Best in fest: Takeaways from an over-the-top EDC 2025 in Las Vegas
Exhale everyone, the kiddie caterpillar roller coaster is up and running again.
Seldom would the reactivation of a children’s amusement park ride elicit sighs of relief from scads of grown-ups trying their best to forget they were grown-ups for three days.
But this was the case at Electric Daisy Carnival at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, when high winds threatened to derail the biggest electronic dance music festival in the country.
A trio of stages and all the carnival rides were temporarily closed around 9 p.m. because of gusty winds, which also disrupted EDC in 2019 and 2012, when they brought the fest to a premature ending one night.
This was no idle threat.
Thankfully, after a few turbulent hours, the winds died down and the party lived on.
EDC weathered the storm.
And so did we.
After a weekend of dusk-till-dawn revelry, here are a few takeaways from the biggest the EDC ever — until, you know, next year:
Best EDC debut
For your average musician, there are plenty of entry points into a song: a hook, a melody, a riff, a beat.
For assaultive Berliners Brutalismus 3000, who positively wrecked the CosmicMeadow on Saturday, we’re guessing it’s the sensation of getting one’s head slammed in a car door.
Repeatedly.
They translate this concussiveness into sonic form via serrated beats, stampeding rhythms and abrasive peels of dissonance. Singer Victoria Vassiliki Daldas shrieked like she possessed a tornado siren for a larynx, spinning herself dizzy, the duo’s relentless onslaught making you dizzier still.
“I’m not afraid,” Daldas howled on “badthiings (rip aviccii).”
The rest of us definitely should be.
Second-best EDC debut
Bicep likes to flex. We’re not talking about their guns, but rather a consistently inventive rhythmic dexterity that keeps you guessing — and dancing.
The Irish experimental electronic music duo were early standouts at the CosmicMeadow on Saturday with a sound rooted in tech house, but which consistently took new shapes, like the goop in a lava lamp.
Their Chroma set was nuanced and booming, understated and overwhelming, a caress and a clenched fist all at once.
Hip-hop hooray
Hip-hop used to have a semiregular presence at EDC, remember?
OK, sometimes it’s best to forget (See: DJ Khaled’s disastrous, disjointed showing in 2017)
But A$ap Rocky, Metro Boomin — who brought along his buddy Drake, also in 2017 — and even Post Malone have all made memorable appearances at EDC.
DJ Snake brought this vibe back to the CosmicMeadow on Saturday with an all-hip-hop set.
Cooler still, after having packed the gargantuan KineticField the night before, he performed on a small stage in the back of the lawn, engulfed by fans and guest MCs.
It was a full-on hip-hop hit parade — classic after classic from DMX, Too $hort, Lil Jon and on and on — resulting in the loudest, most full-throated crowd sing-alongs of the weekend.
Pass the Sucrets.
Sidecar kept it going Sunday on the same stage by bringing out rapper Bobby Shmurda to holler through their collab “Cash Out.”
Pass him a Sucrets.
Four acts we want to hear more of after seeing them at EDC for the first time
Carlita: A forward-thinking house throwback, this Turkish DJ-producer delivered one of the most soulful sets of the weekend at the NeonGarden on Saturday.
Girl Math: These electro riot grrls were an early highlight at the Cosmic Meadow on Sunday. When they aired a dance remix of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl,” they could have very well been referencing themselves.
Francis Mercier: The Haitian-born DJ-producer proved adept at incorporating gorgeous African melodies into his percussive house at StereoBloom on Saturday.
Hannah Laing: Complimentary oxygen masks should have been provided to spectators at the QuantumValley on Saturday following Laing’s breathless performance. Techno at its best.
Best DJ-producer dressed as a barnyard animal
It felt like a cardiovascular fitness routine as much as a DJ set, such was the heart-palpitating blitz of HorsegiirL’s warp-speed happy hardcore
Yes, the Berlin DJ-producer comes masked as the hoofed creature in question.
No, she doesn’t have any chill.
Drawing one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever seen at the BionicJungle on Saturday, she had some audience members literally running in place to try to burn off all the energy she was generating.
We didn’t know what to do other than hyperventilate.
A B2B bonanza
Most popular/polarizing pairing: Illenium B2B Slander. Love ’em, hate ’em, they sucked up all the oxygen at the fest Saturday night at the KineticField, where they drew a massive crowd, siphoning off fans from all the other stages and leaving other acts — like an incredible Gesaffelstein at the CosmicMeadow — performing in front of a reduced draw.
Most-energetic pairing: ISOKNOCK. We thought for a second there that ISOxo and Knock2 might actually leap out of their flesh somehow at the CircuitGrounds on Saturday. That’s how manic and frenzied their performance was. Save some adrenaline for the rest of us, dudes.
Pairing that surprised us the most: Jessica Audiffred B2B LAYZ. We expected plenty of punishment from these two, but their set was as melodic as it was muscular at the BassPod on Saturday.
We’re still catching our breath from…
Was it raining anvils at the CircuitGrounds on Sunday?
It felt like it when maybe the most sustained run of bass heavy hitters in the stage’s history threw down for nearly seven hours straight.
It began with ATLiens’ extraterrestrial roar; it ended with Svdden Death pummeling via his Voyd alter ego.
In between?
Dubstep kingpin Excision’s low-frequency detonations, followed by Slander B2B Nghtmre, collaborating again after five years and the winkingly demonic Black Tiger Sex Machine.
We weren’t there until the bitter end because that might have ended us along with it, but what a way for bassheads to finish the weekend.
And don’t worry, the bruises will heal.
Eventually.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.
