ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL WEEK, LAS VEGAS
Flower power The festival madness of Las Vegas EDC
W
ith America’s recent obsession with the acronym as mind-boggling as the concept of gambling itself, it’s fitting that Las Vegas is functioning as its nucleus, especially this weekend for Electric Daisy Carnival.
Set roughly 15 miles outside of the most decadent and sinful city on earth, the Insomniac-produced event takes place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway: a 1,000 acre complex that the daily raver population of well over 100,000 doesn’t even begin to fill up. We count at least eight stages on site and countless impressive sculptures and installations scattered about. There are pyrotechnics every which way we look, fireworks displays, hired circus performers, and more glowsticks than we ever fathomed could exist in one place at the same time. The semi-naked crowd is still dressed to the nines in furry boots, day-glo makeup, and revealing neon garb. This is a complete assault to the senses, and we think we like it. The Friday ends up being a bit of a transport and security nightmare that delays us from getting in for many hours. This all changes once we are finally inside, and we spend most of the night wandering the expansive site in awe. The top moments of tonight go to Little Boots’ full band synth-pop and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano’s high energy mix of filth and crowd-pleasing pop mash-ups that close out the evening. After a shaky start, the first night is a success, and the festival revellers are all smiles as they head back to the Vegas strip to keep the party going.
Saturday starts off a lot smoother, with many of the logistical issues of the night before taken care of, but is unfortunately cut short by Mother Nature. High winds of over 50 miles per hour begin to pose a threat, as ravers find themselves dodging flying debris in-between swinging their hips, so the stages go dark and everyone calmly retreats to the grandstands of the racetrack. Kudos to Insomniac for the way they handle this, as everyone complies with minimal incidence, but the stages remain dark for the rest of the evening. Thankfully, a few buses with portable soundsystems take to the car parks and headliner Steve Aoki treats the lucky 2,000 people around him to an impromptu intimate set. Sunday is back to business as usual, as the crowds come back extra eager to make up for last night’s unfortunate early close. Day tickets from Saturday are honoured, to ensure that no-one misses out on the full festival experience, and the schedule is shuffled about so that the Saturday headliners that were supposed to play after the site shut down, such as Avicii, are still able to do their thing. Highlights are most of the acts playing at Carl Cox’s stage, with Green Velvet doing a live PA to ‘Flash’, using his headphones as a microphone, topping it all off. We eventually leave the site for the last time and sleep for most of the shuttle ride back to our hotel. The late, great Hunter S. Thompson put it perfectly: “A little bit of this town goes a very long way. After five days in Vegas, you feel like you’ve been here for five years”. DJ Mag USA is happy to have witnessed the crazy phenomenon of EDM that has taken America, and specifically Las Vegas, by storm, and been presented with a passion sometimes shambolic, but always earnest, by Electric Daisy Carnival. ZARA WLADAWSKY
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