Coachella Vet (and Local DJ) Whipped Cream Is Headlining Vancouver’s Monstercat Compound Music Festival This Saturday

Men tend to dominate the DJ world, but the scene is slowly changing thanks to tenacious, badass women—like local DJ Whipped Cream, who is headlining the Monstercat Compound music festival this Saturday August 20. She describes the DJ world to be “extremely challenging” for women. “People don’t really expect the person behind the record to be a female, for whatever reason,” she shares. “There’s a lot of unfairness that occurs.” 

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Whipped Cream (aka Caroline) grew up in Nanaimo, and started competitive figure skating at an early age. “I expressed myself through music on the ice, but I didn’t realize how much music meant to me at the time,” she says. After a serious accident on the ice in her late teens, she had to hang up her competitive skates. “I tried to get back on the ice and get my jumps back, but unfortunately it just wasn’t the same,” she remembers. 

A snapshot from Compound 2018. Credit: Brandon Artis Photography

After years of being polished on the ice, inspiration came from an unlikely place: Washington’s Sasquatch music festival. “As a figure skater, you have to be prim and proper, hair tied back, no tattoos, no piercings. It’s an art form, but only to a certain extent—you’re judged on everything you do,” she shares. She describes watching Active Child perform at Sasquatch as the first time she felt free—and she wanted to give others that feeling. 

The artist describes herself as a walking juxtaposition. “I’m this 5 foot 3 blonde girl,” she says with a laugh—not what you’d tend to expect from an EDM DJ. That’s where her name came from, as well: the fluffy condiment doesn’t have much in common with the intensity of her work. 

But Whipped Cream loves to surprise people. “I just really let my art do the talking,” she says. “I can’t deny the truth of what I am—if you want to deny it that’s on you—but when I’m up there with my Grammy, they’ll understand.” She’s on her way there—she performed at Coachella and Lollapalooza earlier this year. 

Whipped Cream is one of many female DJs taking the Monstercat Compound stage this weekend (others include Akylla, Jessu & Pyka, Steph Tsunami, Unmarried Woman and DJ New Girl). She’s also releasing a new hip-hop track called “Angels” on August 25. 

Monstercat Compound Music Festival
Saturday August 20 from 2:00pm to 9:00pm
380 Railway Street
monstercat.com/compound