All of the stars seemed to align for Culture Shock 2024, with the sun having a strong presence and good vibes all around. It’s WIUX’s annual all-day, free music festival, and this year’s iteration took place at Dunn Meadow on April 13th.
Among electric performances from acts like Westhead, Evan Wright, and more, Ed Winn seemed to stand out as a highlight for many. He performed at 3 PM, following a very energetic set from Callejera.
Ed Winn is an IU senior from Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s been doing music seriously since high school, but he has been making it since he was a kid.
Tyler, the Creator is one of Ed Winn’s inspirations in the song-creating process, saying that “He just creates what he wants to create.”
Ed Winn performed tracks from his entire catalog including some from his most recent project, DX3:
“Swiss Army”
“Groovy Bee”
“Outsane”
“Saint”
“Hometown”
“Sum 2 Say”
“Car Convos”
“Medusa”
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“The Mixx”
Fans gathered to dance to “The Mixx”
This performance felt fun from the jump, mainly because of how much crowd interaction there was. Ed is HUGE on getting the crowd involved, and it truly showed at Culture Shock. Not only did he pit the left and right side of the audience against each other to see who could be the loudest, but he also mixed it up by having a pop quiz about his lyrics.
Ed was glad to see that the crowd knew some of the words and was very interactive during the performance, agreeing with the claim that “if the crowd isn’t into the performance, there’s no point.”
“I love all my performances equally like they’re my children. But this one is definitely up there with some of my favorite performances,” Ed Winn remarked after his set.
Like many fans, Xander Beauchamp had a very positive reaction to Ed Winn’s Culture Shock performance.
“He really knew how to control the crowd’s energy and get everyone moving,” Beauchamp said.
The Culture Shock crowd waves their hands along to “Sum 2 Say”
When asked how it felt when asked to perform at Culture Shock, Ed Winn said “I was honored…that I would be even considered for it.”
Ed Winn was a part of WIUX’s 24 hour Pledge-A-Thon in November, joining the Hip-Hop Half Hour Live. He is no stranger to WIUX, so having him on the performance lineup was nice to see.
Throughout the years, Culture Shock has been graced by acts like Mac DeMarco, SALES, and Saba. Now Ed Winn has joined that esteemed roster.
“There’s a lot of artists out right now in the Bloomington area, and they could’ve chosen anybody,” said Ed Winn after reflecting on joining the historic list of Culture Shock performers.
When asked what is in store for the future, Ed Winn said that he is really looking forward to doing more performances.
Ethan Clay was another advocate and friend of Ed Winn, even receiving a shoutout during the performance.
Speaking on WIUX’s knack for bringing together local artists, Clay believes that “WIUX is doing a great job of pushing that out for real. And getting musicians together to create some shit that we wanna hear.”
