Events

The Acts You Need to See at EDC, the Massive Las Vegas Festival

You could visit every nightclub in Las Vegas, Miami, New York, Ibiza, and St. Tropez and still not even come close to seeing the 200-plus DJs at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas this weekend.
Starting June 19th, Yahoo Live is streaming the biggest music festival in North America — the Electric Daisy Carnival. EDC is going down in Las Vegas, but you can check it out from home here. A big part of the EDC adventure is wandering around and discovering artists you haven’t experienced before, but there are no doubt some headliners you should make an effort to catch.Here are 12 acts you won’t want to miss, and you can also download the EDC Las Vegas app to check out the entire schedule and create your own hit list. (Note: At EDC, set times after midnight are considered part of the same day as pre-midnight performances. So even though the 3:30 a.m. set you’re dying to dance your way through is technically on Saturday, it will be listed as part of the Friday lineup.)

Calvin Harris performs during 2013 Electric Daisy Carnival New York at Citi Field on May 18, 2013 in New York City. (Photo: John Lamparski/WireImage)
Calvin Harris — Sunday, 11:01 p.m. to 12:11 a.m.He’s the biggest DJ and arguably the biggest musician in the world, the Scotsman behind “Summer,” “Blame,” “We Found Love,” “Sweet Nothing,” “Pray to God,” and so many other smashes. Long before he became Taylor Swift’s love interest and before he made songs with Rihanna, Florence Welch, Haim, and Big Sean, Calvin Harris proved to be a man in full who sang on his own tunes, like the spectacular “Feel So Close.” There’s nobody better at pop-laden electronic music, and there’s a good chance there won’t ever be.Related: The 5 Things You Need to Know to Have an Amazing Time at EDC

Guy Lawrence and Howard Lawrence of Disclosure performs at the Lovebox festival at Victoria Park on July 19, 2013 in London, England. (Photo: Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
Disclosure — Saturday, 10:30 p.m. to 12 a.m.Guy Lawrence just turned 24. His brother Howard just turned 21. The future of dance music looks bright. The funky young British duo, Disclosure, recently gave the world the smash “Latch” with Sam Smith. Their DJ sets show that they’re as adept with garage-house beats as they are with R&B hooks and poppy interludes. They don’t sound like other chart-topping acts, and here’s hoping they never will.

Dash Berlin performing in Toronto in 2014. (Photo: Sonia Recchia/WireImage)Dash Berlin — Saturday, 3:31 a.m. to 4:27 a.m.Dash Berlin is a collaboration of three Dutch musicians, but it’s exuberant frontman Jeffrey Sutorius who has emerged as a festival king. Sutorius is an expert at reading and adapting to the crowd as he crafts trance sets that change speeds and emotions and purposes. And Dash Berlin’s “Steal You Away” is the kind of rousing anthem that makes festival throngs simultaneously beam and weep. EDC can get emotional a lot of the time, and that’s part of the allure.

Jahan Yousaf and Yasmine Yousaf of Krewella perform onstage at the 2014 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. (Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images for Coachella)
Krewella — Saturday, 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.The ladies of Krewella, sisters Jahan and Yasmine Yousaf from Illinois, have perhaps the ultimate EDC anthem in “Live For the Night,” though “Enjoy the Ride” is an electric crowd-pleaser as well. These are lovely songs based in rock melodies that are enhanced by bouncy beats and grand crescendoes. For young EDM fans, this is like rocket fuel.Related: A Gentleman’s Guide to Drinking Well in Las Vegas,

DJs Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom of Dada Life perform onstage at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festiva. (Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images for Coachella)
Dada Life — Saturday, 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.The fun-loving, banana-wielding Swedish troublemakers inDada Life, set a Guinness record for World’s Largest Pillow Fight (3,813 participants) at a Chicago show. They have also been known to go big with their shenanigans at EDC, like the time they brought a marching band on stage. The duo of Olle Cornéer and Stefan Engblom don’t skimp on visual effects at EDC, like a cartoon of a giant finger tapping a keyboard during the chorus of “Happy Violence.” Pleasantly goofball songs like “Kick Out the Epic Motherf—er” keep the revelry going.

Tiësto performs at the Electric Daisy Carnival: London 2013 at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on July 20, 2013 in London, England. (Photo: Jeff Lombardo/Getty Images)
Tiësto — Sunday, 1:17 a.m. to 2:27 a.m.Dutch godfather Tiësto travels all over the world, but it’s Vegas that inspired his latest album, “A Town Called Paradise,” with its standout single “Red Lights.” He loves playing in Vegas, where he spends more time at clubs than anywhere else, and he’s adept at making festival crowds lose it when he mashes up popular rock songs from bands like Coldplay and Red Hot Chili Peppers with his own beats. And, of course, he has a hit song called “Wasted” about how everything is better and sexier when you’re drunk, so he understands Vegas pretty well.

Carl Cox performs at the ‘Nature One’ massive rave, held at the former U.S. rocket base Pydna in 2014 in Kastellaun, Germany. (Photo: Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)
Carl Cox — Friday, 2:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m and Saturday, 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m.Carl Cox’s music is the soundtrack of dark, sexy, underground raves and also of incomparable Ibiza parties. This British acid-house pioneer and techno wizard might be exactly the antidote you want after set after set of pop-inflected dance songs at EDC. And he’s performing a three-hour set on the first night and a 90-minute set on the second night, which gives him plenty of time to take things in all kinds of groovy directions.Related: No ‘Narsisstics’: Music Festivals Ban Fans’ Selfie Sticks 

Fatboy Slim performs on stage at Rockness Festival 2013 in 2013 in Inverness, Scotland. (Photo: Ross Gilmore/Redferns via Getty Images)
Fatboy Slim — Friday, 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.Two words: Praise You. An ultra-talented musician and master video-maker who got his start in an indie-rock band, Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, was a leader of the big beat movement who became an MTV force. The Brit’s encyclopedic knowledge of music, and his remixes of the Beastie Boys, Cornershop, and A Tribe Called Quest, mean a wide-ranging catalog of booty-shakers that could teach the younger generation of DJs a few things about diversity.

3Lau performs during the 2015 Ultra Music Festival at Bayfront Park Amphitheater in Miami. (Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
3LAU — Saturday, 9:30 p.m to 10:30 p.m.Justin “3LAU” Blau is a local Vegas prodigy who has ascended to headliner status with songs like “How You Love Me.” He loved bands like Sigur Ros and Radiohead growing up, and he likes to bring the swirling grandeur of such acts into electronic dance music, which he didn’t even get into until vacationing in Sweden in 2011. He’s a fast learner who now has regular Vegas club shows, but there’s no bigger gig than EDC, so expect 3LAU to bring the energy for his hometown.

Nicky Romero performs during Miami’s Ultra Music Festival at Bayfront Park Amphitheater in 2014. (Photo: Aaron Davidson/FilmMagic)
Nicky Romero — Friday 12:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.Have you seen the video for “I Could be the One”? What an over-the-top, ridiculous representation of what it’s like to say “screw everything” and run away from it all. But at its heart, Dutch ace Nicky Romero’s collaboration with Avicii is such a sweet-hearted song about not wanting to feel invisible anymore and celebrating whoever you are. That’s why a lot of people go to EDC.Related: Will Travel for Music: Crazy Lengths People Go to See Their Favorite Bands

Avicii performs at the MLB Fan Cave in 2013 in New York City. (Photo: Mike Pont/WireImage)
Avicii — Saturday, 10:59 p.m. to 11:55 p.m.This Swedish superstar Avicii has merged pop, rock, folk, and country into dance music like nobody else. It’s pretty remarkable that “Levels,” “Fade Into Darkness,” “Hey Brother,” and the inescapable “Wake Me Up” are all the work of the same guy, a young man who’s still just 25.

American DJ and record producer Ryan Raddon, known by his stage name Kaskade, performs at the 7107 International Music Festival in 2014 in the Philippines. (Photo: Jeoffrey Maitem/Getty Images)
Kaskade — Friday, 1:09 a.m. to 2:21 a.m.Straight-edge sensation Kaskade, who went from Chicago underground boss to globetrotting international force, doesn’t drink or do drugs. This helps give him the stamina for his multi-layered, atmospheric, melodic sets punctuated by stellar songs like “Turn It Down” and “Last Chance.”

Andy Wang is a columnist for Las Vegas Weekly, the Vegas editor for DuJour, and a contributing writer for Los Angeles magazine.
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