Electric Daisy Carnival transfixes dance music fans in Los Angeles

June 25–26, 2010, at the Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena

By Melissa Bobbitt
Published: July 3rd, 2010 | 11:00am

There’s only one rule at the Electric Daisy Carnival: Respect the party people.

It was the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am who announced those sage words last Saturday evening in the immense Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Filled to the brim with revelers on the floor and in the stands, the feverish undulation of the set gave way to chaos. As Will tried his best to spin a mix of Michael Jackson, Beastie Boys, and his own material with the Peas, you could tell he had a feeling things were about to get nasty. Amped up on copious amounts of drugs and sunshine, at least 100 attendants in the bleachers rushed the perimeter fence, tore it down, tumbled onto food tents, and forced their way onto the already overcrowded general admission area. It was a tribute to Dionysus gone mad. Police reports say at least 200 people were injured, and more than 60 arrests were made.

Luckily, this was the only significant instance of mass stupidity at the two-day rave and fair. Overall, the Electric Daisy Carnival, now in its 14th year in Southern California, is a testament to the power of dance music. It’s about unity, incredible beats … and bracelets. Lots of bracelets. An estimated 100,000 people per day (yes, you read correctly) came through the concert grounds, adorned in some of the wackiest, most eye-popping getups this side of Halloween. It’s one of the few places that if you donned a regular T-shirt and jeans, you’d be an outcast. Here, the dress code was essentially the littler the better, with women of all shapes and sizing baring all, save for short shorts and pasties. For the men, fuzzy embellishments or childhood costumes (Where’s Waldo, “Sesame Street” characters) were en vogue. And one can’t forget the glow sticks.

As if the fans weren’t visually interesting enough, each performer brought his dazzling set with him. Friday night's big draw was Deadmau5 who fascinated the coliseum with an LED-rigged cube and his evil Mickey Mouse head. On Saturday, rising stars Duck Sauce (a collaboration of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak) busted out a massive inflatable fowl on the cosmicMEADOW stage. It was impossible to be bored here. If one wasn’t digging the current acts, there was a flotilla of carnival rides to hop on, or fiery statues to admire and stay warm by. (Though the daytime temps sizzled, sundown brought a bit of a chill.)

A Friday highlight was world-renowned DJ Moby, who was unjustly scheduled for the isolated circuitGROUNDS. Very few coliseum dancers were willing to lose their spot for Kaskade, so Moby’s audience was sparse for someone of his reputation. For the 40-plus minutes or so that this writer witnessed his set, he seemed bent on playing his more obscure tracks. To hype everyone up, he’d occasionally stand atop his turntable and assume an outstretched position, commanding all to raise their hands as one.

With other notable acts such as Groove Armada, Sasha, and Steve Aoki putting on swell, hypnotic performances, EDC was a fun, anarchistic respite from real life. If only everyone were as friendly to one another in the rest of Los Angeles as they were among the daisies.