What You Need to Know About Camping at Electric Daisy Carnival

We just got back from our first time going and camping at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. EDC is one of the largest electronic music festivals in the world running 22 years. It is quite the spectacle.

I consider myself an original raver, I started going to raves in the 80’s. The first one I went to was in an Orange Grove in Homestead, FL.  Back then the actual rave was a one-night thing that could be extended by going to after-hours, and maybe chillin’ at someone’s house after that.  It could last days but you had to get creative. Even the first  Ultra Music Festival in Miami was one day, I was there, on the sands of South Beach, a sublime experience!

Ravin’ Today

A few decades later the rave has become a 3-day festival complete with camping.  I’ve attended Coachella, Ultra, Bonnaroo and numerous other festivals for several years but EDC is its own beautiful monster. And consequently, camping at Electric Daisy Carnival was a bit monstrous. Here’s everything you need to know about camping at EDC and just what to expect if you’ve never been to the festival.

Ah so much better! 😁 #rave #ravers #edclasvegas #electronicmusic #festivals #totem #festivalseason #makeamericaraveagain🤘🏽

A post shared by Charo Hidalgo-Gato (@chgato) on May 24, 2018 at 12:11pm PDT

Electric Daisy Carnival-It’s a spectacular view from the bleachers

Electric Daisy Carnival

Checking-in to Camping at Electric Daisy Carnival

Let’s start with just getting into the festival. Our Uber driver who picked us up at LAS airport dropped us off at what he said was the only Uber drop off.   This was at the main entrance reeeally far away from camping. We couldn’t even roll our luggage on the gravel so we had to jump on a ped cab. The ped cab driver was really nice and dropped us off as close as he could.

EDC

Checking-in To Camping

We walked the rest of the way to the camping entrance. Here our friends who had already checked in to RV camping met us to help. The attendant at the camping entrance told us to go to an info booth to get bands again dragging our luggage as everyone else was already going out to party.  The person at the info booth said they couldn’t help us! So back with our luggage to the camping entrance. After much back and forth we got our bands, our bags were searched and we got in! It shouldn’t have been this hard.

Waiting to Get In

So getting into camping sucked! Then when we were ready to go into the actual festival we discover a long, slow line. This was the first night. On Saturday night there was almost a stampede! The gates to the entrance from camping we being opened every 10 minutes or so.  About 100 people were standing against the gate and they were only opening it to a sliver. People started pushing through the sliver opening, I was in the middle and well things got scary.  Girls were like “don’t push!” All that only to stand at one of like 6 lines to wait an hour to get in.

Come on EDC, you know better than to make a bunch of ravers wait in a line that long, sometimes without water. Once you get in waters are $5 and I heard the free water on the festival grounds had a salty taste to it.  I say add more entry points and sell waters for $3.

The house – techno flag. If you saw this you were squished up against the fence.

Camping at Electric Daisy Carnival

The good

We stayed in the RV campground.  We were a five-minute walk away from The Mesa- the pools, food vendors, general store and the activities. It was a really cool area. The idea to put pools on the campgrounds was brilliant but during pool parties, the pools didn’t seem large enough to accommodate the number of campers. The food vendors were pretty good.  Having an affinity for Spanish food, as a Cuban-American, I chose Boqueria Street -Barcelona Street Food, and man was it good.  The best coffee was the Nitro Brew, I think we got it at the Loving Cup food truck.

Campground Amenities

The Sol, Cascada and Terra shade tents were perfect for having meals and relaxing under the misters. Activities like rave hula dancing, deep house yoga, and essential oils workshops were offered here.  Another good idea was the shuttle to Smiths grocery store. It was a 10-minute walk to the shuttle from our RV and it took around an hour to get there, shop and get back.  We had to buy towels and luckily this large supermarket sold them.

In the Terra Tent- Camping at Electric Daisy Carnival

Camping – The Bad

This year Electric Daisy Carnival offered camping for the first time and it showed. Our RV was conveniently located close to the showers and permanent Speedway bathrooms. This would’ve been perfect had the showers worked. The first night they were not working then working again late night Friday until the morning. And not working again Saturday afternoon when literally everyone was trying to shower. Many were taking “cat baths” in the women’s bathrooms and in the outdoor water filling station area, kinda ratch!

Entrance to Kinetic Field at EDC

Camping- More Bad

The general store ran out of supplies including ice. I saw a kid complaining to festival security regarding the lack of ice. Overall the staff on the campgrounds was not very informative many times not knowing what was going on. A few were nice others not so much. At one point we asked about booking a massage, one of the staff said “Well if you find them (massages) let us know” lol This lack of organization can be dangerous when you have a bunch of rave kids camping out in the desert heat.

The Festival Grounds

Electric Daisy Carnival is one of the largest, most beautiful festivals I’ve been to. There are always like 20 things happening at once- people in costumes walking around, sideshows, fireworks, carnival rides, interactive art installations. It seems to be more about the atmosphere than the music at times.

Getting Into The Grounds Early

It’s nice to get in early like 8 pm because it’s not so packed come 11:30 pm it seems to double in capacity.  You do have to shuck and jive as you walk to get through groups of people. Once you get to a stage it’s not too bad, I mean it’s not like you have to be upfront at the stages for EDM.  There’s space to dance although there should be more dancing, kids these days don’t dance enough. Everyone is in rave costumes showing off their assets even those who maybe shouldn’t be. But hey more power to them. Back in the early rave days girls used to wear oversized pants and cropped T’s; it was considered sexy. Things have changed.

Kinetic Field-Electric Daisy Carnival

Drinks and Food on the Festival Grounds

There are vendors offering $5 waters and $11 MillerLites (Yuck) every few steps. A better choice of beer would be welcomed here; I was able to get a Corona once. We never hit the bars so I’m not sure what was being offered. As usual, drinking is very expensive at festivals. A friend purchased one $36 drink in a souvenir cup! You can drink in your RV or tent before you go into the grounds, which is nice. I didn’t see any interesting food choices either.

After a cancelled flight, then leaving two days later, being dropped off by Uber at the main entrance with our luggage super far from our RV to then take a Ped cab to camp entrance and no one knowing where we could get our wrist bands for camping we made it to @edc_lasvegas! #musicfestivals #electronicmusic #vegas #rvcamping #dacingqueen

A post shared by Charo Hidalgo-Gato (@chgato) on May 19, 2018 at 10:08am PDT

The art at Electric Daisy Carnival is gorgeous!

Personal Woes

Maybe had our flight not been delayed and canceled out of Miami on Wed. we would’ve been in a better state of mind when we finally got there on Friday. We could’ve used a couple of extra days to get used to the 3 hr time difference and the dry climate. That may have alleviated our camping woes maybe made it easier to take the 1-hour long wait to get in.

View from the Speedway Bleachers

In The End

Yet, I would go to EDC again! I had a great time dancing my butt off at several of the amazing stages. My favorite was the “Rollercoaster” with its funky house beats.  As for camping, not sure. Camping at Electric Daisy Carnival could be amazing with a few improvements. I would entertain a hotel option, just seems more comfortable although I hear getting to the Speedway and back takes more than an hour. Maybe the VIP option is the way to go? Either way, I recommend meeting and enjoying the beautiful monster that is EDC if just once in your life.