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Festival Fever: Electric Daisy Carnival

March 29, 2012

 

Welcome back to Festival Fever! In a continued effort to provide you with amazing coverage and previews of the best festivals and events our industry has to offer, this week we are featuring an international festival for the second time.

Electric Daisy Carnival takes place every June and has flourished into a world renowned brand over the course of 15 years. EDC is now well established within the top ranks of electronic music festivals around the globe and seems to be growing at an unprecedented rate every year.

This remarkable event is produced by the always reputable Insomniac Events who have no doubt been responsible for a significant portion of the growth seen within EDM in the United States and produces, likely, the biggest events of its kind within North America. Not only does Insomniac produce these monumental Carnivals, they are also responsible for other well established festivals known as “Beyond Wonderland”, “Electric Forest”, “Nocturnal Wonderland” and more.  These events in themselves attract a tremendous amount of festival goers and have built impressively loyal followings.

This renowned company has a reputation for producing innovative club nights, concerts and most notably their series of festivals which consistently attract thousands of fans. Now hosting editions across the country, Electric Daisy Carnival has become a household name for all EDM fans and is a must see for any electronic dance music festival lover. Featuring theatrical performances, military flyovers, firework displays, large-scale art installations, full-size carnival attractions and of course, the best electronic dance music one can find, EDC will leave you amazed to say the least.

Having battled through plenty of adversity, the festival has previously taken place in many different venues, although last year Insomniac made the biggest move to date by moving the entire flagship festival out of California and hosted it in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway was transformed into a spectacular arena to showcase the industries finest talents. For three days and nights, the vibe was elevated as the long list of international headliners made their appearances on the various stages throughout the property. The speedway is more than capable of successfully hosting events of this magnitude and profile. Being the home of several annual Nascar series events and boasting an enormous 142,000-person stadium capacity made it the ideal candidate, not to mention the 1,200-acre footprint this complex sits on.

The six different venues put together inside the speedway for the carnival are known as “kineticFIELD”, “cosmicMeadow”, “circuitGROUNDS”, “neonGARDEN”, “bassPOD” and the popular air conditioned “heinekenDOMES”. These unique amphitheatres provide a selection of varied atmospheres and experiences for the fans to indulge in. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is a perfect location for such an extravagant event and should have no problem providing ample room for growth over the coming years. Rumours have risen about Insomniac and the Speedway possibly having signed on to a five year contract, but nothing is confirmed.

The many unique venues in southern California which hosted this annual electronic music festival throughout the years included the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park in Los Angeles, National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach, Lake Dolores Waterpark in Mark Lapro Barstow, Hansen Dam in Sylmar and the International Agri-Center in Tulare. This festival has sold out venues with 30,000 maximum capacities and reached crowds of up to 230,000 fans over three days. Clearly successful in all its endeavours, EDC fittingly earned itself the nickname “American Ibiza”.

Insomniac Events have introduced the festival to other regions including Colorado in 2008, Puerto Rico in 2009, Dallas in 2010 and in 2011 the event expanded yet again to include Orlando, Fla. Each of which has been well received and with the amount of dedication Insomniac Events brings to their work, the Electric Daisy Carnival brand is bound to grow significantly every year.

Last year, the main EDC happened during the weekend of  June 24-26 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a lineup that included Wolfgang Gartner, Tiësto, Steve Angello, Cosmic Gate, Calvin Harris, Steve Aoki, The Bloody Beetroots, Borgore, Excision, Dieselboy, David Guetta, Zedd, Skrillex, Laidback Luke, Sidney Samson, Alesso, Bassnectar, Chuckie, Dada Life, Boys Noize, MSTRKRFT, Hardwell, Jack Beats, Porter Robinson, 12th Planet, Zed’s Dead, Terravita, Paul Oakenfold, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Nicky Romero, Afrojack, Infected Mushroom, Ferry Corsten, ATB, Rusko, Showtek, Felguk, Dada Life, Datsik, Doctor P, Bingo Players, Benny Benassi, Above & Beyond and many others. The performances were spread across the selection of six unique stages which all possessed advanced visual productions and different light shows to keep the fans entertained. An estimated 230,000 people attended this monumental event to party for three days and dance to the music of their favourite artists. Check out this video of last year’s action.

EDC is clearly a brand that is here to stay and grow, the fans and the artists all love coming back year after year. This year Electric Daisy Carnival is rumoured to be larger than any previous EDM event worldwide. The Las Vegas EDC 2012 event will host more than 250,000 attendees over three days and feature some of the very best headliners in the industry. The line up has not yet been officially released by Insomniac, but artists are confirming appearances through independent channels such as Flux Pavilion, ATB, Felix Cartel, Thomas Gold, Trent Cantrelle, Angger Dimmas, Erick Morillo and UMEK.

Keep up to date with upcoming news and announcements about the line up on the festival’s website. If you plan on attending and are yet to purchase your tickets, find them here before it’s too late. Anyone with any interest in electronic dance music should seriously consider making their  way towards Vegas to experience this unforgettable party.

Next week we cover Mutek, a five-day festival in Montreal, Que. Over 12 years, this festival has become one of the world’s leading showcases for innovative forward-thinking electronic music and it’s coming up May 30. Come back next week to here all about it.

If you know of any Canadian or International electronic music festivals we should be covering, please email Stef at festivals@djmag.ca.

 

See you next week!

 

Stef Abrek