Best of EDC Orlando 2015

With reporting from John Ochoa and Rob Simas

From coast to coast and across the globe, each edition of EDC is unique to its host city and country. This is especially true for EDC Orlando, where southern hospitality, happy faces, never-ending smiles, and lovingly kind Headliners added a taste of Floridian comfort and style to the EDC universe. The warm weather, the friendly fans, and the nonstop beats brought a special kind of magic to the Sunshine State this past weekend. Here are our favorite moments and memories from EDC Orlando 2015.

Friendly Headliners and a Taste of Southern Hospitality

While I was 2,509 miles away from Los Angeles, there was something about our Headliners down South that made me feel right at home. Through tons of smiling faces and endless hugs from first-time ravers, the soul of the South came alive with a zest for the rave life unique to the Sunshine State. Chalk it up to Southern hospitality. In the end, the tens of thousands of Headliners and random strangers from the weekend proved to be friends I’ve yet to meet. —John Ochoa

The Grass Beneath Our Toes

There’s something quite spectacular when your bare feet can feel the splendor of real grass. Even at a fully immersive, multisensory festival like EDC Orlando, the simplicity of grass and its natural beauty has the power to take me back to my childhood memories in the park. The fact that Tinker Field featured grass at every single stage is something I hope stood out to all Headliners. Next time you’re at a festival with grass, set your phalanges free. —John Ochoa

Zipping Down the Zip Line

Last year, we rode the zip line so many times we damn near threw up our funnel cake. But that didn’t stop us from returning. A zip line on its own is a fantastic idea. A zip line plus some house beats from Eats Everything, and now we’re talking genius status. Shout-out to the Headliners who waited in line for this once-in-a-rave-life experience. I don’t have to tell you it was worth the wait. —John Ochoa

Catching Shade With Kidnap Kid

The midday sun started to pick up right when Kidnap Kid’s set peaked. Maybe it was his hot beats coming from the neonGARDEN speakers, or maybe it was the unrelenting heat felt from two days of straight-up raving, but I had to take a breather. Luckily, I found a perfectly shaded chill zone in the outskirts of neonGARDEN. The top of the nearby swing ride provided a shade spot with a large enough circumference to cover me and my newfound rave fam. It was enough to keep me cool as Kidnap Kid powered through his best cuts like “Survive.” With sultry house tunes, sunshine and shade, it almost felt like summer all over again. —John Ochoa

Giant Ball Pits, Life-Size Chess, and VIP Paella

Headliners who opted for the VIP life were greeted with an array of sweet upgrades at kineticFIELD. For the inner-child in all of us, the giant ball pit provided a fun flashback to the days of birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s, with a life-size chess board for the raving Bobby Fischers and a huge Connect Four game for friendly competition nearby. On top of a complimentary cold-pressed juice station, the food at VIP was on point, including Asian fusion dishes and hot slices of pizza pie. My favorite: a nice plate of Spanish paella for those with an adventurous palate. Apologies for all the pepperonis I dropped in the ball pit and for leaving grease stains on the Connect Four chips. —John Ochoa

Bass Lake

Ok, that’s not its official name. But with the bass ringing from circuitGROUNDS across the way and the bass fish I presume are living underwater, Bass Lake is what I lovingly dubbed the gorgeous body of water smack in the middle of Tinker Field. At any given time, you could find Headliners surrounding all edges of Bass Lake, which quickly became one of the most popular spots for silly rave fam group photos and quaint selfies, especially nearing sundown. Nature at its best. —John Ochoa

The Transition of Stages

Combining over-the-top production with high-end technology, interactive art and performers, and a diverse range of music, EDC truly feels like a world within a world, and each stage is its own mini realm. This is especially true of the stages at EDC Orlando 2015. While kineticFIELD was home to the biggest names in dance music—with the likes of Kaskade, Tiësto and Laidback Luke gracing the stage—the equally rocking circuitGROUNDS and neonGARDEN hosted a roster of greats and up-and-comers. What’s more impressive was the transition of genres across these two specific stages. Friday night saw a massive crowd of raging bass-heads over at circuitGROUNDS, where the bass ambassadors from Bassrush hosted a dream lineup reflecting the various sounds from the low end—including drum & bass from godfather Andy C, the so-called vomitstep from Snails, and aggressive dubstep from Excision. The next day, circuitGROUNDS went from the bass bins to the big room, with an array of electro, trap and drop-heavy progressive house artists, including Seven Lions, Slander, Alison Wonderland, and others. Trance dominated neonGARDEN on Friday via a bevy of legends and risings artists alike, including Paul van Dyk, Ferry Corsten, Ilan Bluestone, Ben Gold and more; where Saturday’s lineup featured the smooth and sexy stylings of house and deep house champions the Magician, Justin Martin, Gorgon City, and a highly anticipated set from Get Real, the supergroup composed of Claude VonStroke and Green Velvet. At the end of the weekend, Headliners were able to get a taste of all the flavors of electronic tunes between these three worlds of music. —John Ochoa

Finding the Best View in the House at the 7UP Viewing Deck

As I made my way through the sea of Headliners to catch Eric Prydz at kineticFIELD, I noticed a line of ravers making their way toward a huge tower of lights. It was the 7UP Viewing Deck, and it was overflowing with fans looking to snag the best view of the stage. With charging stations scattered throughout, the multistory viewing deck felt more like a carnival fun house, with neon colored lights brightening the hallways. Headliners flocked to the windows to capture a picturesque backdrop for the most epic selfie of the night. —John Ochoa

The March of the Clown Parade

While the artists across the stages deservingly get the most love and attention, let’s not forget about the cast of roaming dancers, stilters, aerialists, circus performers, and other whimsical characters who push the boundaries of your imagination and spread joy and smiles across the thousands of Headliners. Last year at EDC Orlando, I dressed up and joined the crew of crazy clowns, where I transitioned from onlooker to festival performer and discovered a side of EDC I never knew existed. Admittedly, I have a personal connection with my clown brothers and sisters, so when the clown marching band and parade made its way around the festival, my heart jumped back to 12 months ago, when I became a part of the EDC DNA as a performer. It’s one thing to watch the show with your own two eyes. It’s a whole other experience to bring the show to life and transmit the energy of EDC through your own body. I’ll never look at a clown the same again. —John Ochoa

Meeting Awesome People

Here at Insomniac.com, we love to give a voice to our dedicated fans. We understand the Headliner experience is an individual journey, and we capture that perspective through personal stories of love, loss and triumph. We’ve been meeting awesome people at our events for over a year now, and it never gets old. Through our Awesome People column, we’ve met Headliners from all walks of life, in all shapes, sizes and colors. You are all as colorful and vibrant as the costumes you don, and you truly add a special dash of creativity to all our events. EDC Orlando brought on more awesome people on day one and day two. Take a deeper dive into our Awesome People archives and get to know some of your yet-to-meet rave fam. —John Ochoa

A Safe and Healthy DJ Snake

We were relieved to see a healthy and able DJ Snake rock kineticFIELD after news broke of his recent car crash along with fellow Frenchman Tchami. While his set at Escape: Psycho Circus was canceled, we were happy to have him alive and well at EDC Orlando. The automobile accident didn’t seem to slow him down one bit, as he launched into an unabating blitzkrieg of bass and trap. I don’t doubt his well-wishing fans helped Snake reach a speedy recovery. Nice to have you back, Snake. —John Ochoa

Beautiful Meet-up Spots at Crescent Blue and Dandelion Forest

A perfect unison between technology and nature, the Dandelion Forest standing in the middle of kineticFIELD provided a gorgeous locale that doubled as meet-up spot and photo opp. The larger-than-life electric flowers mirrored an important element of the EDC experience, where the natural blends with the imaginary and crisscrosses between the real world and a mythical fantasy land. Over at neonGARDEN, the striking hues of blue at the Crescent Blue structure went hand-in-hand with the Zen-like force of the oversize onstage Buddha. Even with heavy beats ripping across the sound waves at neonGARDEN, Crescent Blue brought forth a sense of beauty impressive enough to inspire impromptu meditation sessions. —John Ochoa

The Omnipresence of Drake

Drake took his rightful seat as the king of the internet and the master of memes when he dropped his now-ubiquitous “Hotline Bling” video in mid-October. Since then, the Toronto rapper has seen a level of omnipresence that would make Alex From Target jealous. EDC Orlando was a hotbed of Drakeness seen via a handful of totems and heard from a number of DJs, including Alison Wonderland—who hilariously transitioned from the “Hotline Bling” chorus into Soulja Boy’s annoyingly famous “Crank That”—and Carnage, who dropped Ookay’s trapped-out “Hotline Bling” remix. I looked up into the nighttime sky to search for what I thought were initial raindrops when I then realized they were just Drake-induced tears slowly running down my sadboy cheeks. —John Ochoa

Specialty Drinks at the Smirnoff Tent

Any lover of libations would appreciate the Smirnoff tent, where trained mixologists poured drinks specially made with the raging raver in mind. Bass fanatics would appreciate the Bassqueeze, while the Headliner drink—a colorful twist on the classic Red Bull + vodka combo—became the universal choice for ravers all around. Drink responsibly, Headliners. —John Ochoa

Signing the EDC Orlando Flag

I definitely have specific event memories I’m sure will stick around with me forever: the dust storm at Dune; getting lost trying to find Moontribe; the manboys at Zouk; driving a 30-foot RV from San Diego to San Francisco for NYE with a group of friends; the police raid at NOS; the darkness within the Does Your Mama Know? parties. But there have no doubt been many people I’ve run into along the way who are forever rubbed away by all the other shit occupying my headspace. It happens, and that’s exactly why this girl caught my eye.

Meet Candice, a girl from Buffalo, NY, doing what she can to assure the people she meets at festivals aren’t forever assigned to oblivion. I ran into her at kineticFIELD sitting on the grass, where a bunch of people around her were signing a custom-made festival flag she specifically created as a memory keeper to share with Headliners. It took her 17 hours to get here. Talk about dedication.

“I drove down here to Orlando a couple of days ago to meet up with some friends before EDC. I’ve been doing this festival flag thing since Mysteryland in 2014. I decided to make a personalized flag for every festival we went to. It’s just something so everybody can come and sign. I hand-draw a new design for each show; this one took me about six hours or so. I like the idea of having a little something by everyone around us from each festival to take home. I have them all there, hanging in my living room. A lot of people seem to love it, too. They leave nice pieces of art, sign their name, they leave their Instagram info or whatever. It’s just a really cool reminder for me of what we had at the festival, who we were surrounded by. I think my favorite is from Electric Forest this year.” —Rob Simas

The Journey to Join the Front-Row Headliners

It takes a special kind of person to withstand the intense realities of the front row (just ask these Headliners). As a working PLURfessional raver, I live an admittedly spoiled festival life most other fans don’t ever experience. Backstage and VIP access to artist trailers and views from onstage are a norm for me. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, as the behind-the-scenes perspective allows me meet artists and industry folks alike, but I lose the fan experience only found on the dancefloor.

I succumbed to the siren call of Calvin Harris ringing from kineticFIELD. This strong sense of attraction coming from deep within the festival crowd pulled me in, and I decided to make the journey from the outer limits of kineticFIELD to the faraway front barricades of the stage.

I began clocking my journey at 9:32 pm, where already the energy of the crowd was palpable. As I trekked farther and farther into the crowds, the beats rang heavier, the chants got louder, and the crowds went wilder. By 9:43 pm, I was midpoint to the stage, and it was then I finally began to understand the draw of the front row. It’s here that the roar of the crowd is strong enough to drown out a tower of speakers as the voices sing in unison. Beyond bumping into sweaty bodies and the occasional foot stomp, the camaraderie on the festival dancefloor is unmatched, which is understandable when you spend up to eight hours or more with your neighbor ravers. It took me a total of 47 minutes to get to the front barricade, which is miniscule when compared to the Headliners who spent the majority of their day there waiting for their favorite DJs to hit the stage.

At the very front of the kineticFIELD crowd, I could finally bask in the stage’s full majesty. The heat of the flames emanating off every fire burst warmed my skin. I could feel droplets of water from the stage cascades splash on my face, while the sky filled with millions of pieces of colorful confetti. Only when you’re in the belly of the beast do you experience true fandom, where followers of the beat are down for the cause and crowd like no other concertgoer you’ll ever meet. Everyone thinks the grass is greener backstage, but the party really happens down at the crowds with all your loved ones and newfound friends. Get in there and get dirty. —John Ochoa

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