My "first" EDC experience
I went to EDC in the early 2000s back when it was still being held in San Bernardino. Obviously a LOT has changed since then. We went this year after trying to attend in 2020 (we had 30 people going and it was going to be awesome... thanks Covid). After a few years of trying to get people to go, my partner and I said we should just do it by ourselves. We got ourselves an RV spot and did the thing.
Being in our 40s we were a little worried about whether we could handle 3 days of this shiii. It wasn't bad. Granted, we were camping so we didn't have to deal with the 2+ hour traffic in/out of the fest. That made a big difference. We also spent a lot of time sleeping instead of participating in activities at the mesa. It was too hot anyway.
I was also wondering about how different the crowd would be. I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of people/trains were very respectful. Saying sorry when bumping into you, or asking if it's ok to pass. Sure there were times I just got shoved or people were being annoying by talking during the whole set instead of listening to the music, but those instances were rare.
It also wasn't as big as I thought. Basspod to Kinetic wasn't as far as I thought it would be, so jumping around to different sets was pretty manageable.
I guess I just wanted to post to counter all the negative posts I'm seeing. I'm sure if you've been going for several years you can see the decline or how PLUR is disappearing. But as a first timer, I was pleasantly surprised. I've got a lot of new artists and genres to explore. It's revitalized my desire to explore and listen to new music.
Hearing Darude play Sandstorm, Kaskade play 4am at 4am, The Prodigy play Breathe, and being in a crowd of people go crazy when Zedd played Clarity were definitely some high points for me.
We're definitely coming back in a couple of years.