Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

LA nearly riots at EDC film screening (or yet another reason why the fest should stay in Vegas)

LA riots

A crowd gathered for a Kaskade set in LA before the EDC documentary premiere refused to disperse on July 27.

Everyone already knows about the deaths associated with last year’s EDC (the festival celebrating electronic dance music) in Los Angeles and the one earlier this year in Dallas. But now it appears that even documentaries about EDC can cause problems.

We at Weekly are starting to notice a distinct pattern when it comes to the Electric Daisy Carnival—namely, that it appears to attract trouble anywhere it goes except for Las Vegas.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which was hosting the LA premiere of EDC doc Electric Daisy Carnival Experience, almost became something out of Day of the Locust on July 27, as thousands gathered outside the theater and started a near-riot when police tried to disperse them.

The crowd gathered after a tweet from DJ Kaskade: “ME+BIG SPEAKERS+MUSIC=BLOCK PARTY!!! RT!” More than 2,000 fans massed for the “block party,” spilling into the street and blocking traffic, causing event organizers to cancel not only his performance, but the screening as well.

Electric Daisy Carnival Day 1

Dina Bronshteyn,31, of Orlando, Fla. jumps on lighted rings during the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway June 24, 2011. Launch slideshow »

The unhappy crowd refused to leave, however, and police were called in to try to clear the streets. Things quickly turned ugly, with bottles thrown and cars vandalized. Officers responded by shooting beanbags into the crowd. Kaskade tweeted for everyone to “please relax” and go home, adding he didn’t want anything to reflect badly on electronic dance music.

Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but this incident is another black eye surrounding EDC, which just seems to court trouble nearly everywhere it goes.

Nearly.

EDC Las Vegas managed the three-day festival earlier this summer with minimal difficulties, despite the 215,000 fans in attendance at the Speedway. Is this an inappropriate time to say that, perhaps, the dance music festival should make Sin City its home from here on out?

Just sayin’.

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