Sarah Feldberg
On June 17, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be transformed. While its stands sit empty, the infield will grow into a neon city, a frontier boomtown dipped in light, throbbing with sound and packed to the rafters for the weekend. Eighteen miles away, the reverberations will be felt up and down the Las Vegas Strip.
Now in its sixth year in Las Vegas, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) is more than a three-night dance-music party in the desert. Produced by Insomniac, which also holds events in New York, the U.K., Southern California and elsewhere, the company’s flagship festival has grown into an event that draws more than 400,000 people over its three days and spills beyond the perimeter of the Speedway, affecting Las Vegas’ image and bottom line.
According to a report by Beacon Economics, commissioned by Insomniac, EDC 2015 created $350.3 million in economic impact in Clark County, including $168.3 million in direct spending by attendees.
That number tops the direct spending by attendees of Las Vegas’ largest annual conventions. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), CES 2016 accounted for $153.9 million in direct spending, followed by Automotive Aftermarket Industry Week with $130.6 million and the National Association of Broadcasters with $96.1 million.
To compile the EDC report, Beacon founding partner Christopher Thornberg said his company sends out online spending surveys to fest attendees, offering a ticket giveaway drawing as incentive to complete the questionnaire. Beacon filters out any questionable responses as well as any attendees from Las Vegas whose spending would impact the local economy even if they weren’t at EDC. That eliminates about 25% of respondents, but Thornberg said they still have thousands of viable surveys to analyze.
Over EDC’s first five years in Las Vegas, where it moved in 2011 after playing in L.A. for a number of years, Beacon found the festival generated a total of $1.3 billion in economic impact.
“When I look at these numbers, what I take away, this is not a bunch of drug-addled hippies with no money,” Thornberg said.
However, EDC’s impact on Las Vegas isn’t purely economic. The festival, which runs for three nights from dusk to dawnish, has grown into a larger EDC Week that includes affiliated events at Strip nightclubs and party pools, as well as electronic music industry conference EDMBiz.
Stretching from June 13 to 20, the EDC Week schedule features parties at MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and Las Vegas Sands Corp. casinos, as well as the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and the Hard Rock Hotel. It’s practically a pan-Strip event, an occasion so big it crosses normal business battle lines.
"Each year EDC brings in hundreds of thousands of visitors to Las Vegas, including many who didn’t have a ticket to the festival, but wanted to experience the destination during EDC Week,” Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak said via statement. “From EDC to the overall entertainment appeal of Las Vegas, EDC Week gives these visitors an experience that only this town can offer.”
“It’s really quite a scene,” Thornberg said. “I don’t think I’ve ever scene the town quite as alive as during that weekend.”
The speakers at EDMBiz, meanwhile, include musicians, agents, journalists, P.R. reps, managers and folks from the tech world, who all gather to discuss the state of the electronic dance music industry and its future.
Together, the festival, peripheral events and industry conference have the cumulative effect of cementing Las Vegas’ reputation as a hub for EDM in the U.S., making it a mecca for dancing music fans long after the carnival itself has left town.