COVID-19 took the life out of live music in 2020, and Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) music festival wasn’t spared. The festival was set to take place in May of this year, but as the condition of our country worsened in late March, Insomniac made the decision to push back the festival until this upcoming October.
This year would have been the festival’s 24th year of existence, and Insomniac planned to pull out all the stops to give their loyal fans a weekend to remember. With major artists like Martin Garrix, DJ Snake and David Guetta headlining the festival, ticket-holders who were looking forward to attending were devastated by the company’s decision to postpone.
Insomniac was not the first major company to make this tough decision. Goldenvoice was also forced to postpone Coachella to October, but later canceled the 2020 festival due to Riverside County’s health guidelines. South by Southwest (SXSW) Music unfortunately had to cancel SXSW 2020 several days before the event was scheduled to start.
As the COVID-19 situation in the United States continued to worsen this summer, ticket-holders began to wonder why Insomniac hadn’t announced the EDC 2020 cancelation. It wasn’t until August 1 that Pasquale Rotella, the founder and CEO of Insomniac, took to Instagram to inform his followers of EDC 2020’s untimely demise.
In the caption of his post, Rotella apologized for the delay and explained the reason behind the late announcement. It seems that Insomniac was trying to develop a method that would allow their fans to attend EDC safely.
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Rotella wrote, “We wanted to implement a free two-step testing program, one test at home before traveling to Las Vegas & another test at the venue when you arrived, in addition to many other enhanced safety protocols. Unfortunately, we just learned that the medical advances necessary to pull this off will not be ready in time, which is why I’m making this announcement today.”
The post itself was of a graphic announcing the dates of EDC 2021, which marks 25 years since EDC was created in 1995. Rotella’s words gave hope to the electric dance music (EDM) community, with many fans waiting in anticipation for the event’s tickets to go on sale.
The tickets for EDC 2021 went on sale on August 6, and sold out in less than 24 hours. Although it is not unusual for the festival’s tickets to sell out in a matter of days, Insomniac has never had the event sell out so quickly.
Rotella was quick to thank his followers for their overwhelming response to EDC 2021. The post’s caption reads, “I’m humbled by your trust & love for EDC. My passion & your support have allowed me to create experiences & be part of a culture that I love. It’s been quite the journey through these crazy times.”
His followers reciprocated this tender moment with nothing but love for the man and the brand. One follower commented, “Thank you for caring about our safety. I can’t wait to rave with you in 2021!” Most of the subsequent comments follow suit in thanking Insomniac’s CEO and spreading PLUR (peace, love, unity and respect) throughout the EDM community.
Now many fans are asking, what does EDC 2021 have in store for us? There are several theories as to how Rotella and Insomniac will be handling the preparations for next year’s festivities. With all this speculation, it’s obvious that EDC 2021 will be the event of the new decade and possibly the most anticipated EDM music festival to date.
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The most commonly shared theory in the EDM community is that Rotella will do everything in his power to ensure that EDC 2021 will be exactly the same as what was planned for EDC 2020, down to the last artist on the lineup.
The reasoning behind this presumption is that Rotella is making sure Insomniac fans won’t feel as if they missed out on the 2020 festival in any way. Following the previous festival’s plans exactly will also eliminate the fear that fans will be disappointed that the EDC 2021 lineup is not up to par with 2020’s.
Another speculation is that Insomniac will completely abandon the previous year’s plans. This out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new mentality would give Rotella a blank canvas on which the founder would be able to create an entirely new music festival masterpiece specific to the festival’s 25-year anniversary.
Many festivalgoers tend to return to EDC yearly to experience a weekend of fantasy, fun and fantastic music. Because of this, a considerable number of fans have had the possible 25th-anniversary performances on their minds for several years now.
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Loyal EDC attendees have been waiting in anticipation for an absolutely killer lineup, and they have high hopes that Insomniac will deliver on their promise of a legendary weekend for ticket-holders.
The scramble to buy EDC 2021 tickets indicates just how ready fans are to get back out there and support their favorite artists, both because of the community’s urgency to do just that and the fact that the outlook for May 2021 in the United States is still startlingly unclear at the moment.
Despite the negative possibilities, the EDM community has instead chosen to look toward the future with optimism and enthusiasm. Who knows when live music will go back to normal, if it does at all? Although all signs point to the answer of “longer than we thought,” this hasn’t stopped fans around the world from rising up and supporting their favorite artists during these trying times.
