Celebs raving, mother nature misbehaving and DJ's saving the day.
Written by Lara Kelley (@larakathleen)
So you think you don't dance? There was no standing still at the 16th annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), a massive 3-day electronic dance music festival that just took Las Vegas by storm this past weekend. Even if you tried your best to remain motionless, with all that bass blasting you would have failed miserably. [Check out our photo recap.]
The sold-out event catered to some 300,000 attendees and boasted a lineup of over 150 electronic music artists including Calvin Harris, Avicii, Kaskade, Above & Beyond, Chase & Status and will.i.am, to name just a few.
The festival is known for its fully immersive audiovisual experience: seven stages, state-of-the-art lighting and sound production, over a dozen full-size rides, a nightly fireworks display and even Redbull Skydivers jumping headfirst into the action. A scene like this would make even the most dance-impaired music fans nod their heads and two-step to the beats.
Even if you tried your best to remain motionless, with all that bass blasting you would have failed miserably.
Electronic dance music’s takeover of Las Vegas began early this year with a full slate of non-stop events during the week leading up to the actual festival. The celebration included pool parties and shows in addition to the first annual EDM biz Conference at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which featured business leaders and EDM pioneers speaking on pressing issues facing today’s dance music industry.
Day 1 of the festival included explosive performances by Knife Party, Sebastian Ingrosso, Benny Benassi and a collaborative set between Steve Aoki and Afrojack, who brought out female rapper Iggy Azalea to perform her new single “Beat Down” while stage diving into the amped up crowd.
Electric Daisy is known for bringing out many celebrities, and this year was no excpetion—Paris Hilton, Holly Madison and Kat Von D all came out to rave under the desert sky. Joe Manganiello, fresh off his 5th Season of True Blood, which premiered last night, was also seen wandering through the fest, hanging out with his good friend Dieselboy and later hosting a daytime pool party.
Day 2 was somewhat of a bust because extremely high winds caused the festival to shut down around 12:30am—but not before Bassnectar, Digitalism, Feed Me, Rusko and Calvin Harris took the stage to perform amazing sets. Zed’s Dead, who headlined the Bass Pod stage right before it was forced to close, stopped the music and spoke to the crowd.
“We’re really sorry to do this, but we are being told we have to stop the music,” said Dylan “DC” of Zed’s Dead. “Let's all pray to the wind gods right now so we can get this festival back up and running.”
Unfortunately the winds only got worse, so more that 90,000 fans were ordered to exit the festival by 1am Sunday morning. Two art cars with sound systems braved the storm to entertain about 5,000 die-hard party animals that didn’t (or couldn’t) leave, but all of the main stages remained closed.
Around 4am Steve Aoki did an impromptu set and stage-diving session for the last batch of party-goers still hanging out at the festival, which truly saved the day for many disappointed EDC fans.
Let's all pray to the wind gods right now so we can get this festival back up and running.
The festival may have shut down early, but the parties still raged on through sunrise. Back at The Cosmopolitan Hotel, DJ Kaskade performed an extended 5-hour set at Marquee for all those who were still ready to rave. Meanwhile Calvin Harris played Surrender and Erick Morillo headlined TAO.
By Sunday, the winds had died down enough for 115,000 fans to enjoy the final night of EDC without a hitch. On-stage pyrotechnics, a fireworks show, and surprise performances by Avicii and Armin Van Buuren—whose sets had to be canceled the previous day—helped EDC close on a high note. See you next year.
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