EDC: Las Vegas 2014

Sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, surrounded by an ocean of clothing, costumes, make up, shoes and everything anyone could ever need at a rave. And I can’t help but feel this tingling in the pit of my stomach. The feeling teenagers get the night before the first day of high school, the feeling people get the night before their wedding, the feeling people get when they finally reach the pinnacle of their lives and tell themselves this is what we were born for. That’s the feeling I have the night before flying to Las Vegas to begin my journey to the Electric Daisy Carnival.

You’d think this being my third EDC the feeling would have subsided by now.

It hasn’t, all it’s done is grown, exploded into this overwhelming energy that courses through every inch of my body.

I’m not even going to lie; this feeling is better than sex.

It’s the feeling of knowing you’re going home, you're going to a place where everyone feels like family and everyone is there to share the exact same feeling with one another.

The feeling of connecting with 300,000 people on an energy level you have to experience to understand is unlike anything anyone has ever felt. Ever.

After people hear about how much I love EDC and how much it means to me, they often make comments along the lines of, “well that’s because everyone there is so high on drugs they HAVE to be having a good time.” Well, I think it’s time to explain my side of the story, coming from someone who did not touch drugs, or alcohol at EDC.

Walking through the front gates and down a dark hallway with a small light lingering at the end gave me this shot of adrenaline that could never be created by anything else. Once the light becomes larger, your eyes are opened to an entire world of colour, lights, sounds, and humans. The EDC grounds are set on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is a 1200-acre space that is packed with 7 stages, numerous art installations and over 300,000 “headliners.” As we made our way down the steps and took our first steps on the ground I couldn’t help but look around me for a second and take it all in. It’s pretty overwhelming at times when you consider the massive location and thousands of people. You’d think there would be fights and incidents that would cause anger and discomfort within the festival, there isn’t.

The amazing thing about Insomniac is they consider the entire experience as a whole instead of purely the DJ’s they can afford to come play. Sure they have every major name in EDM performing at their festival but Pasquale Rotella (founder of Insomniac) makes a point of creating this entirely different world for people to step into. This is what I love most about EDC. Everywhere you look there is something or someone there for your entertainment. From wedding chapels to carnival rides and light up giant caterpillars and enormous colour-changing mushrooms, everything had been perfectly placed in its location to give every attendee the most magical experience. And on top of all of this, every single DJ you could ever imagine blasting your favourite songs from 7 different stages all with their own unique theme.

Every single person I came in contact with this weekend was only there for one thing; to escape reality and spend time in the magical world of EDC. Everyone was happy, there were no fights, we all felt safe, we all felt comfortable, and we all felt united. Everywhere I looked there were people kissing and hugging, raging and jumping and everyone was smiling from ear to ear. If there was ever a lone soldier wandering about, I’d always see another person run up to them asking if they were okay.

One of the smaller stages, the Cosmic Meadow was home to an incredible array of talent including: Diplo, Zeds Dead, A-Trak and Bassnectar just to name a few. One set that was absolutely intoxicating and I’m not just saying this because he is an absolute panty-dropper, but DIPLO made EDC his bitch Friday night. This wasn’t the main stage, and while watching from the bleachers, I could see more than half of EDC’s attendees crammed and packed into that Cosmic Meadow. You could hear the screams from thousands of people after every single song was dropped; the set list was a perfect combination of hip-hop, trap, electro, dub step…absolutely everything. This guy knows how to rock a festival and sweet Jesus did he ever. The amount of booty popping and twerking I saw around me would have put any schoolboy into a full on heart attack.

One set that I have to admit was in full EDC theme was Tiesto, obviously. This is something I love about this man. No matter what is cool or hip in EDM at the moment, Tiesto will always deliver exactly what the crowd wants. After listening to a couple sets that were slowly putting me to sleep, it was nice to hear Tiesto just blast out banger after banger mixed with nostalgic songs and a twist of other styles to keep things interesting. When he dropped “Pair Of Dice” I literally danced so hard my fluffy fell off. This song for some reason is just the absolute best for a festival. It’s so heartwarming and uplifting. Its melody takes you higher and the drop makes you want to shuffle so fast your fluffy falls off. Everyone around me could see the happiness in my eyes. I was grabbing everyone around me, dancing with them, singing with them, and just losing myself completely in the music.

Our rave family grew by a couple members this year and I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. When you join a rave family, you’re not just linking up with people to party with. You’re inheriting a brother, a sister, or in my case I’m usually the mother. We take care of one another, we share water, we share food, we take breaks when someone is feeling tired, we go to the washroom in pairs but the most important thing is that we genuinely care about one another. That feeling of belonging to a group of people is something priceless. Knowing you have 10 people on your side, no matter what during this festival and outside of the festival is such a special feeling. These are the friends we’re going to keep forever. These are the people who matter and are placed into our lives for a reason. We come to EDC to feel connected, and we leave EDC with an enormous support team for the moments in life when you feel alone and you forget why you’re doing the things you do. EDC is home base, and the other 300,000 headliners? Those are your new family members.

Love,

Tabitha