Electric Daisy Carnival

Went back for year 3 of EDC! It is such a special event that I look forward to every year. Planning for my EDC group is part of the fun for me and I am getting better at it each year.

Sparklebutt, our trusty and very useful totem. Made with a very lightweight and sturdy pool cleaner that extends to 12feet.

This year we stayed at the Vdara for the Thursday before EDC to get a chance to check out the Vegas strip for a night. Then we moved over to the hotels that are way north of the strip, but out of the way of traffic and much closer to the venue. Normally the trip from the strip to the Speedway is about an hour+ driving, but from our location it was only about 20 minutes as you watch the complete standstill traffic on the freeway from our sideroad. This location was awesome after being tired from all night dancing and we just wanted to get to bed.

The festival itself was as top-notch as ever in terms of music, artists, vive, and energy. What immediately impressed me, however, was how much Insomniac stepped up the production and stage design all over. They switched up some of the old stages and created new ones and Cosmic Meadows got a huge upgrade with impressive screens.

When Bassnectar stole all the ravers from other stages and made cosmicMEADOWS look like a scene from United Nations meeting.

As for the music, I’m gonna sound a little bit hipster/snobbish. The music at mainstage got a little old for me. Acts like Tiesto, Kaskade, Calvin were all very impressive in the years past (Tiesto 2013 had 1.5 hours, Kaskade 2013 was heart pounding, Calvin under the roof of Circuit Grounds commanded the crowd with song after song of his summer hits). But this year, all of them had only a 1 hour slot at the mainstage and they all sounded the same and cookie cutter. They were all playing big room and anthem house, which is definitely a trend right now that's causing many artists to sound the same and boring. Tiesto has been moving in this direction for a while now so I was not surprised, and Calvin still played a lot of his own electropop songs so he was excusable. I was most disappointed to hear Kasakde not sticking to his sound (House and deep house) and playing generic big room. I think that comes from having to play for the masses and so I hope they are given longer timeslots next year so they can play more of their own sounds (I know Kaskade is capable of taking you on a journey down the rabbit hole if given more performance time).

But my feeling of boredom had a silver lining. Most of my friends wanted to stay on the mainstage, but at one point I just walked away and started exploring with a few people who were also feeling a little meh about the MainStage (Quance was most ready to check out other stages). And it was the best decision of the night. At the bassPOD stage we discovered a DnB artist who was backed by a smalltime rapper and we really enjoyed that set and danced and jumped around for a while. The change of pace was definitely a good choice and we made sure to continue exploring for the rest of the weekend. 

Facing away from the upgraded bassPOD stage as the sun comes back up around 6am.

Some of the other memorable artists were:

Cosmic Gate: I’ve always wanted to see them, but in the years past, other artists would pull me away from them. I am so happy I finally got to see them. I wasn't sure if everyone with me would like it since they are trance, but their style is not so much vocal and sleep trance, but energetic so everyone ended up liking it.

DJ Snake: This one was totally unexpected for me. Quance really wanted to see Snake and since he had been awesome and tagging along with me to explore some smaller artists I wanted to see, I decided to make sure we got to check out an artist Quance was excited about. And ooohhh man, DJ Snake ended up being one of the top 5 sets I saw this weekend! I always thought I didn’t really enjoy the trap genre, but that was because I was listening it at home or in the office with headphones. Trap in that case is just annoying to me (it still is), but when you’re at a show and able to dance your head off it is so much more fun! Another example of trying something a little different and loving it.

Circuit Grounds. The roof retains the energy and reflects it back to the crowd tenfold. I'll make sure to visit this stage a lot more next year.

Dada Life: I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Dada every year at EDC. And I’m also pretty sure I keep loving them more and more each time. This set had a very difficult conflict with Above and Beyond playing at main stage at the same time. I really was torn. Jarret already decided that he was going to show Emily (a newcomer to our group) a Dada set and Tim and Quance were on board. Tim had to convince me to get me to come. As we were walking away from he mainstage, A&B started to play and hearing them just a little bit made it even harder for me to walk away, but I stuck with the plan and made our way to circuit grounds. I shouldn't have ever doubted the power of Dada. The place was exploding with energy that no other set that weekend came close to topping. Their songs are all very simple themes and sing-song-able (or scream-at-top-of-lungs-able). One impressive memory was when they told the crowd to scream as loud as they can as the music was coming on very loudly and the crowd drowned out the speakers (EDC speakers are super loud)! That gave me chills even in the 90F night air. 

Alison Wonderland: Tim had heard vaguely of Alison Wonderland and we looked up a recent set of her's while at the hotel. It was a mix of trap and good hiphop mixed together and we decided it was worth checking out. Sadly we didn't get to leave the hotel Sunday early enough that we only caught the last 15minutes as we walked in. But the 15 minutes I saw was INSANELY GOOD. She came up into the scene in a short time just this summer and she understood the immensity of it and was very appreciative of her opportunity. You could tell she really put in her heart into the sets she made. I really wished that I saw the whole set -- even with just 15minunites, she was my #2 set after Dada. She will be one I'll be keeping an eye open for a show near me,

Most everyone in the group at the end of three day rave.

EDC weekend came and went again, but I'm already starting to plan for next year! And as usual, I'm expecting many of the group to return again and bring along new people to add to the group. Can't wait!

Dancing for three straight days is good for you!