Over 250 producers and DJs played the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) outside of Las Vegas this weekend, which included the debut of a new supergroup “Silk City” — Mark Ronson and Diplo’s forthcoming disco project, which will have an album and tour. They are the first of nine winners walking away from EDC Las Vegas with a “bounce.”
WINNER: Silk City
Less than an hour after Diplo performed on the main stage for about 30,000 fans on Friday night, he showed up on this tiny “Wide Awake Art Car” with Ronson unannounced. The two actively traded DJ duties, improv drumming and ran their own wires as they spun tunes from 3:30 to 4:15 a.m. Missed by many fans who walked by, the two were hiding in plain sight. This duo is not slated to make its official debut until the Governors Ball festival in New York on June 2. Collectively, they have produced hits for Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Amy Winehouse, Beyonce, Adele, Drake, Maroon 5 and The Weeknd amongst others.
WINNER: Marshmello
The helmet-clad hitmaker and friends stirred up more controversy on the final night. While the (almost certain to be Marshmello) DJ Dotcom played a group set with his L.A. buddies as “The Binches,” they brought out “Marshmello” (or someone else wearing the outfit) to join them on stage to spin Marshmello’s hit “Alone.” By placing the proverbial Clark Kent and Superman on stage with each other at same time, Gen-Z’s favorite beatmaker continued to poke the audience and stoke his mythology.
WINNER: Live Instrumentation
Yes, that’s sax man Kenny G. When spotted with his case at the Artist/VIP heliport to fly out to the festival, he kept his festival collaborator under wraps. “I’m not supposed to say,” he told The Party Report. He ended up playing the saxophone solo with Ookay on the hit “Thief.” Other producers like Dabin (electric guitar), Big Wild (seated drums) and Kygo (piano) are broadening the sound palette.
WINNER: Manager Moe Shalizi (right)
The manager of the aforementioned Ookay, Marshmello and The Binches knows how to orchestrate a moment and pluck his artists to the top of the social media current. Here, he poses with Kenny G. and Insomniac talent executive Chase Fiedler backstage at the Cosmic Meadow.
WINNER: Vegas Strong
Opening on the day of the Santa Fe school shooting in Texas, EDC 2018 marked the first major outdoor festival in Las Vegas since the mass shooting there last fall. Security was tight at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and at preliminary off-site check points. The “Vegas Strong” message made its way on to totems. The civic pride has spilled over to its surging Golden Knights NHL team, who won their way into the Stanley Cup Finals on Sunday. Other top totems we spied included “Mom Thinks I’m Camping,” “F–k Real Life,” and several “Rick and Morty” tributes.
WINNER: Moving the Festival to May
The 22nd edition of EDC moved up a month from June to May to dodge Vegas’ triple digit summer heat — a dangerous cocktail for the 10 hour show each night. The festival staged camping for the first time to ease traffic and sold out despite running up against college final exam schedules. As opposed to being in the high 90s at 3 a.m., the weather was mild and even brisk before dawn. On Monday morning, it rained in Las Vegas, an EDC first.
WINNER: Crossover Artists
In between winning a Billboard Award at the MGM Grand around happy hour time on Sunday and hosting a late night party at Hakkasan on the Strip, Post Malone flew out to EDC, stepped into perform in a time slot vacated by crooner Khalid, and drew a big crowd. He needs to cut back on cigarettes and beer though … he sounded winded on every song.
More crossovers: Wiz Khalifa joined brothers Dmitri Vegas and Like Mike to close their set of happy and commercial big room jump-along music.
Israeli producer Borgore, best known for dubstep, just released a six song jazz album “Adventures in Time.” Days before playing at EDC (left), he was fronting a jazz trio in a speakeasy in downtown L.A. “It was a completely different energy,” Borgore wrote to The Party Report of how he’s switching between his projects. “EDC is always amazing to me. I would love to continue to perform both.”
WINNER: Illenium
The Denver-based melodic producer has caught fire. His crowd was about five times bigger than his show at Coachella last month. More impressively, he was competing with two heavyweights of the last 20 years spinning other stages at the same time — Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren. A festival exec estimated a similar-sized crowd to be 60-70,000 people, filling the stadium bleachers that are usually vacant. Sorry L.A. folks, you won’t be seeing him back at the Shrine any time soon (5,000 capacity), a room he headlined five months ago.
WINNER: Pasquale Rotella (center)
After producing back-to-back festival weekends in Asia with EDC China and EDC Japan, the Insomniac founder came down sick in the days leading up to EDC Las Vegas. It didn’t slow him down. As accessible and present as always, he was posting personal notes to fans on his social media at all hours, jumping in to try his hand on the lighting board at the Circuit Grounds, walking the grounds like a fan and posing for pictures (above), and documenting the closing party on his social media at 10:30 a.m. on Monday morning.
WINNER: Tiesto and his marketing machine
He released a new track with Post Malone called “Jackie Chan” on Friday. By Saturday, it was spinning throughout the MGM Grand on repeat in public spaces, where the veteran producer has his own pop-up merchandise shop. He also spun it live at three different performances within 24 hours (including EDC, pictured here) before jetting off for a Sunday night show in Toronto. At the top levels, the business of EDM is still massive.
WINNER: Gryffin. Like Illenium, melodic producers like Gryffin are soaring. IN adddition to Gryffin’s current single “Winnebago,” the L.A. producer was the first to light up the Circuit Grounds dance party on the opening night with his string of originals (“Whole Heart,” “Heading Home”) and signature killer remixes from artists across musical genres (Kygo, MØ, and Børns).
WINNER: Jamie Jones and Encore Beach Club’s broadened music palette. Before Jones had the “underground” Neon Garden tent overflowing with restricted entry at EDC, the UK producer who runs the famed Paradise parties in Ibiza every summer brought a whiff of his soulful tech house to Encore Beach Club’s one-of-a-kind “Night Swim” party on Thursday night (May 17). Along with Jones, Wynn Nightlife brought in Black Coffee, RÜFÜS DU SOL, and Solumon as new residents this year, a “zag” from the “big room” sound thumping and down the strip. These guys are capturing more discerning crowds.
WINNER: Production Value
Insomniac revealed several new stage designs. Surprisingly, the multi-week “builds” did not leak on social media in advance. The main Kinetic Field got a makeover …
Large scale art installations covered the speedway …
Corona’s Electric Beach brought “sand, water and a beach where you’d least expect it” inside the Las Vegas desert. A swimming pool, mermaids, and free flowing brew provided an oasis as Mija and L.A. favorites “Brownies and Lemonade” provided a welcome change of pace from the bombastic Circuit Grounds and Neon Garden nearby.
Aspiring DJ’s Birthdayy Partyy won a nation-wide competition to grab a performance slot at EDC at Corona’s Electric Beach.
Performers roamed the grounds and marched on a nightly parade with the art cars …
There may not have been any lasers or lights left on the continent for any other shows this weekend.
Nightly fireworks shows united all stages together “under the electric sky” in a show that shames most mid-tier cities’ 4th of July pyrotechnics.
On Monday morning, Insomniac announced next year’s dates: May 17-19, sticking to the new earlier and cooler schedule.
For more on the women elbowing their way in to the all boys’ club of electronic music, click over here:
