My flight into Las Vegas didn’t offer any views of the EDC set up on the speedway, so all I’d seen were some beautiful lights in the distance. Moments before walking into the stadium, my boyfriend turned around and asked “Are you ready?!?” Unsure of what he meant, I took his outstretched hand and we walked through the doorway together. I was unprepared for the sheer magnitude of what I was about to experience. If you haven’t experienced EDC Las Vegas yet, it’s ENORMOUS in size, with every color of the rainbow flashing in every direction, and beautiful people cheering and jumping with excitement as we oooohhhhh and aaaahhhhh together.
Due to a couple car accidents, it took twice as long to get to the venue as we had planned, despite being with Vegas locals who took a back road to get there. My crew set up a meeting point and time to make our exit in the wee hours of the morning and then we made a beeline to the Neon Garden stage for the last bit of Solardo b2b Idris Elba. We got down for a bit to their House beats before dodging the crowds to the Basspod stage.
I was admittedly a little disappointed with Liquid Stranger as he played nothing from his last two albums, which were why I fell in love with him in the first place! The Glitch Mob was up next and they played many of their signature tracks including “Our Demons” and quite a bit of new material. They invited a couple of other artists on stage who did… nothing… except dance and headbang. Ooooookay then. The Basspod stage set up was at the same scale as the entire festival with the artists easily 20 feet above the crowds and fire being shot straight up in the air AND fanning like rainbows.
Having enough Bass in my life, I made my way to Quantum Valley for Giuseppe Ottaviani, one of my favorite old school artists. As usual, he was hitting us with melodic, fast-paced Trance. Some tracks even sounded like they were almost making their way into Psytrance. The stage made it look like he was floating up in the air in the middle of a giant circle of lights.
As I’d made sure not to schedule myself for anything after Giuseppe, I got to wander the grounds a bit and explore. Rusko b2b Skream! were at Basspod, so I stopped by to check them out. They were playing quite a bit of remixed reggae tracks which I absolutely love, but then they’d be interspersed with melody-less Bass, so I kept going.
Green Velvet at the Neon Garden was the last stop of the night and as usual, he laid down that old school House that takes me back to my old school rave days. Near the end he had a live singer do her thing and she killed it with perfect tone and timing. The stage set up for Neon Garden was the most lacking in lights and grandeur of any of the stages, which I supposed went with the whole warehouse vibe. However, if dark, dingy rave is what you’re going for, then it should’ve had even less lights with more piercing lasers on the crowd.
All in all, my first day of EDC Las Vegas was amazing. It was almost too much to take in all at once, so I’m looking forward to tonight. I plan to do it a bit differently, this time leaving three hours earlier to avoid any potential car accidents and hold ups. Dinner and drinks will be had up in the bleachers so I can leisurely absorb the entirety of the festival from up high. Hope to see all you beauties there!
*Featured Image Via Marc Van Der Aa for Insomniac Events*
