Eighteen seconds into EDC's 2015 Vegas trailer, sexy female clowns in hot pink afros pull a bearded man out of his chair and get him dancing. Coulrophobia—fear of clowns—may be a common phenomenon thanks to scary fictional characters like Stephen King's Pennywise and American Horror Story's Twisty, but EDC's clowns have virtually reinvented the archetype. One woman deserves most of the credit. “I wanted to combine my femininity and sex appeal with the idea that clowns were kind of scary and or frumpy,” remembers longtime EDC clown boss MsEasy. “I thought it'd be shocking to see an attractive female in a costume that's often considered intimidating. I initially conceived it as a performance art piece.”
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Since arriving in Las Vegas in 2011, Electric Daisy Carnival has quelled naysayers, battled Mother Nature and ballooned in size. As a veteran festival performer, I’ve followed Electric Daisy Carnival’s Las Vegas odyssey from atop a pair of stilts. Here’s a look back, plus—with a little help from Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella—a peek forward at this year’s festival.
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A microbus full of clowns rolls slowly through a crowd of ecstatic revelers. A flatland BMX rider nails a trick. A bald dude on pogo stilts does a backflip. A man in a suit of mirror shards shines from onstage. A hottie in a gas mask with rabbit ears wields flaming fans—you’ve seen them online in event trailers. Maybe you’ve even interacted with them in the flesh at the festival. Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas employs more than 500 of these roving and stage performers: Clowns, aerialists, stilters, acrobats, dancers, contortionists, roller girls, puppeteers, mascots, Cyr wheelists, drummers, tumblers and more transform Las Vegas Motor Speedway into one of the world’s largest immersive performance environments. And who wrangles them? Meet Insomniac creative director Bunny and his entertainment director sidekick, Jila.
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After making its first foray off American soil in London last July, Electric Daisy Carnival continued its international expansion March 15 and 16 with the inaugural EDC Mexico. The south-of-the-border version of the massively-popular, EDM-fueled carnival took place over two days at a Mexico City speedway called the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and hosted close to 80,000 “headliners” (how EDC boss Pasquale Rotella affectionately refers to attendees). Avicii, Zeds Dead, Baauer, Steve Angello, Boys Noize, Showtek, Cajmere, Loco Dice, Cazzette, Krewella, Clockwork, Kaskade, Flux Pavilion, Digweed, Araabmuzik and more performed. Below are five differences between EDC Mexico and the Las Vegas festival.
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