So in this spirit, Guetta might not get a gig, but Gary Lewis, a UK selector in his 50s who DJs on reel-to-reel machines, does. Fotias says, "We want people to see history."

What the rest of the country sees, says Kerri Mason, a New York-based writer covering EDM for Billboard, is an outpost of integrity. "Movement's really the last festival booking credible, consistent artists who are still doing what they do in the more competitive, commercial national scene." Andre Osyka of L.A. trio Droog (playing Saturday 4:30-6 p.m. on the Underground stage) sums it up: "Anyone who has been pushing the more 'underground' sound in the U.S. has a strong philosophical connection to Detroit." Von Stroke concurs, saying, "The influx of new money into the scene has created festivals with cookie-cutter lineups put together by promoters counting Facebook likes instead of listening to mixtapes and new releases. The Detroit festival is still all about Detroit. It's like the Nuit Sonores [festival] in Lyon where the programmers obviously care a lot. But Movement also has that special feeling of being a Midwestern rave with Midwestern people — like you put a sound system at Cedar Point or something."

It's that special feeling that Dan Sicko, the late, great techno author and authority on the Detroit sound, referred to as "the stargazing, hope-filled, melodic, simultaneously eulogizing and celebrating side of techno." He wrote that shortly before his death last year, describing a track by Underground Resistance side project Galaxy 2 Galaxy that was left off an NPR Top Ten list before last year's festival, itself a sign of how popular Movement had become, but also, tellingly, why the focus this year is on the history of the genre, not its popularity. Dan would be proud.

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