When I first started working at Your EDM, my ultimate goal was to go to my first ever EDC for free. I’ve bought tickets for the past two years, actually, and sold them both; but this year, that dream – that goal – was finally achieved.
My experience at electronic music’s largest festival Electric Daisy Carnival: Las Vegas was a unique one. For my very first EDC experience, I was awarded full amenities including an artist pass, a wealth of industry friends, and a particularly brilliant skyloft at MGM Grand sponsored by Your EDM. To be clear, I’m only revealing this information in order to give context to my admittedly posh experience and to color in readers’ reception appropriately.
Furthermore, it seems odd to people that an Editor In Chief at a dance music publication would favor bass music over house – seriously, I’ve been told that it’s weird. In that regard, a lot of my coverage will focus on bass-centric stages and performances. But fret not, I made sure to visit all stages at least once, except for the funkHOUSE stage, which I just couldn’t find. 
Having been born and raised in Los Angeles, it was weird that I was never able to experience EDC in my home town. And after the festival moved from the Coliseum & Sports Arena to the Las Vegas Speedway, EDM went with it. My experience in Vegas was flush with electronic music from the moment I landed at McCarran Airport to walking in the hotel lobby. Hell, the Bellagio fountains even play Tiësto now.
I arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, my first time in Sin City in over a decade. I had a feeling that going from playing at the kiddie center in MGM when I was little to arriving at a penthouse at 4:30 in the morning would be a drastic change, but I knew I could handle it.
Despite multiple pool parties and club events Wednesday night, I opted to take it easy knowing what I had in store for later.
Thursday featured the Buygore & Bassrush pool parties at SLS and Hard Rock, respectively. Both were filled to the brim with fans of the hardest of bass music, and Cookie Monsta & Funtcase were even able to start a mosh pit in the pool at The Joint.
Hard Rock hotel was sick THERE WAS A MOSH PIT IN THE POOL! THATS what I call a fucking pool party. Big fucking love to everyone ❤️ @bassrush
— ϾØØKỊЄ MØИ$₮∆ OG STATUS (@CookieMonstaDUB) June 19, 2015
Friday swiftly came and before I knew it, EDC was upon us. My group took the elevator down to the lobby at Excalibur and really got our first look at what was in store. At least a couple hundred ravers decked out with kandi and totems were waiting patiently for their shuttles to depart. The energy was palpable, with dozens buzzing about which artists they were seeing, or talking about “that girl in the fluffies over there with the nice ass.”
DAY 1
My own group was departing from MGM Resorts Village (before realizing that we were able to take the artist shuttle, which we did for the rest of the weekend) and talked with the GA crowd before we arrived at the Speedway. Wearing Your EDM gear, we were bombarded with comments like “You know my friend is a DJ” and “Can you help me get backstage?” Though, for the most part, the trip was filled with resounding cheers as we left and arrived, as well as our staff yelling throughout the bus to “DRINK WATER! DON’T DIE!”
Walking through the gate at the top of the speedway and getting my first look at the scope of Electric Daisy Carnival will probably be one of my favorite memories of the festival. The vastness of it was unlike anything I had ever seen and it was literally breathtaking. And though it took about a half hour to find out how to even get to into the festival area, I was relishing every moment of that glorious view.
After we did finally make it down to the main festival, we spent most of our time in three places the first day: bassPOD, cosmicMEADOW, and backstage at the Artist Village.
Mostly due to this, and my overwhelming expectations, I was honestly underwhelmed for my first day…
The festival and production was large, yes. But to be quite honest, it seemed like every other big festival, just bigger. Though each stage had a different theme, those themes were not celebrated by attendees or production. And unless you were at the main stage the entire time, the very specific Theme Events were hard to catch if you were having fun at a different stage. Not to mention the blackout at bassPOD in the beginning of the night that affected the stage for the rest of the weekend.
I made sure to catch a few must-see artists, including LA-fam 12th Planet and, of course, some Snails. My main goals for the night were to catch Flume and Skism B2B Laxx, but I only managed to do the former. And to be honest, while I wish that I could have seen that B2B, what I saw from Flume convinced me right then that future bass was indeed the future of electronic music. Anyone who was important was watching that set – Yasmine Yousaf, Adventure Club, Kayzo, managers, PR, media, friends were all in attendance for one of my favorite sets of the weekend.
We headed back to the Artist Village with friends in tow … and networked. You can take the media away from the hustle (& bustle), but you can’t take the hustle from the media. Trying to get friends to see Zomboy or Skism was like pulling teeth, and I finally conceded and took the artist shuttle back to the hotel. It was a disappointing and busy first night, but I knew that I had two more to make up for it. And man… by that last day, I did.
Day 1’s artists: 12th Planet, Snails, Flume. Quite paltry for a first day.
