PurrView #72 - Electric Daisy Carnival

(Entering EDC; an art vehicle decked out in electric daisies; Q Stage, the place to find hard step)

Back in the day, when I was young... I was a little raver. I started out as a “candy kid”—known today as “kandi kid”—and later became a jaded “junglist”—a term that’s barely even known today in the electronic-dance-music (EDM) world. My promenade through the underground party world in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s involved homemade bracelets and binkies, fairy wings, breaker circles, black turtlenecks, UFOs (a type of cargo pants that supposedly fold up into a backpack, though no one’s ever really seen it done), bandanas, Manic Panic hair color, party-kid friends in low (and high) places and substances we don’t have time to discuss. And it all seemed to fizzle out as my tastes changed in about 2003.

Myself, circa '99... the good ol' raver days

Myself, present day... at EDC 2013

But now, after a 10-year hiatus from the “rave scene,” nostalgia irresistibly pulled me back for a weekend of the things I used to love so much, which are now NOTHING like I remember. After not having been to a rave in over a decade, I had the awesome opportunity to attend Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas.

(Guest list confirmation)

What’s changed? Let's see...

Legality/acceptance of raves (apparently, everyone’s totally cool with them now)

Party favors (DO NOT ask for ecstasy, doses or crank nowadays. Just ask for that one chick; and I don’t mean Crystal)

Ticket prices (1999: $25 entry used to make people seethe // 2013: kids gladly pay $350+ to rave it up)

Visuals (they are awesomely and mind-blowingly beyond comprehension nowadays)

Clothing (or current lack thereof)

…just to name a few. Also quite notable:
1) How mainstream the EDM business truly is nowadays (there's even a Vegas convention for it... see EDMbiz) and
2) If you were a DJ spinning vinyl at parties in 2000, you were freakin’ cool. If you’re a DJ spinning your digital set at an Insomniac event today, you’re pretty much a god.   

And now, a pictorial view of my awesome EDC experience…

 (My friend C. Moon, all fired up for a daisy-rrific time)

 (My party-wrist. Woot woot!)

(Myself and a friend tearing up the dex on the Red Bull bus)

(Friends on the "Insanity" ride, as I watch from the ground below in awe.)

 (Did I mention we took the Red Bull double-decker party bus?? Thanks, Red Bull!!)

Oh yeah... and I was even asked to write for Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival 2013 magazine. If you can get your hands one of these issues, find my cover story on page 11...

 Thank you, INSOMNIAC for a crazy good time!!

~Meow~

Pennies