Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC): New York City

Question: Have you ever seen 20,000 people jumping up and down with their hands in the air? I have and let me tell you, its absolute madness. I keep replaying this past weekend over in my head and I can’t believe I was apart of such and epic event. On Saturday, I attended the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in New York City. It was the most over-the-top outdoor music festival I have ever been to, and I loved every minute of it. Over 40,000 people attended the 3-Day festival, which played host to some of the best house/electronic DJs and producers from around the world.

The festival was held at Met Life stadium directly outside of  New York City. The outdoor festivities consisted of four different performance arenas, carnival rides and food and beer tents as far as the eye could see. The different arenas were labeled Kinetic Field, Cosmic Meadow, Circuit Grounds and the Neon Garden. EDC did an excellent job of making each area unique with different stage and lighting configurations. The most impressive part of the massive stage set-ups was the sound. The music was obviously loud, but also crystal clear. Electric Daisy’s sound engineers killed it; no matter where you stood  in the crowd of 20,000+ people, the music sounded perfect.

I spent most of my time near the Kinetic Field stage and was fortunate enough to watch some of the biggest names at Electric Daisy. The venue’s line up included Cazzette, Alesso, Calvin Harris, Sebastian Ingrosso (Swedish House Mafia) and Avicii. Avicii was the day’s headliner, but all of these producers are world class in there own right. In fact, most of the time, these producers are the headliners of their own shows. With that being said, these were the four best opening acts I have ever seen. I pushed my way through the crowd until I was about 20 people off the stage, and was able to witness these producers electrify the crowd over and over again. Out of the four openers, Alesso was my favorite. His set was incredible and he played to the crowd perfectly. When he dropped his remix of “Pressure”, the place erupted in a thunderous roar. Alesso had the crowd energized from the moment he stepped on stage. 

As the sun began to set over Met Life Stadium, you could feel in the anticipation in the air for the headliner to take the stage. It was Avicii’s turn to please the crowd and he did not disappoint. This 22 year-old Swedish producer is turning into a global icon. Chants of his name started breaking out in the crowd before the final opening act had finished his set. When Avicii finally took the stage, the mob exploded with all they had left of their vocal chords. He delivered an epic performance of all his original tracks, along with other top producer’s festival bangers. As the last track cut out, the entire stage went pitch black and the crowd screamed for an encore.  Then about a half mile in the distance a massive firework display burst into the night sky. With a blacked out stage and the masses distracted by a fourth-of-July like display, Avicii seamlessly dropped the latest Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration N***** in Paris. Not only was it unexpectedly awesome, it was loudest I have ever heard any crowd get in my entire life. It still gives me chills just thinking about it. Avicii’s performance was an unbelievable way to end the show on Saturday night. 

I walked away from Met Life stadium knowing that this day would now be my barometer for all future concerts. Electric Daisy Carnival lived up to its expectations and more. The quality of artists, venue location and overall setup could not have been organized or planned any better.  I tip my hat to EDC and all who participated: this show was truly phenomenal.

In case you missed EDC in NYC, there is one more show scheduled to take place this summer. EDC will be in Las Vegas, NV on June 8-10 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Las Vegas edition is sure to be bigger and crazier than what I experience in New York. So if you want to see the best house/electronic music festival of your life, I suggest you book your ticket to Nevada ASAP.

(Stage construction photos, courtesy of EDC's Facebook Page. The rest were taken by Eric@theskimonster.com. Follow our photos on Instagram @theskimonster.)