Electric Daisy promoter to co-produce next Life is Beautiful festival

For all the Life is Beautiful festival did offer in its first two years, it was light on two things: Electronic dance music, and the number of warm bodies that the Electric Daisy Carnival draws each summer.

Hence, today’s announcement that Insomniac, the promoters behind the electronic music festivals in Las Vegas and elsewhere, will come on board as partners for the third Life is Beautiful Sept. 25-27.

“To expand the festival’s dance music platform, Insomniac will curate a stage that will incorporate the company’s signature over-the-top production, pyrotechnics and creative displays,” said today’s press release. “This unique stage, one of four on the festival grounds, will be home to amazing displays of lasers and light alongside some of the biggest names in dance music.”

Life is Beautiful drew about 90,000 people in three days last year and 60,000 people in two days in 2013. By contrast, the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway sold 400,000 tickets last year, without the added overhead of fencing off 15 city blocks downtown.

For the first two years, both of Life is Beautiful’s main stages featured primarily live acts, such as Kanye West and the Killers, though EDM star Skrillex did play one of them last year. Today’s news did not make clear whether the new stage will replace one of the two main ones or one of the two smaller ones.

The release does promise more than 75 musical acts, along with artists, chefs and speakers that made the first two editions more diverse and appealing to an older demographic than Electric Daisy.

The initial artist lineup is promised later this month, and should make more clear just how much the festival will shift focus from live acts — which ranged from the Foo Fighters to Lionel Richie — to superstar D.J.s.

It’s not the only change for this year’s Life is Beautiful. Earlier this year, Wendoh Media, publishers of Seven magazine, bought a 50 percent stake in the downtown event founded by Rehan Choudry and originally financed by the Downtown Project. The musical side of the festival was promoted by Another Planet Entertainment, who will remain involved.

“After two years of enjoying the festival as a fan, I am excited to announce that Insomniac is partnering with Life is Beautiful to bring an amazing dance music experience to this already impressive show,” Pasquale Rotella, CEO and Founder of Insomniac, said in a statement.

Read more from Mike Weatherford at bestoflasvegas.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.