The Best Sunday Ever

It all started with a DM.

I slid into the IG request box of Val and Ben, co-founders of Radio Fresca, asking if I could cover Radio Fresca’s special Sunday World Cup event at Liberty Point. Within the day, both responded with such a welcoming energy that I knew this event was going to be unforgettable. 

For context, I haven’t been back to Liberty Point ever since my friend and I hosted a joint high school graduation party there. I remember my grandma, Joodles the Clown (she actually was a real clown/party entertainer for 50+ years), getting in trouble with security for trying to sneak everyone drinks. She just passed away in February, but I know for a fact that she would have absolutely loved Fresca because she was the biggest people person you could ever meet. 

Right off the bat, I knew I was at the right place as I saw Ben mixing house records with the World Cup playing behind him. I attribute Spain’s success, the team I was personally rooting for, to his insane set. 

For a few ethereal hours, one of the biggest sporting events on Earth and one of Philadelphia’s best house music parties shared the same stage.

Every time the crowd erupted after a goal or close call, Ben effortlessly finessed that energy back into the music. People could dance and watch the game simultaneously, which was a unique experience for me. 

Regardless of whether people were there to watch the match or dance, everyone loved each other, and this was the most Philly-esque event I have ever been to in my entire 20 years and 11 months of living here. 

Even more surprising than the World Cup was who I saw sharing the dance floor.

Kids. Parents. People in their 50s or 20s.

People who have been following house music for decades, and people who wandered in after hearing the music drifting on Penn’s Landing.

Children danced while their parents smiled proudly nearby.

What I loved the best was that nobody looked out of place and nobody looked like they were trying to impress anyone.

There were no cliques; everyone simply belonged.

Radio Fresca, the recurring Sunday series created by Ben Arsenal and Val of Extra Blonde Events, has become one of Philadelphia’s most welcoming house music experiences. Rather than chasing exclusivity through bottle service, velvet ropes, or impossible guest lists, Radio Fresca fosters community, and that philosophy starts with the music.

Ben Arsenal described his sound to me as “global, eclectic, and drum-driven," explaining that while his influences span from everywhere from Brazil and West Africa to disco, jazz, and reggae, house music is the common thread connecting it all.

You can completely hear that approach throughout Radio Fresca.

Nothing feels performative or rushed. Every set invites people to simply vibe instead of trying to impress them from behind it.

This was the Best Sunday Ever! Like, actually, the event is called Best Sunday Ever, a collaboration between Radio Fresca, Sundae, and Subsurface featuring intentional artists Huerta, Toribio, and Mickey Perez alongside Philly favorites like Francisco Collazo, Lee Jones, Menace, Keen, and Ben Arsenal himself. 

Three of Philadelphia’s strongest electronic music collectives came together instead of competing against one another. That alone says enough about our city of brotherly love. 

The craziest part of all this. Despite hundreds of people packed into Liberty Point, no one had their phone out.

Read that again. In 2026, this feels nearly impossible.

The World Cup Final was unfolding behind the deck; international artists were playing, the sun was setting over the river, and every ingredient for a viral IG Reel or TikTok was right there. But people were not glued to their phone cameras; they were looking at each other. They were dancing. They were laughing. They were truly living in the moment instead of documenting it.

I’ve been to plenty of events where everyone seems more interested in proving they were there than actually being there.

I got into house and EDM music through my sophomore-year roommate at Tulane University, the school I went to before I transferred to Drexel. 

Last Halloween, she invited me to The Hell’s Gala in New Orleans, a two-night EDM festival headlined by Tape B, Alesso, Layton Giordani, Levity, J. Worra, and EATER performing inside Mardi Gras World. It was objectively an incredible event, but because my roommate gravitated toward the heavier side of electronic music, we spent most of the weekend at the dubstep and bass sets.

At the time, I thought that was just what EDM was. It wasn't until Radio Fresca that I realized I’d simply been standing in the wrong crowd.

So yeah, if you asked me which event I’ll remember years from now, I would immediately respond with Radio Fresca.

Not because it had the most clouted DJs, but because the people were genuinely nice and amazing to be around. At Hell’s Gala, all I really remembered were the big names and flashing lights. At Radio Fresca, I remembered my girlhood.

It’s super hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it firsthand.

I got back from photographing Ben’s set and was walking around barefoot because my thrifted kitten heels completely gave out. Not a loose strap or a broken buckle; the entire shoe was done for. The bar gave me tape, but there was no saving that shoe. 

I just laughed because there wasn’t much else I could do, so I figured I’d just spend the remaining 7 hours of the event hobbling around barefoot and getting splinters. 

Instead, my friend Rocco came up to me, and he’s like, "Hey, this girl wants to buy you shoes." I said, "Huh?"

I’d met her maybe twenty minutes prior. She opened DoorDash and insisted on ordering me a new pair of shoes from Target, and trust me, I tried to Venmo her, but she insisted on this being her treat.

While we waited for them to arrive, we kept dancing, and by the end of the night she’d told me I could be her guest at Equinox whenever I wanted. Sorry Planet Fitness!

It still amazes me how quickly strangers can become friends when everyone shows up with the same energy.

Later that evening, I was walking through the crowd when I felt a click on my back. 

I didn't realize my corset had completely unclasped in the back. Before I could even process what she was doing, she fixed my entire top for me and adjusted the straps too, and then we became friends. 

I didn’t feel awkward or embarrassed the whole event, and while those interactions may have been brief, they are also what I remember the most. 

As the afternoon went on, I wandered upstairs and realized I now had two amazing DJs playing simultaneously, so I was a bit back and forth. These two stages each had their own crowd, their own energy, and their own soundtrack. 

It didn’t feel like I was choosing between two competing performances; it just felt like two different moods both existing under the same roof.

At one point, I found myself talking with Huerta, one of the day’s international headliners.

For someone who tours internationally, he couldn’t have been more down-to-earth.

We chatted casually; he offered me a hit of his hand-rolled cigarette, and for a moment it didn’t feel like I was talking to someone who had flown across the world to play a festival; it just felt like I was talking to another person who was just as happy as I was to be there.

Some DJs build careers around spectacle; then there’s Ben Arsenal.

“I grew up in Vermont. I was always into music, so I started playing drums, recording drums, and then I started making beats. I went to Europe when I was like 16 and kinda started sneaking into clubs or whatever. That's when I got into disco and dance culture. I moved back to Philly, went to Temple, ended up DJing more electronic, basically like indie electro. And then I went to Brazil, actually through Temple, and got exposed to bigger club culture. And that's when I started playing more deeper house, international house.

“I was always interested in international music. I traveled a lot. I had a chance to go to Brazil, Thailand, and France, and spent some time in Senegal, West Africa. Got into Afrosounds before Afro-house was a thing, and I studied traditional percussion there with a family friend. Then I opened a studio in 2011, Elevate Sound, after I graduated from Temple, and just kept pursuing the DJ stuff and pushing my projects forward."

Today, Ben balances multiple creative projects, but he doesn’t see them as competing with one another. 

"Departed has become a bigger destination event series. We bring in more international artists, bigger productions, and more of a destination experience. World Town is like an artist collective. We do parties, but we also do educational events, France, retreats, and a lot of different things. And then Radio Fresca is more just as a summer series, lower production, just about the music and the environment. So they kind of complement each other in different ways."

 When I asked whether he considered himself more house, EDM, or techno, his answer became even more specific. 

"More house for sure, definitely global sounds with the undertone of house music. That's kind of the common thread: house music and drums, soulful, groovy, and feel-good.”

I decided after this event that I am going to start DJing, so I am in the process of buying a DDJ-REV1 2-deck Serato DJ controller, which I confirmed with multiple DJs was the best deck to start with. So I asked Ben for advice.

“Study sounds, be open-minded, experience, go out, and experience talented people who have done their research. Do your research. Learn music history. Find your common threads. Don't feel confined to one genre. I think that's definitely something that a lot of people end up hurting themselves with. They say, 'This is my sound,' and it's like, you just started DJing a couple of years ago. There's such a variety of sounds in the world. You shouldn't just stick to one thing. The more you know about music, the more versatile and able you'll be to tell a story and create a cohesive set." 

The emphasis isn’t on building a brand; it’s on becoming a student of music, and this perspective explains why Ben struggled when I asked him to name a favorite song or even a favorite artist.

"I can't think of one track. Because music's all about context, and context is all about the moment, you know what I mean?... Music is so infinite." 

When asked what artists Ben draws inspiration from, he said, “Oh, wow. That's a tough one. I mean, I love, like, you know, like, classical musicians. I mean, I grew up on, like, blues, jazz, hip hop, and reggae." 

After hearing the word "reggae," I knew I had to bring up the GOAT, so I mentioned that I became friends with Bob Marley’s granddaughter and Lauryn Hill’s daughter, Sara Marley, from my overnight camp with a focus on circus, Independent Lake Camp. Shoutout to her; she is an amazing singer, but anyways, he said he worked on a YG Marley track and did some production for it.

“So a good friend of mine, Zach Lopresti, goes by Zilo. He's now Lauryn Hill's guitar player. We were working on some stuff, and he said, 'Zion just texted me, like, he had this idea. If you want to work on it, sure. So we just, like, basically laid down, you know, a foundation for this track, and it ended up getting produced, and cool.”

Even his dream lineup reached backward rather than forward. 

Instead of naming today’s biggest electronic acts, Ben imagined seeing Led Zeppelin at Red Rocks, later adding Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to the fantasy.

Perhaps the most revealing moment of our conversation came when we stopped talking about music altogether.

I asked him about the nightlife and the realities that come with it, and stay tuned for my upcoming article where I go more in depth. Rather than dismissing the question like others may, he acknowledged both sides of the industry.

"I mean, I think it's interesting because nightlife's very, like... It's like an enabling factor, but it's also, like, very therapeutic for people to get out, to move, to connect, like, socialize. And we, like, saw that during the pandemic. You know? Like, when people were isolated, they got super depressed. As soon as we started, like, throwing parties and people could, like, hang out and be there for each other, it was like a game-changing environment. So that will never be replaced." 

I asked how he got to this level. Where did he start? Did he ever accept any gigs that were unpaid?

"Oh, yeah. For sure. Like, I ended up getting, like, a bartending job to help me just, like, make, you know, rent, basically, when I was, like, just starting. Like, out of college, I was catering. Like, I was doing, like, all sorts of dumb stuff that I didn't want to do just to avoid taking, like, a nine-to-five. And then I got really lucky. I got a gig right out of school at this restaurant in Rittenhouse. It's called Serafina. It's called "The Love" now. So I DJ there every Friday night." 

Looking back on Radio Fresca, those words explain the event better than any IG story ever could.

Ben’s generosity wasn’t reserved for the industry veterans he already knew. One moment that stuck with me was when one of my friends, a Drexel student and aspiring DJ, wasn’t on the guest list and didn’t expect to get in. Rather than brushing him off, Ben came downstairs, met him, and, after talking with him for a few minutes, welcomed him into the event.

For my friend, it wasn’t just free admission. He spent the night surrounded by DJs that he had been following for years, meeting people in Philadelphia’s dance music community, and experiencing Radio Fresca from the inside. He left, saying it had been one of the best nights he’d had in the city’s music scene.

It was a small gesture that probably only lasted a few minutes, but it said a great deal about Ben Arsenal. In an industry that can sometimes feel exclusive or intimidating, he chose to make room for someone new, particularly a college DJ looking to make it. I loved his willingness to welcome people, whether they’re internationally touring artists or college students just beginning to find their place in the scene.

Right before I left, I spotted another familiar face. Earlier this year, while reporting on how Philly’s fake ID crackdown is threatening college nightlife, I interviewed Israel Salazar, general manager of Midnight & The Wicked, about how clubs are balancing hospitality with increasingly stricter security measures 

This time, I walked over to Artem, the owner of Midnight & The Wicked.

“Do you remember me?” I asked.

At first, he hesitated. Considering how many people pass through Philadelphia nightlife every weekend, I couldn’t blame him. Then I reminded him that after my article was published, he bought me dinner at Mona with Izzy and a few other mutual friends.

He immediately remembered me because I also vaguely remember him at dinner mentioning that the CEO of Feet Finder, a Drexel alum, goes to Midnight and had a bottle-service sign that read, "Your feet pics paid for this," so the dinner convos were definitely memorable.

Before we went our separate ways, he handed me his business card, smiled, and said, “Text me on August 21.”

August 21 just so happens to be my golden birthday.

Ben told me his goal is to “transport the energy through music.”

After spending a Sunday at Radio Fresca, I realized he isn’t just transporting energy. He’s creating a place people don’t want to leave. 

And in a city built on brotherly love, that may be the most Philadelphia thing of all.

It all started with a DM, and since I’m quite impatient, I'm already looking forward to sending the next one.