Photo by: Masked Media

Sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, I’m surrounded by an ocean of costumes, make-up, shoes and everything anyone could ever need for a rave. I can’t help but feel a tingling in the pit of my stomach—the anxiety teenagers get the night before their first day of high school, the excitement couples get the night before their wedding, the feeling of heightened anticipation 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 at Electric Daisy Carnival.

You’d think this being my third EDC, the feeling would have subsided. But with each passing year it has only grown to this overwhelming energy that runs through my body in a way that’s better than sex. When people hear 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 is so high on drugs they HAVE to be having a good time.”

I think it’s time to explain my side of the story, coming from someone who did not touch drugs or alcohol the entire EDC weekend.

I arrived with my crew for the first night in a rainbow- literally. With a group of seven girls in matching wigs and costumes in vibrant ROYGBIV (with our own pot of gold), we were a sight to see. We walked through the front gates down a dark hallway, and a small light lingering at the end gave me this shot of adrenaline. Once the light becomes larger, your eyes opened to an entire world of colour, lights, sounds, and beautiful humans. As we made our way down the bleachers and took our first steps on the ground, I couldn’t help but stop to look around and take it all in.

The EDC grounds are set on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1200-acre space packed with seven stages, art installations and over 300,000 “headliners.” We’re all here to eat, sleep, rave, repeat- and the lineup is stacked with every name in EDM to lead us in that charge, but Insomniac prides itself in focusing on the entire experience as a whole, rather than solely making the DJ lineup the emphasis of the festival. This is what I love most about EDC. Everywhere you look there is something or someone for your entertainment—from Elvis Presley hosted wedding chapels to neon carnival rides, from giant glowing caterpillars and daisies to bugs the size of trucks slinking through the crowds, everything had been perfectly placed. It’s like we all took a bite of the mushroom from Alice in Wonderland. As you walk around this magic kingdom, more DJs than you could name blast your favourite songs, seamlessly transitioning from house at Neon Garden to hardstyle at Bass Con, from techno at Circuit Grounds and finally beckoning you to the massive main stage called Kinetic Field, where owls the size of houses loom over you with neon eyes, perpetually reminding you it’s 4am but we’re all still wide awake.

Each person I came in contact with this weekend was there for one thing; to escape reality and spend time in the magical world of EDC. We all felt safe, comfortable, and united. Everywhere I looked there were people kissing and hugging, raging and jumping, and smiling from ear to ear. If there was ever a lone soldier wandering about, I’d typically 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 Zeds Dead, A-Trak, and Bassnectar. But it was Diplo who made EDC his bitch Friday night, and I’m not just saying this because he is an absolute panty-dropper. This wasn’t the main stage, but watching from the bleachers, I could see more than half of EDC’s attendees crammed into that Cosmic Meadow. You could hear the screams from thousands of people after every 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 a first night that was really rather mellow, Tiesto just blasted 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 is just the 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 you risk tripping. I was grabbing everyone around me, dancing with them, singing with them, and just losing myself completely in the music. For me, it was the set the saved EDC.
 

 
We expect a lot from big names such as Tiesto, Armin, Calvin Harris, and even Martin Garrix, God Bless him and his sexiness and God help me for thinking it. (He’s legal now, right?) But it was the incredibly talented Matt Zo who had me really dancing like there was no tomorrow. He opened with the hauntingly beautiful Skream remix of “In for the Kill” , which led into this funky, techy yet soulful set including songs like Chromeo’s “Hot Mess” and Tommy Trash’s “Monkey In Love”. When he broke into this bass-heavy remix of “Gecko,” I went wild. You could hear his influence from his collaborations with Kill the Noise on their “Kill the Zo” tour, with off-kilter rhythms and bass that commanded attention all across Kinetic Field.
 

 
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, and most importantly, we genuinely care about one another. That feeling of belonging to a group of people is something priceless. Knowing you have a crew of ten 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 need a reminder why we’re here. EDC is home base, and the other 300,000 headliners? Those are your new family members.

We are Chelsea and Tabitha and collectively we make up Sounds Of Asteria. We’re two girls aiming to show a more personal side to dance music, providing you with raw and honest material surrounding your favourite artists, festivals and everything in between. We eat, sleep and breathe dance music; follow our adventures as we share the most wild and real moments in EDM around the world.

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