Danceportation at Convergence Station: Meow Wolf Transforms Into a Global EDM Festival This Weekend

Meow Wolf is a portal to a different dimension.

Since 2021, when the all-encompassing immersive-art collective opened its Denver depot, Convergence Station has been a popular springboard to zany parallel universes and the immersive alternative realities created within each. That multiverse has expanded and revealed more layers over the years, as Meow Wolf Denver regularly hosts concerts and larger takeover events, including Dark Palace and Vortex.

This month marks the return of another mesmerizing musical experience, Danceportation: Bass Invasion 002 on Saturday, May 16. The one-of-a-kind EDM night is anything but a coup, though, as Meow Wolf’s been inviting artists in that particular sphere since 2022 to overwhelming support and success, selling out eight of eighteen so far.

“Meow Wolf wanted to bring the spirit of our previous immersive festivals like Dark Palace and Vortex inside our own surreal worlds,” says Erin Barnes, senior director of communications. “Convergence Station’s backstory is that you’ve arrived at a quantum transit station where you can travel to four alien worlds that are merged together, so the name is a wink to that lore; you’re traveling through time and space to an incredible dance party.

“One label, headliner or tastemaker loads in their roster across multiple stages and bars throughout the exhibition, and each takeover ends up with its own personality, depending on who’s behind the decks,” she continues, adding that Convergence Station can be transformed into a techno house party, disco dance hall or dubstep club.

“The lineups lean electronic because that sound just fits the architecture,” she says, “but every label brings a different flavor, from underground bass to disco-flecked house to live world fusion, with the occasional emo singalong or drag party in the mix. The closest comparison we’ve landed on is a rave in an alien world. You’re dancing in a room that already feels like another planet, then you wander through a portal and the whole sonic landscape shifts on you. That’s the part you can’t quite get anywhere else.”

Meow Wolf Transforms into an EDM Festival Space

This year, longtime local EDM agency Sub.mission is in charge of curating the invasion; the last time the team took over Convergence Station, in October 2024, it packed out all four worlds and the causeway in between. Nicole Cacciavillano, a pioneer in Denver’s electronic-music scene who founded Sub.mission in 2007, knew she needed to be a part of what Meow Wolf was cooking up after attending a previous Danceportation.

“Sub.mission’s motto is ‘moving people through sound, not hype,’” she says. “It’s all about experience, camaraderie and community. When I saw Meow Wolf allowing that, I was like, ‘Dang, wouldn’t that be cool if they let me bring in sound systems to all these different stages.’ What a unique experience for the audiophile.”

And that’s exactly what she did with the last sell-out collab.

“It was so much fun being able to walk through the entire space and listening to the music that we love and put all of our energy and our heart behind and all the artists that we support,” she says. “It automatically created this cool, one-of-a-kind experience.”

For this iteration, Sub.mission is unleashing more than two dozen of its artists from around the globe, across every genre. It’s essentially a condensed festival in a space that’s unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else.

“We have international artists coming in who have never even been to Meow Wolf before, which is also one of the cooler experiences,” Cacciavillano says. “These artists travel the world and play a million different venues, they’re never going to play a venue like Meow Wolf. So it’s not only the consumer who’s getting that once-in-a-lifetime experience; it’s also the artists.”

International Acts on This Year’s Sub.mission Lineup

J:Kenzo is coming in from Ireland, while Numa Crew calls Italy home. Then there’s experimental U.K. producer Kursa and Japanese industrial dubstep maven Karnage. “We have artists literally from every continent, basically, coming to play music for this event,” Cacciavillano says. “It’s something that, unless you’re going to a festival, never happens in one venue in one night.”

Having such a diverse lineup of so many hand-picked EDM acts, consciously stationed throughout exhibitions to create the ultimate vibe, pairs perfectly with Meow Wolf’s mission, making the Danceportation options seemingly limitless.  

“Having the ability to curate multiple rooms in one space really allows the flexibility for variation in genre and BPM. It helps people flow through the night,” Cacciavillano says. “If they’re listening to dubstep, but they want to get a little more upbeat, they go over to The Perplexiplex and listen to a different sound. Or if they want to listen to drum and bass, they go find the pop-up stage.

“There are so many different genres that people are able to see. Not only are the rooms different, the music is different,” she adds. “It keeps it fun. It keeps people on their toes, and they never know what to expect.”

The Audience Is Also Invited Into the Music-Making Process

Visitors can even contribute to the musical menagerie, thanks to the interactive initiative of Colorado nonprofit Boredomfighters, which gives you the opportunity to craft your own music.  “We’ll basically make live music with the people who walk into the room,” Cacciavillano explains. “There’s going to be a bunch of different instruments, and anyone who comes in can make a beat, so throughout the night we’ll make a tune with all the different people who come in and experience that room.”

And if you need a little breather from producing and consuming so many BPMs, check out Frick Frack Blackjack — the Denver-based traveling no-cash, no-limit barter group that serves up as much mischief as it does low-stakes fun.

For Cacciavillano, who also owns preeminent local EDM spot The Black Box, Danceportation is another indication, and affirmation, of just how big the Denver scene has become in the past two decades — since the days she began throwing grassroots underground shows for friends.

“When we first started, it was like trying to pay people to come. I would be going into my friends’ nights and being like, ‘Hey, let me now do a dubstep night just so I can expose people to this music,’” she recalls, referring to the formative weekly Electronic Tuesdays. “Now, with dubstep, there are several different bass music parties.”

Every Blowout Party Deserves a Pre-Party

The night before Danceportation, the Black Box is hosting London DJ Neffa-T. Consider the May 15 event a little pre-party.

“He’s the best technical DJ in the world, and he’s going to be playing a six-deck set. That never happens,” Cacciavillano says.

Her enthusiasm is infectious: “It’s the first and only club set that people will get to see, so if people out there are actually into deejaying, this will be a show not to miss.”

And Every Pre-Party Starts With An Artist Trying To Make Their Dreams Come True

Before making the jump and officially starting Sub.mission, Cacciavillano taught in Highlands Ranch. But then she built her own EDM empire.

“By 2011, it started becoming the bass capital because no one in America was doing it like we were doing it. It has grown into something that’s a monster,” Cacciavillano says. “Never in a million years did I think when we started it would become what it is today. In a lot of ways, I don’t think it ever was supposed to become what it is today.

“Our goal was to bring out artists that we loved and the music that we love and hope that other people wanted to listen to it with us,” she continues. “When we got to selling out Cervantes’ consistently and still people didn’t know what dubstep was at that point. It was mind-blowing that it even got that far.”

The label now works with over eighty artists, in Denver and beyond, and has teamed up with larger promoters such as AEG on concerts and similar scene support, including hosting a Sub.mission stage at New Year’s Eve celebration Decadence Colorado. Sub.mission is known as the longest-running dupstep promoter in North America, if not the world, and Cacciavillano is thankful Meow Wolf has become a place to continue celebrating the culture.

“We’ve never really went the mainstream route; we always stayed underground. And the fact that Meow Wolf can recognize that and want to continue to work with that shows that they’re really about the community,” Cacciavillano says. “Two small businesses just getting together to create a night that people aren’t going to forget anytime soon.”

To make the most out of Danceportation, especially if it’s your first time entering such an eccentric EDM sphere, she has some advice: “Wear comfortable sneakers. Protect your feet, protect your ears and hydrate,” she says with a laugh.

“Come with an open mind, be ready to create your own adventure, and if you don’t like what you’re hearing, go to another room,” Cacciavillano concludes. “That’s why you need comfortable shoes — because you can walk all over the place and check it out. While you’re there, experience the venue, be grateful for the fact that we’re even able to do something like this, and take it all in.”

Danceportation: Bass Invasion 002, 9:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16, Meow Wolf, 1338 First Street; tickets are $87.