guy busting moves in the shadow of the Castle's graff murals.
