Pasquale Rotella responds to Deadmau5's festival comments

/

Source: Facebook

Source: Rukes.com

Pasquale Rotella, the CEO of Insomniac (the organizers behind EDC Las Vegas), went on Reddit tonight for his AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread. One Redditor asked Pasquale about what he thought of Deadmau5's comments on festivals from a recent article from the London Evening Standard. For those that didn't read those original comments, here they are: 

“It’s another thing I can’t f*****’ stand, you know? Festivals are being branded bigger than the acts, which is totally backwards in my head,” he spits. “It’s ’cause of those acts that you’re a festival! Who wins? The promoter. The guy who’s throwing this festival that’s branded bigger than you, that you think you’re awesome for headlining. It’s a shame, so that’s why I’m pulling out.” (Click here to read the entire article)

Pasquale had this to say in response: 

"First, I want to give props to deadmau5 for acknowledging that some festivals are bigger than the artists. I absolutely agree with him; it’s not some fluke or mistake. I don’t know what Canada’s dance scene was like, but this is the way it’s been in the US since the beginning of the underground scene. There were always DJ-centric events, but those were never the big parties.

In rock and rap, the performer is usually the center of the show. Dance music is its own thing. It’s about having a good time, celebrating life, and listening to good music. From his comments, I’m assuming he’d rather people stand there and gawk at the artist for an hour-and-a-half, but that’s not where I come from, nor where I want things to go. DJs deserve to get love from their fans, but that’s not shown by standing there and watching with your arms crossed. It’s shown by dancing and getting lost in the moment.

I wish deadmau5 would continue making good music and spend less time knocking people that have been supporting the culture since the beginning. I respect his art form. It would be great if he would respect mine, which is striving to produce magical events."

Well said. 

To read the full Pasquale Rotella AMA, click here. 

The official dates for EDC Las Vegas 2014 are set

/

The dates for the 2014 edition of the Electric Daisy Carnival have been revealed as over 300,000 fans will descend to the Nevada desert from Friday, June 20th until Sunday, June 22nd 2014 for a massive 3 day/night festival. Pasquale Rotella, the head of Insomniac Events which organizes EDC, wanted to reminded us all at how epic EDC Las Vegas was this year by releasing an amazing 7 minute video that showed off all of the extra production value which leaves fans wanting more: 

Did you notice the lack of DJs featured in this video? Pasquale really believes that the true headliner is you, the fans, and the experience one gets when you visit his fantasy world. I think that's pretty cool if you ask me.

I have little doubt that thousands of Canadians will be making the trek to Las Vegas in 2014 to experience the next edition of EDC, so plan ahead, call friends, and get ready. "Headliner Loyalty Tickets" for EDC Las Vegas 2014  will be on sale on November 25th, while "early owl" (aka early bird) will go on sale on December 2nd. Be sure to check back once the proper ticket links are revealed. 

EDC Las Vegas mainstage to offer Hardstyle, House, Trance, and even Techno this year

/

From inthemix.com: ​

​ “Especially on our largest stage, we’re going to have everything from hardstyle to house to dubstep to trance to techno,” Rotella told inthemix of the line-up."

“It’s going to be different. We’re actually going to have a hardstyle act play on our mainstage, which has never been done in the United States. We’re going to experiment.” In 2012, the line-up was revealed in April, so the EDC team won’t keep us waiting for long."

Great news for those that are yearning to experience a little something different at a major festival. Will the fans that are more accustomed to hearing big room sounds stick around on the mainstage to check out other acts outside their favourite EDM genre? Or will fans instead decide to pack smaller stages as Rotella puts on more experimental acts on the mainstage?

It's an interesting experiment from the Insomniac boss who promised a year ago to change things up by emphasizing the EDC experience rather than booking the biggest names.

Los Angeles Times article causes a stir *Updated

/

This is a developing story but let me link to the articles so you can stay up to date:

Here's the link to the Los Angeles article that started it all. The controversy can be summarized in this paragraph:

"Since 2006, at least 14 people who attended concerts produced by Rotella, considered within the industry the nation's leading rave promoter, and Reza Gerami, another prominent Los Angeles-based impresario, have died from overdoses or in other drug-related incidents, a Times investigation has found."

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

Insomniac events, led by Pasquale Rotella, responded via Instragram with a strong call to action:

(VIA: inthemix)

Kaskade also chimed in via his Tumblr blog:

"First off, this article is irrelevant and outdated. Perhaps if these journalists had written this twenty years ago, when the truth was a little more ragged, they could have made an argument that wasn’t so laughable."
"...I wouldn’t dare say we ignore the tragic accidents that happen. I wouldn’t dare say they don’t happen. But it takes a rudimentary understanding of the Basic Laws of Probability to guess that the more people that show up to these festivals, the larger the risk is that something goes awry. This isn’t unique to this music. This is a universal principle."

(Source: Thisisadynasty.tumblr.com)

Pasquale Rotella praised Kaskade:

Meanwhile the Los Angeles Times posted an article focused on Insomniac's response and from its readers.

FYI - The L.A Times posted a Yes/No poll asking the readers to weigh in on the question: "Are cities relying too much on the income from raves?" The current results are 96% for the No side. 

Tommie Sunshine will be writing an article for the Huffington Post soon:

It's a good thing that the Association for Electronic Music (AFEM) is now a real entity because they are the ideal organization to properly represent the EDM community in matters such as these. According to Ben Turner, AFEM "will fight dance music's cause where it is under represented and become a network for those involved in the industry to swap advice and knowledge." (Source: Mixmag)

Even though the AFEM is still in its infancy I hope that the board will come together and decide to tackle sensitive issues such as the one above in the near future.

*Update: Zel McCarthy, contributing writer for Billboard's #CODE, wrote an article on his personal Soundbleed site that was critical of Insomniac Events. He made his points by citing many personal observations while attending Insomniac events throughout the years. Read it here.