Katie BainElectric Daisy Carnival is crazy, guys! We're all out here scorching in the heat of the desert by day and trekking out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway (16 miles north of the Strip) at night to experience the full-on sensory overload that is EDC. The event has come a long way since its days as an underground dance party in the dank warehouses of downtown L.A. Now in its 17th year, the festival is huge, loud, crowded and completely mind-blowing.
Here are five reasons why:
Credit: Credit: Josh “Curious Josh” Reiss
1. The stage productions are massive
We're not talking about some truss and a few spotlights here. This year's stages are a full-on Wonka fantasyland, with the hardstyle heavy bassCON stage decked out in post-apocalyptic steampunk grandeur and the main Kinetic Field stage featuring a 100-foot tall owl with animated wings surrounded by giant mushrooms and daisies. The effect is larger than life, especially when combined with the hyper-agressive music being blasted at the crowd from each stage setup.
Credit: Josh “Curious Josh” Reiss
2. Absurdly beautiful women
Not only are the women out here gorgeous, but a lot of them are wearing outfits … like this.
See also: Electric Daisy Carnival 2013 Slideshow: Party People
Credit: Josh “CuriousJosh” Reiss
3. Art on the move
A massive skeleton snake powered by bicycles winding its way through the crowd, followed by a trio of giant butterflies and a super-sized white owl? Not an unusual sight at EDC, as art exists both onstage and in these mobile displays of trippy whimsy.
Credit: Credit: Josh “Curious Josh” Reiss
4. The Music is relentless
It's loud, it's being played for almost 12 hours straight on high impact soundsystems at seven stages, and it's the reason why many of us are here. The highlight so far? Bro Safari's tribal dub stomp down on the Bass Pod stage.
5. Fireworks. All the time.
It would be generous to provide even one fireworks display each night, but this is EDC, so instead there's a large-scale fireworks show, like, every 15 minutes. They're loud, colorful and totally dazzling affairs complemented by even more fireworks going off from the stages during DJ sets. Some of the stages also blast out big bursts of fire. And for an added in-the-sky bonus, this weekend's “super moon” is the closest and largest full moon of the year. From space, it probably looks like a spirited attempt to attract extraterrestrial attention.
Judging by the looks of the crowd, in fact, it already has.
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