Electric Daisy Carnival is about two weeks away. EDC Las Vegas 2024 runs May 17 to 19 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and it’s the flagship festival for Insomniac, the company that produces it.
If you’ve never been, a few basic facts explain a lot. EDC has been in Las Vegas since 2011, when it moved from Los Angeles. It runs overnight, from dusk until sunrise, three nights in a row. It used to be held in June and moved to May in 2018 to get away from the worst of the desert heat.
What’s been announced
Insomniac released the lineup on March 1, with more than 230 artists. The names at the top include Tiësto, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Zedd, Kaskade, deadmau5, Eric Prydz, John Summit, Dom Dolla, Fisher, Illenium and Alison Wonderland.
This year’s theme is kineticCIRCLE, which Insomniac describes as the idea that everything in life eventually comes full circle. Insomniac has also said the stage layout was changed this year to improve crowd flow.
The stages
There are nine stages, and most of them lean toward a particular sound. That’s why two people can go to the same festival and come home describing completely different weekends.
- kineticFIELD is the main stage, with the biggest names and the biggest production.
- quantumVALLEY is the trance stage, hosted by Insomniac’s Dreamstate brand.
- neonGARDEN is house and techno.
- bassPOD is drum and bass and dubstep, and wasteLAND is hardstyle.
- bionicJUNGLE is a newer addition, a house-oriented stage that first came to Las Vegas in 2022.
The other three are circuitGROUNDS, cosmicMEADOW and stereoBLOOM.
What I’d pay attention to
I make progressive house and trance, so my eye goes straight to quantumVALLEY and to Eric Prydz on the lineup. An overnight schedule suits that kind of music. Long builds make more sense at 3 a.m. than at 3 p.m. (more on that in why the extended mix still matters).
Away from the stages there are art installations and roaming performers, and the crowd has a reputation for being friendly to strangers. People dress up. It’s also the desert and it goes all night, so comfortable shoes and water matter more than the outfit.
Set times and festival details are on the official EDC Las Vegas site.