EDC Las Vegas 2019: A Place We Call Home [Event Review]

Electric Daisy Carnival – how do we even capture its essence with words? We’ve witnessed the magic of EDC since its first year in Vegas in 2011. Because of this, EDC will forever hold a special place in our hearts. For some of us here at RaverRafting, it was the festival that started it all and truly opened our lives to the electronic dance music world. It’s the reason we fell in love with the scene, the reason we dove deep into dance music, and the very reason we are writing for this music blog today. This is not just a festival recap, but an ode to a place that we call home, EDC Las Vegas.

Two weeks ago, we walked through the tunnels leading atop the platformed bleachers of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, until we were welcomed to a rainbow sorbet of dancing lights, shining from every inch of the grounds. The kineticENERGY was at an all time high as cosmicMEADOW came to life with the thundering beats of dance music’s finest acts. This is the moment everyone talks about. The momentous, first look at your breathtaking home for the next three dusk till dawn nights.

EDC Las Vegas is not your typical music festival, but a fully immersive experience based around community, art, and electronic dance music, catered to all of you night owl ravers. Insomniac’s neon-lit playground is equipped with eight over-the-top themed stages, roaming art cars, interactive art installations, the BEST firework shows you’ll ever see, theatrical costumed performers, and carnival essentials – towering ferris wheels and thrilling rides.

In between your dance breaks, there were many areas to just chill out in and explore. If you were looking for a quick intermission, you could visit one of the many free water stations, grab some drinks, get some grub, and hit up Carnival Square to recharge those legs and phones. However, if you were anxious to frolic around the Speedway for some fun, then all you had to do was take a trip to Downtown EDC, nearby cosmicMEADOW. Here you would find our favorite art installation, The Paraluna, which came in the form of a spinning, hypnotizing disc of LEDs. Headliners could sit beneath the installation and look up for the trippiest light show of their dreams as patterns and colors swirled in unison. The Paraluna was just one of the mesmerizing attractions here, this brand new site provided ravers with an unlimited amount of amenities and fun. Downtown EDC included the Chapel of Nature and Chapel of Technology for those looking to tie the knot, a silent disco, an open-air theater with blazing fire dancers, and themed bars galore – Queen Drag Bar, Punk Rock Mini Bar, and Tokyo-style karaoke bar.

The art installations did not end here, this year’s festival featured more art than ever before, many of which were located in a brand new area of the festival grounds called NomadsLand. Located adjacent to wasteLAND, this undiscovered land was a mechanized dystopia featuring some of the most thought provoking installations present, including Hand of Man, Peak Oil, Fuego, and the mobile spaceship art car, Icarus.

Possibly one of the greatest additions to this year’s event was the Pixel Forest. Just outside quantumVALLEY and en route to Electric Avenue, lie a futuristic forest packed with LED trees, an arcade, the Forest House art car with special performances, and the best part, light tunnels. Entering the forest tunnel, you’re blockaded in with your favorite tunes and lights illuminating up and down the walls surrounding you. The kineticENERGY within the musical passage was electrifying.

To be honest, you didn’t even need to visit any of these areas to experience the magic, just walking the venue is an entrancing adventure in itself. All around you, at any given moment, you can expect a sensory overload of surprises. One minute, you’ll be walking to circuitGROUNDS to catch a set from special guest Skrillex and the next, you’re stopped as a whimsical parade travels down rainbow road (true story.) Anything is possible under the electric sky.

Now onto the best part, the stages and the music that roared from them. With three full nights and over 250+ artists, we can’t talk about every set we saw, but we’ll highlight some of our favorite moments that will sure live on in our memories forever. Like many do, due to its location, we started our EDC journey at cosmicMEADOW, which, might we add, had a cool new redesign. We marched down the steps onto the Speedway while Dirtybird, Justin Martin blessed our ears with his unique, soul-fulfilling productions. Martin played his highly-anticipated, unreleased remix of RÜFÜS DU SOL‘s “Lost In My Mind” and you guessed it, we pretty much lost our minds. Other notable performances that took place here came from famed producers, deadmau5, Claude VonStroke, ZHU, Camelphat, and Chris Lake. This was also home to the opening ceremony, which was hosted by everyone’s favorite “Science Guy,” Bill Nye as he kicked off the 23rd anniversary by dropping knowledge about this year’s theme, kineticENERGY.

Slightly passed the picturesque daisy lane arch, stood the genre-defying stereoBLOOM stage and it was booming with bangers all weekend. Day one and three were hosted by the festival’s very own labels, Insomniac Records and BASSRUSH. However, the second day was reserved for the one and only, Chris Lake. Lake‘s imprint, Black Book Records took over the arena and brought out all our must-see artists, including Walker & Royce, Noizu, Dillon Nathanial, and of course, the legend himself, Chris Lake.

If you’re a fan of the harder styles of dance music, then enter, wasteLAND and bassPOD. Hosted by BASSCON, wasteLAND was a dream destination for the higher BPM’s. Over the course of the weekend, it exploded with epic sets from artists such as Ben Nicky presents Xtreme, Lady Faith, Darren Styles, DJ Isaac, Brennan Heart, Atmozfears, Wasted Penguinz, and more. Neighboring the hardstyle haven was the larger-than-life bassPOD. Bassheads rattled the rails and reveled to performances from Ganja White Knight, Skream b2b Rusko, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Virtual Riot, Dion Timmer, Snails, Riot Ten, and Nero. Nero packed the house for an incredible DJ set and brightened the night with the widely-popular “Promises.”

One of our all-time favorite mega-structures, circuitGROUNDS delivered the music that speaks to our soul in a 360-degree experience. Some of the A-listers that brought GROUNDS alive included Eric Prydz, Above & Beyond, i_o, REZZ, Illenium, Martin Garrix, SLANDER, Zeds Dead, and Steve Aoki. Prydz was one of the major highlights (when isn’t he) of the first night and the overall weekend. He played a tear-jerkingly beautiful blend of progressive house and techno with originals, “Nopus,” “Animal,” his new remix of CamelPhat & Cristoph‘s “Breathe,” and a slew of unreleased tracks.

We spent the majority of our time at one of two stages, quantumVALLEY and neonGARDEN, which happened to be next to each other this year (major plus.) quantumVALLEY was hosted by Insomniac’s Dreamstate, which meant it was for the trance-hearted. Ethereal melodies floated from the raised, trance portal when maestros, John Askew, Guiseppe Ottaviani, Paul Oakenfold, Ferry Corsten presents System F, Infected Mushroom, Ruben De Ronde, Andrew Bayer, Cosmic Gate, and Andrew Rayel took the stage. On day three, Find Your Harmony label head, Andrew Rayel hosted/curated quantumVALLEY’s lineup and it was impeccable. Rayel took us to another dimension with his Game of Thrones remix and tugged at our heart strings with his harmonious originals “One In A Million, ” “Horizon,” and “In The Dark.” He premiered a new, unidentified track featuring a beautiful vocalist (HALIENE?) and we can’t wait for the official release. Hands down, our favorite of the weekend, and it was followed by a jaw-dropping display of fireworks – perfection.

“Home is where the techno sounds loudest” was plastered across the brick designed walls of neonGARDEN. neonGARDEN was our home at EDC Las Vegas and it delivered the best of the underground with the deepest and darkest vibes. The open-air space was hosted by Factory 93, Adam Beyer‘s Drumcode, and Green Velvet‘s La La Land, which meant we witnessed some unforgettable performances. Some of the otherworldly b2b’s that occurred at this techno sanctuary included Eli Brown b2b Mason Maynard, Solardo b2b Idris Elba, Layton Giordani b2b Bart Skils, Eats Everything b2b Patrick Topping, and the surprise b2b2b2b, with Green Velvet, Solardo, Mason Maynard, and Skream. We caught many, many sets here, but the highlight – The Martinez Brothers.

The music is not solely reserved for the eight main stages, but far extends onto the free roaming art cars and Corona Electric Beach, which seems to have become a staple at major music festivals everywhere. Our favorite art car show was at Insomniac Radio’s parliamentARTCAR and it was running on Dom Dolla‘s lively house tunes. His insane setlist had us grooving nonstop. If you have a full crowd dancing at 5 AM on day three of a music festival, you’re doing something right. Corona Electric Beach was spilling with major talent and cold, refreshing cerveza (double win.) The beach getaway, under the electric sky had a brimming bill of top-notch artists, such as BIJOU, Dustycloud, Elephante, ARMNHMR, VNSSA, and surprise guest, Party Favor.

Under the kinetic arches stood an enamoring work of art, EDC Las Vegas’ main stage, kineticFIELD. Every year, the stage gets a major facelift based on the theme and in 2019, it embodied its most natural state, kineticENERGY. Headliners danced until the sunrise with superstar producers, Alison Wonderland, David Guetta, Alesso, CamelPhat b2b Gorgon City, Loud Luxury, Tiësto, Tritonal, San Holo, Armin van Buuren, Dillon Francis, and finally, Jamie Jones to conclude it all. Unfortunately, kinetic saw a closure on day two due to unsafe, high winds, which caused some set cancellations, but it was for the safety of the attendees, artists, and staff. Shout out to Insomniac’s Ground Control, medical team, and security for putting safety first, you’re the real headliners!

All were welcome, PEACE was present, LOVE conquered all, UNITY connected us, RESPECT made us family – it was a beautiful weekend under the electric sky. We hope that we were able to capture even an ounce of the magic EDC holds with this piece and although we’re still a year out, we invite you to join us next year as EDC celebrates ten years in Vegas. EDC 2020 future owl passes are on sale now!

EDC, Insomniac, Pasquale, thank you. Thank you for giving us a place to express ourselves, a place that welcomes all, a place to get lost in the music, a place to escape reality, a place to celebrate life, and lastly, a place that we can call home.

Connect with EDC Las Vegas:
https://www.facebook.com/electricdaisycarnival
https://twitter.com/EDC_LasVegas
https://instagram.com/edc_lasvegas
http://lasvegas.electricdaisycarnival.com

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