Relive EDC Virtual Rave

Last weekend, thousands of headliners would have united under the electric sky at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, they united under the virtual sky for three days of live streams with impressive production and ID’s reflective of the real thing. 

The lineup of 42 artists even included big names who were not booked for this year’s event at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, like Benny Benassi, Kaskade, Flosstradamus, and ZHU. Props to Insomniac CEO Pasquale Rotella for recreating elements of the festival grounds and amazing setups for the Tunnel and Flower stages. Several DJs who were not in Los Angeles played from empty nightclubs. 

Though the EDC Las Vegas Virtual Rave-A-Thon didn’t match the postponed festival’s hours from before sundown to sunrise, it ran pretty close, from 5 p.m. to about 2 a.m. PT. Insomniac had almost 110,000 concurrent viewers on YouTube at some points of the nights. Here are some sets to relive from each day, in order of appearance. 

Friday

NGHTMRE b2b Ghastly

The rave-a-thon began in true fashion of Insomniac’s flagship event, which this year featured an incredible number of back-to-back sets. NGHTMRE b2b Ghastly kicked it all off with a ton of drum ‘n’ bass. 

ZHU

Steven Zhu, who was remote, presented a mind-blowing visual set that transitioned from dark to mellow. 

Oliver Heldens

Heldeep Records owner Oliver Heldens played live from his “aquarium” with an underwater setup using a green screen. 

Saturday

Malaa

The masked DJ played a solid G-House set.  

Benny Benassi 

The Cinema’ producer in Italy played an analog vs. digital set with classic vinyl, a new remix and his new single ‘Everybody Hates Morning Mornings.’

Kaskade

Ryan Raddon, back in Los Angeles from his magical Grand Canyon set, threw down some bangers and never-before-heard ID’s.

Don Diablo 

The DJ known for is futuristic “Hexagon” productions got personal with a set from his bedroom in The Netherlands. 

Flosstradamus 

Curt Cameruci turned up trap nation from the rave-a-thon’s Flower stage.

i_o

The techno rising star slayed it musically and visually on the Tunnel stage.

Sunday

Duke Dumont

Duke laid down some house music ending with his classic ‘Ocean Drive.’

David Guetta

Playing from Miami’s LIV nightclub, Guetta said his set was “99.9 percent exclusive music” from his Future Rave concept with Morten. “Trying to make this special!” the veteran said. 

Afrojack

The Dutch DJ played from an empty nightclub and treated viewers to an upbeat unreleased song. 

Seven Lions

Jeff Montalvo took headliners through a visually-charged journey on the Tunnel stage.

On Instagram, Rotella thanked headliners for tuning in to the virtual sky. 

“While I def can’t help but feel a little bummed we aren’t all together this weekend at @edc_lasvegas, the connection we have while we still Rave Together, but Apart, is something truly Special,” he wrote. 

Here’s to hoping actual EDC will happen on its postponed dates October 2 to 4. Until then, audio for all the sets from the rave-a-thon are compiled below on Soundcloud.