Under the Electric Sky

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) Las Vegas last year. If you aren't familiar, EDCLV is an electronic music festival that tries to be, and succeeds in being, much more than that. The founder of Insomniac Events, the company responsible for EDC each year, stresses that EDC is more than just the immense list of A-List artists who perform, it's about the entire experience.

Take a look at this video. If you aren't a fan of electronic music, feel free to mute the video and skip around just to get an idea of the immense scale and production value that goes into this event. Pause the video at 1:40 if it's all you do. That's Las Vegas Motor Speedway filled with over 100,000 people at numerous different stages, illuminated with lighting of all different colors and filled with elaborate art pieces throughout.

I could go for hours grovelling over this event. Simply just walking from stage to stage is an adventure. People from all walks of life and all over the world come together to share an experience with each other and listen to music, but I want to (and I suppose I have to) tie it in to computers.

To say this event wouldn't exist without computers is both very true and not true at all.

Raves, or big festivals like these, have existed for as long as electronic music has, stretching back to the days of vinyl. The music was different, but it was still there. The stages relied less on lasers and lights and more on strictly music. The people didn't have powerful computers in their pockets, but they were still there dancing (and it's safe to say the event would not exist without the people in attendance).

But today, the advent of computers has changed everything and made it into something really breathtaking. You have the lasers, the lights, the spectacle. There is a group of guys on computers backstage controlling all that. You have the sound guys on their equipment. There are even engineers for some of the art pieces that have projectors displaying footage onto all sides of the piece, and they are sitting on their computers, out of sight. All the cameras transmit their footage to a control room where an engineer displays the best footage on the big screens on either side of the stage. The finales and intermission shows where firework, light, and pyrotechnic displays are synchronized flawlessly with music are powered by computers. Some stages have large LED panels that will descend down from the ceiling to (seemingly) just out of reach of the attendees. Yup, powered by computers.


I suppose I have no controversial point I want to make with this blog post. Two weeks ago I talked about some of the potential negative aspects of technology and computers, so this time I wanted to take a youthful look at how people can use technology and computers to create something entirely awe inspiring. Something that people can use to get a break from the monotony of daily life and create memories that will last forever.