A long-standing techno music festival is coming into its own this year, just as the music industry finds a sweet spot where pop music intersects with electronic music.
The Electric Daisy Carnival, featuring purveyors of music in the trance, house, dubstep and other techno music subgenres, began as a west coast phenomenon in 1997. In the mid 2000’s, as techno music started to flex its muscle in popular music, the show branched out from its Los Angeles base, with events in Aurora, CO, Dallas, TX and Orlando, FL.
In 2011, following the drug overdose death of a 15 year-old at the Los Angeles festival, the flagship event moved house to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This has not been the only fatality connected with the Carnival. In 2011, the Dallas Morning News reported that there was a 19 year-old who died at the 2011 Dallas event with at least two dozen others taken to the hospital for alcohol, drug, and heat-related complaints. At the time, the festival was cited for overcrowding, and temperatures exceeded 110 degrees at the site.
Undeterred, the EDC continues to branch out, staging its first ever Northeast U.S. event this May at the MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, NJ.
With D.J.’s and their remixes infiltrating the pop radio airwaves more than ever before, this year’s installment is offering some heavyweights of the industry, with Armin van Burren, Avicii, and Steve Angello, and Sebastian Ingrosso (of the popular D.J. trio Swedish House Mafia) appearing at the New Jersey show in May. With multiple stages, there was plenty of room to fill, and a recent New York Times article claimed that over 80 D.J.’s were to take the MetLife stage during that weekend.
But techno music is not all the festival has to offer. According to a recent article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the multimedia event offers attendees 30 carnival rides, hundreds of theater and dance performers, and a dozen interactive art stations, in addition to seven stages where the D.J.’s and remixers perform.
In terms of profitability, it is clearly the right time and place for the electronic music festival. The same Review-Journal article noted that last year’s Vegas event drew a crowd of 230,000 and brought in $136 million to the region in accommodations, food, transportation, gaming and shopping.
The first year of the New Jersey was generally successful, with over 100,000 people expected to show up at the event, according to New Jersey’s local Fox station, My9.
In terms of ticket sales, Jason Berger, president of AllShows.com, reports seeing some activity among his company’s ticket sales, but also sees room for improvement.
“These festivals have become more popular in recent months,” Berger told TicketNews, “with the advent of the Identity Festival as well as the Ultra Music Festival, which has gained a lot of popularity.
“The Electric Daisy Carnival is new to New York, and usually these festivals gain in popularity after a few years, so although this was not an immediate sell-out, I would think that popularity will grow with this festival and in future years there will be increased demand.”
The next stop for the Electric Daisy Carnival is June 8-10 in Las Vegas, NV. In a recent press release from Isomniac, tickets have officially sold out and they anticipate more than 300,000 attendees. The festival will feature more than 150 artists from the dance music genre. For a full listing of events visit the official Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas website.
