For the delight of the electric ones, the biggest electronic music festival outside of Europe took place in Puerto Rico this past Friday and blew the minds of audiophiles away. The Arena Fairgrounds was transformed into a carnivalesque electronic maze where visual and aural stimulation reached maximum levels.

Fans were handed over a pair of prism glasses as they walked in the Electric Daisy Carnival grounds. These magnifying glasses were the key to the fun house of visuals and light shows that brought patrons to near convulsion.
Music lovers expected no less from the infamous festival, which began in 1996 in Southern California only to break assistance records in the history of electronic music in the United States. “This is amazing,” expressed Angel Santiago, a local DJ. “I’m still in shock that this event was brought to Puerto Rico. I’m sure it will be an intense night.”

The first stage was located in the area designated The Neon Arena, which equipped with a total of 9 screens, projected an intense visual play of digital art and photography. The polychromatic visualizations merged with the intense music of the DJs. The DJs that took this stage for the night were Alkalina and Dwek from Puerto Rico; Adultsnapper, Treasure Fingers, and Rabbit In The Moon from the United States; and JFK, one half of MSTRKRFT, from Canada.

Across the room was the Bass Pod area, a dance hall for fans of heavy bass lines and aggressive dance riffs. Although the smallest of the three, the Bass Pod stage dominated in intensity as it recreated the feel and vibe of crowded nightclub with a line-up of raucous DJs. From Puerto Rico, DJs Xstasy, Hugh, Cut Radio, Trixx and Lady Liquid spun their infectious beats, while foreign talents Dieselboy (USA), and Craze & Klever (USA) exerted their rabid tunes.

The maze of stages and halls lead to a wall labeled “No Exit”. Of course, daring patrons were received by carnival rides and the main stage dubbed the Kinetic Field. Many of the DJs that formed the line-up for this stage fused tropical rhythms and percussion beats. Plumpy Bitches, native to Puerto Rico, incorporated some bomba and plena to their beats, while Damian Lazarus showed some salsa love.

Visual displays and surprises never stopped at the carnival. A clown in a unicycle rode into the Kinetic Field, falling on the floor and interacting with the crowd, and a fire-breathing gypsy dazed the crowd with her blazing and fearless display.

Back in the Neon Arena, Rabbit In the Moon made quite an entrance by dressing up as the Grim Reaper, accompanied by a group of scantily clad female dancers in Venetian masks. He later appeared in a suit that lit up with multiple colors. He held up a rod with a screen that picked up images from the public to project them on the stage screens as he sang “look at the eye!”

When JFK from MSTRKFT played, the energy intensified. The audience went wild and reacted to every sound and every transition. At the same time, Diesel Boy invaded the Bass Pod and Underworld took over the Kinetic Fields with an incredible display of lights accompanied by images projected on giant inflatable balloons.

The Electric Daisy Carnival marked a milestone in the history of electronic music in Puerto Rico, and fans await its repetition.

by Sheyla Rivera; photos by Ricardo Ferrer