Sarah Purkrabek

Behind an unmarked door in a nondescript wall behind a row of vendor tents, there’s a small army of positive-minded people whose job it is to make EDC Vegas fun and safe for every attendee. They're called Ground Control, and over the course of the weekend, 370 of them roam......

Our city’s famous music industry and nightlife scene are notoriously fickle about those under 21. At the same time, the producers playing our clubs are getting younger and younger. It might feel like ages since Animals came out and put then-17-year-old Martin Garrix on the map; lifetimes since the YouTube......

Steve James seems almost like a normal high school kid. He has a girlfriend. He's quick to use his easy, carefree laugh. In June, when he moved from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to LA, he discovered — and got hooked on — Thai food. And not too long ago, he co-produced the......

You don’t need a VIP ticket or an alarm set for a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” to talk with Avicii — just an Internet connection. The insanely popular Swedish EDM star has joined the ranks of other bigwigs and experts on Quora, a site that's basically Yahoo Answers for highly......

Onboard the cruise ship Carnival Inspiration, I’m greeted by gaudy Vegas casino decorations and half-naked women in white offering free hugs and official Groove Cruise lanyards. Over half of the crowd is already working on their buzz by the time we go through the mandatory cruise ship safety drill. A......

When you’re paying $100-plus for a ticket to see your favorite DJ, you hope to get more than just a guy behind a laptop. Where's the entertainment value in that? Fortunately, DJs and electronic acts are beginning to catch on that their fans need more of a performance to shell......

There’s something new about EDC this year (besides the lack of overlapping artists between it and other regional mega-festival Hard Summer). For the first time, Insomniac has partnered with eBay to launch the EDC Week Charity Auction, with proceeds going toward a local charity, Culture Shock Las Vegas. Culture Shock......

Aussie DJ competition Your Shot is making its way across the globe to Los Angeles. The upcoming 10-part web series (available through Vevo), sponsored by 7 Up and backed by EDM superstar Tiësto, promises to take you from making playlists on your iPod to performing as a full-blown DJ in......

The first time I heard Kygo, it was like breathing in fresh air after leaving a sauna. The song was a remix of Passenger’s “Let Her Go,” and I heard it just as I was getting to the peak of my jadedness with big room house, well-known for its predictable......

This year, Coachella explicitly denied totems entry into the festival. These celebrity faces and odd things attached to sticks are useful for helping keep groups of friends together in big crowds, and they're especially ubiquitous at EDM events like Hard Summer, EDC and Ultra.  The ban on totems, though, didn't......