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MUSIC
HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
Dance
music has
its struggles
and we’ve
been right
there at
the front
line.”
VER THREE NIGHTS in
June, some 320,000
revelers endured bottleneck traffic to make
a pilgrimage to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The crowds were
as diverse as they were massive
— ravers in neon tutus and furry
boots, glasses-wearing college
freshmen, bona fide adults — all
headed to an electronic dance music festival which featured over
200 performers across stages that
varied in size and genre.
O
It’s perfectly possible that you
haven’t heard of Electric Daisy
Carnival or Insomniac, the company that puts it on, but know this:
EDC, as it’s known, is the biggest,
most pyrotechnically trigger-happy
music festival in North America.
Last year, the weekend pumped
$136 million into the notoriously
depressed Vegas economy. This
year, a couple was married at the
event as fireworks cracked through
the hot desert sky above them. And
the world has Pasquale Rotella to
thank — or demonize — for it.
Rotella, 37, is Insomniac’s CEO,
responsible not just for overseeing
Electric Daisy
Carnival
founder and
CEO Pasquale
Rotella at
the Hard
“Rock Hotel
& Casino
in Las Vegas.