The final day of the Electric Daisy Carnival has drawn to a close. The weekend welcomed more than 400,000 people under the electric sky throughout the three-day festival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sunday marked the last night of the annual massive, which featured eight large stages and numerous other musical areas at theĀ 21st annual event.Ā Billboard DanceĀ recaps the final night of festivities below:
7:04 p.m.:Ā A guy on a pink moped with a Chicago sports teams flag around his shoulders has the right idea by passing the long line of carsĀ along Las Vegas Boulevard. As we inch forward at a snailās pace, he zips past us and makes it to the speedway in record time. Maybe whole crews should get mopeds to get out to the eventā¦
8:08 p.m.:Ā Did Burnheart really just sing, āI eat her so much you could call me a cannibalā? Yup, itās from a new track called āAnimalā he has with Reid Speed, who is spinning back to back with Soothslayer. According to Scott Bernhardt, we just ādevirginizedā Reid Speed to EDC, as this was the first one sheās played.
8:25 p.m.:Ā Thereās a DJ party going on as Fred V & Grafix B2B Metrik B2B TC look like they may be having even more fun than the crowd, whoās still a little sluggish from the heat. But free T-shirts woke everyone up and kicked things into gear, especially for a guy near me who caught a shirt and youād think he won Megabucks. He also knew every word to the remix ofĀ TLCās āNo Scrubsā that they dropped in for the ladies. They also threw it back to āHey Boy Hey Girlā with a drum ānā bass twist. It was also nice to hear some jungle in the set too.
8:47 p.m.:Ā Taking a walk down āMemory Lane,ā the thoroughfare by the Carnival Square features walls of video screens playing highlights from the festivalās previous incarnations. The Aussie-accented hype man Nigel Ficke is currently on the screens with his gold pasties and leggings, dancing to white-hot beats. I miss that guy. I havenāt seen him at EDC in a while, and heās such a gem.
9:01 p.m.:Ā Thereās three wedding areas this year in EDC Town off the Cosmic Meadow and I almost cried watching two gay couples tie the knot with their rave-themed vows. Then I stopped by the EDC post office to send my mom a card. Outside, a Hunter S. Thompson look-alike nails the whole persona. We are definitely in Bat Country.
9:04 p.m.:Ā I finally make my first trip of the weekend to the Cosmic Meadow to see what all the hype about Black Tiger Sex Machine is, plus it feels about 10 degrees cooler in the grass. The graphics for the trio remind me of a less sophisticated version of Excisionās Robo Kitty. All three guys in the booth are wearing black angular tiger helmets with light-up eyes.
9:21 p.m.:Ā Marco Faraone is pumping an infectious groove from the Neon Garden, which is hosted by Drumcode on the last day, and the logo for the record label pulsates on the video screens. Heās followed by Dense & Pika, who start things off with a slow, almost Gregorian chant intro. āDo you like bass?ā a later track questions, and by the crowd drawing closer to the stage, they most certainly do.
10:05 p.m.:Ā While cooling off at the media center, the Red Bull TV live stream cuts to Slander at the Kinetic Field. In the front row, thereās a fan with a pretty impressive perler necklace of the DJās logo.
10:32 p.m.:Ā I meet up with friendsĀ at Naked City Pizza and accompany them over to Flosstradamus. The set includes a remix ofĀ Alice Deejayās āBetter Off Alone,āĀ Blink-182ās āWhat My Age Again?ā and theĀ Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ āHead Will Rollā mashed up withĀ Rihannaās āWorkā and laterĀ Queenās āWe Will Rock You.ā
12:56 a.m.:Ā The sweet melodic trance beckons at the Quantum Valley as Aly & Fila are wrapping up (OK, really itās just Fadi who does the DJ sets if you want to get technical). Heās followed by the legendary Paul van Dyk and the #TranceFamily is in heaven.
1:34 a.m.:Ā A family that raves together stays together. I met a father and son at the Neon Garden and gave them an extra water I had. The wind has picked up and the breeze is welcome, but all the fireworks are drifting off to the right in the wind, creating an ethereal effect.
1:51 a.m.:Ā Drumcode boss Adam Beyer is properly educating the Neon Garden as giant plush dancing emoji characters groove amidst the glowing mushrooms. A girl walks by wearing an electrical-tape thong and I have to wonder, logistically, what happens when she has to use the restroom? I turn my attention back to Beyer for a second until my longtime rave buddy Johnny Savage in his kandi mask runs up to give me a hug then disappears under the tent to dance as fast as he appeared.
3:31 a.m.:Ā Rumor has it someone big is going to play a surprise set on the Kalliope Art Car. Fans waiting around tell me itās going to beĀ Kaskade. As the time ticks by, they eventually give up and wander somewhere else, but for those that were patient it is indeed Kaskade that appears at almost 4 a.m. I was hoping for a Redux set from him, but his hits are always welcome and included — appropriately — ā4 a.m.,ā as well as āAngel on My Shoulder.ā
4:24 a.m.:Ā On my way out, Green Velvet is doing an extra EDC set at the Neon Garden in lieu of Joseph Capriati who couldnāt make it. As much as I would have loved to dance until the sunrise, itās been a long weekend and bed is calling.
Originally published on Billboard.com
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