This is a bit late, but I wanted to share my experience from EDC this year.
We got there Thursday and went to Drai's after hours to see Kill Frenzy and Claude Vonstroke.
Friday we saw: Claude VonStroke, Booka Shade, Dubfire, Carl Cox, Adam Beyer (all at neon garden)
Saturday: MK (Main), Martinez bros, Green Velvet, Nicole Moudaber, Loco Dice (sorta), Carl Cox (sorta)
Sunday: Skream, Eric Prydz, last half of Jamie Jones, Digweed, Maya Jane Coles, Art Department
Basically we stayed at Neon Garden for almost the entire time, with the exception of MK and Prydz. MK had a shitty time, being on the main stage but one of the opening acts. Neon Garden was pretty much awesome all 3 days, but the crowd seemed different compared with last year. Granted I was only there for like two sets last year, but this year it seemed much more crowded. There were a LOT more fuzzy boot chicks too. The whole festival in general seemed way too crowded. My brother wanted to go to the main stage more often, which was a little tension between us, but it was so crowded there you couldn't even get close enough to hear well. Solved that problem, but he was pretty pissed about it.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for all the recommendations. A lot of those I might have missed if not for recommendations. Highlights were Claude Vonstroke (2nd half of set), Booka Shade, Dubfire, Green Velvet, Moudaber, Skream, Digweed, Maya, and Art Department. More specifically, Green Velvet and Booka Shade were unreal. I looked up a few sets from Green Velvet before hand and liked him, but didn't blow my socks off. But his EDC set was sick, and even the people I was with said his set was easily top 3. And the jibberish he was speaking into the mic was pretty hilarious. I was taking a break near the back and really paying attention to what he was saying and it was complete utter nonsense. I leaned to some chick next to me and said that and she had no idea wtf I was talking about. Too fucked up
Some of my favorites were confounded by how fucked up I was, however. I was out of my mind during Maya and having the time of my life, but the next day my buddy was telling me how she kept mixing off beat and fucking up in general. That state lasted through Art Department, too. I really want to hunt down some of the sets, but I haven't had any luck lately. So far I've only found one of Carl Cox's sets and half of Digweed. Insomniac had a streaming service running called EDC Curated, but I can't find any rips of it anywhere. All the main stage acts are up on youtube in full, but none of Neon Garden. Kinda a bummer
All in all it was a phenomenal experience. However, with few exceptions, there was little reason to leave the Neon Garden stage. Main stage was beyond hokey with their stage performers and other garbage, and it was shoulder to shoulder probably about 60k people deep. I don't know how people could stand even being in the crowd. Sasha coulda been playing and I still wouldn't be able to handle that. A lot of the "we only care about money" stuff kept bugging me, like how disorganized the shuttle buses were, how they cut most of the buses at 7am even though there were several thousand people still needing rides, how they grossly oversold tickets for how many people can reasonably fit at each stage, and how the entire 3 months leading up to the festival was this huge money grab, selling 3-day lockers for 70 fucking dollars and whatnot. Pasqualle keeps saying over and over how he fell in love with the scene in the old days and blah blah it's all about the experience blah blah he even posted that Davincci SNL video, yet the whole time it's just this huge money grab. He doesn't give a fuck about the experience.
A lot of that kinda left a bad taste in my mouth despite how much fun I had. My buddy and I are looking at alternatives next year. Movement looks awesome - hateraysar didn't you go there last year? Has anyone else been to Movement? My brother mentioned Ultra, but isn't that kinda going in the wrong direction? From what I've seen, Movement looks awesome, is way cheaper, and has a lineup that would allow even more exploration. I was so stoked this year to discover all these people I either hadn't seen in person or didn't know about. I want to keep that up. And as much as I love seeing ass hanging out everywhere, the fuzzy boot shit at EDC kinda rubs me the wrong way.
Or I can just say fuck it and do Movement + EDC next year.
