Founder Pasquale Rotella breaks down EDC’s 8 stages
The eight stages at Electric Daisy Carnival each carry their own theme and cater to a different style of electronic dance music, for the most part. Event founder Pasquale Rotella breaks down each of them:
Kinetic Field
Kinetic Field this year is dedicated to the concept of Gaia, Mother Earth. The entire design of the stage is a secret until the night of the festival when people come through the gates. People will be seeing that for the very first time, and it ties into the concept of EDC as a whole, which is nature versus technology. There’s so much going on in the world right now, there’s debates on climate change, whether it’s real or not. At the end of the day, nothing is more important than having a healthy planet. It felt very natural to focus the Kinetic Field on Mother Earth and bring some love to Mother Earth through music. It’s another stage where some of the largest dance music acts perform. It has the largest capacity of the festival and it changes every year.
Cosmic Meadow
The Cosmic Meadow stage has always been a production-heavy stage. We’re going to be changing the shape of it; it’s almost going to feel like it hugs the crowd a bit. It’s going to be a bit reimagined. We have all genres of dance music on this stage, but a lot of our live performances are usually here, along with some hip-hop and some rock stuff, different elements, making it a bit more eclectic. The Cosmic Meadow comes from it being the only area that has beautiful, lush green grass under your feet.
Circuit Grounds
The Circuit Grounds is dedicated to a full, 360-degree, immersive stage design. It rivals the Kinetic Field, but they’re very, very different. It’s about technology, using the latest in lighting and LED to really take people on a journey. The music there is some of the most popular sounds and some of the largest artists at the festival.
Neon Garden
The Neon Garden offers a completely different vibe that is not only based on underground sounds, underground music, but it also definitely feels a bit more intimate. The lighting is low, it’s enclosed in a pyramid tent that we bring in, and the genres would be deep house, techno, tech house and anything underground. We have this giant disco ball that hangs down in the middle and we have a completely new production that’s being brought in this year.
Wasteland
Wasteland is only for the headstrong. It’s dedicated to all the hard styles of dance music, hosted by Basscon. Every year we take people to a different city (in terms of stage design). It’s a bit of a post-apocalyptic concept. We’re bringing the love back into the city through EDC. This is the first year we’re going overseas. We’ve done Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco, but we’ve never gone overseas. We’re going to Egypt this year. That’s where you’re going to find some of the craziest energy.
Bass Pod
I’m going to get a little emotional about the Bass Pod. This will be the last year that we use our iconic Bass Pod design, which is what we call the futuristic, fire-breathing robot pod. This will be its final voyage at EDC Las Vegas. Although I love the stage and am sorry to see it go, I’m really excited to create something new. Bass Pod is hosted by the Bassrush team, and it’s dedicated to all the different genres within bass music.
Quantum Valley
The Quantum Valley is dedicated to all the trance fans who have been very vocal about their love for the genre of music, and they’ve been asking for this type of focus on that sound for many years now. Having one DJ on this stage or that stage or even having a full night of trance music wasn’t enough, so Quantum Valley will be the eighth stage we have. It’s brand new. It’s going to be in a circus tent. It’s going to be hosted by Dreamstate.
Upside-down House
The Upside-down House is literally an upside-down house. It’s completely black-lit. We’ve updated it since last year’s EDC. It just jumps out at you, looks amazing. We feature a lot of new talent on this stage. We also have Insomniac Records hosting. It’s one of the most eclectic stages, musically. If you want to find some up-and-coming talent or maybe discover someone that you’ve never even heard of, this is a great place to find some new music.
