Electric Daisy Carnival

EDC Night 1: The good, the weird and the ugly

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Fireworks explode during the first night of the 2015 Electric Daisy Carnival on Friday, June 19, 2015, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Photo: L.E. Baskow

THE GOOD

The award for Best Designed Dance Area went hands-down to the Basscon-presented, hard-style WasteLand stage, which was flanked by shipping containers and thrashed cars … and bits of the Statue of Liberty, whose still-aloft torch served as the DJ stage. You could accept the backstory that the facade represented the destructive power of the aggressive, pounding musical frequencies, or you could glean a political theme from it—either way, it ranks among one of Insomniac’s most impressive displays. –Mike Prevatt

The new, enclosed and fairly intimate Funk House stage adjacent to the Cosmic Meadow area was a welcome addition, especially considering that EDC over-programs European dance music—be it trance, nu-school progressive, electro house, hardstyle—and rarely acknowledges the largely African American-pioneered sounds that influenced nearly the entire electronic dance genre. Both old-school house and more mainstream, R&B- and disco-inspired club classics could be heard, giving younger attendees something of a musical history lesson. Good call. –MP

Watching a fan exchange a kandi bracelet with Mark Knight. PLUR is alive and well. –Leslie Ventura

There were some really great totems this year, but Bob from Bob’s Burgers takes the cake. –LV

The three newbies at EDC who I chatted with loved their first festival experience. “I would buy into EDC now,” one of them told me. –Don Chareunsy

Despite 134,000 attendees on Night 1, per Insomniac, I didn’t witness one fight. Yes, drugs are rampant at EDC, but the overall vibe is laid-back and chill. –DC

For the uninitiated, EDC is similar to gay pride in that there are shirtless, muscular guys and guns on display aplenty. #NoComplaintsHere. –DC

Mark Knight and Toolroom live at Stage 7. Despite the obnoxiously distracting 7 Up branding that plastered Stage 7, London's Mark Knight and his superb Toolroom Records-curated lineup made it difficult to tear ourselves away to do anything else. The spot was a tasting course of some of the best rising young acts and underground heavy hitters in house and tech house today, ranging from the steely beats of producer Juliet Fox to ascendent duo Dusky to scene stalwart Knight himself. The simple, open space, free of light shows and go-go dancers, offered a no-frills dancefloor where fans and DJs could focus on connecting to the music. You won't find button-pushers here—all the acts we saw were expert crowd-readers, tweaking and pacing their sets in real time to the vibes of the dancefloor. Knight massaged his set particularly well, slipping in Etta James samples between hits like "My Love" and blending a cappella from Rhythm Controll's definitive "My House" into his "Man With the Red Face" for a moment that was straight-up church: "House is a feeling," the mix reminded. "You may be black, you may be white, you may be Jew, or gentile. It don't make a difference in our house." (Pro tip: Knight is playing an afterhours set for his birthday at Tru in Summerlin tonight. You won't regret going.) –Andrea Domanick

THE WEIRD

26 headdresses in five hours has got to break a record of some sort. I’m thinking: Most ravers in one area to simultaneously insult multiple populations of indigenous Americans. Cut it out, people. –LV

The entrance areas of the medical tents were busy all night, giving the impression that either the attendees weren’t taking good care of themselves, or that an awful lot of them had friends ailing or recuperating inside. At one in particular, medics were tending to people both outside and inside the tent. –MP

2015 EDC: First Night

One of the best things about EDC is that people of all sizes—2 to 22 and more—dress creatively (underwear only, anyone?), and there is no judgment. Free to be—love that. However, dirty T-shirts and basketball shorts as if you’ve just rolled out of bed? Try harder. And please shower. –DC

The human swelling of the free-water-refill stations begged the question of whether four were enough given the higher-than-normal temperatures. At one particularly crowded station, vendors swarmed the perimeter, taking the money of those too impatient or thirsty to wait 10-15 minutes to refill their bottles—and lines just to buy those bottles were easily the longest of any inside the festival. –MP

At some food vendors, the usual professional signs with offerings, ingredients and prices were absent. Instead, shoddily typed, 8x11 sheets of paper provided minimal info. And at one art installation, a huge ladder sat unattended, as if a staffer had just finished erecting the display and left without taking his supplies with him. The center-Speedway gas station wasn’t even hidden this year, merely blocked and enclosed by a chain-link fence, which looked tacky. Those are just a few examples of how last-minute the assembly of the festival appeared. –MP

During Martin Garrix’s set at Kinetic Field from 2:26 to 3:24 a.m. Saturday, per the EDC festival guide, I felt liquid behind me hit on my calves. A young woman had thrown up. Her friends apologized and promptly escorted her from EDC’s uh-MAH-zing largest stage area. –DC

Mad Max vibes. Post-apocalyptic style has always been a part of EDC, but this year we're really appreciating some especially Mad Max-esque touches (and what better to go with the extreme heat?). The WasteLand stage looked like a lost set piece from films, complete with gnarled car bodies, graffiti and flaming trash cans. The fest even had its own version of Fury Road's flamethrower guitar-playing Doof Warrior—a guy in head-to-toe leather body armor who played a Tesla coil over live beats. This must be Valhalla. –AD

THE UGLY

Trash. Trash everywhere. Trash accumulating in staggering amounts only three hours into the festival. Unlike my experiences at nearly every other music festival I attended this year, I witnessed no sanitation staff cleaning anything at any time of night, be it taking out full garbage bags or attending to the bathrooms and port-a-potties. –MP

Agree 100 percent with Mike. The trash that had accumulated by the end of Night 1, with no maintenance staff in sight, was deplorable. –DC

Transportation to and from EDC was an absolute nightmare, judging by the sheer number of angry tweets and #EDCLV searches and replies from Insomniac founder Pasquale Rotella (who did answer a handful of complaints himself). It took many people two hours to get there and finally park, and others complained of three-hour exits out of the lots. Insomniac has been doing this for five years now—how are things getting worse? –MP

Additionally, EDC attendees took to social media en masse to complain about the horrible conditions on some of the shuttles—i.e. no air conditioning, or no water allowed in the queues and onboard (!)—or that there simply weren’t enough cycling through. Early this morning, some said it took them four hours to get home and were debating returning to the Speedway for another night. –MP

DJ Sasha tweeted one minute before his 10:30 p.m. scheduled set time that he was still stuck in traffic. Some 45-minutes later, he finally emerged, though he barely warmed up during his 40-minute set. Is this how Insomniac treats all of its non-megastar talent? Was the veteran house icon not Kaskade-worthy of a helicopter ride to the Speedway? Insult to injury: His logo was blasted on the screens well before he even began playing. –MP

Traffic. Upon being directed, twice, to the wrong parking lot, we were told by a lot attendant it was best to just give up and park where we were: "There's just too many cars at this point. The whole thing is f*cked." Well, at least he was honest. We harp on this point year after year, and year after year nothing changes. After five EDCs, organizers are running out of excuses for the nightmarish, inexplicable traffic getting into and out of the festival. Last night's count? Two and a half hours to get in, four to get out. There's really no reason anyone should be spending more time in their car than at the actual event, and it does a lot to mar what would be an otherwise enjoyable experience. –AD

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