Though news media may still be reporting on the rise of Covid cases…

…festival season for 2022 has shown to be a different narrative. I am not undermining the current state of the pandemic, but I will leave it with this one thought as I’m a proponent of the vaccine; please do your research and make a sound decision that will benefit not only you, but the ones close to you as well. With that being said, it was damn time that we were getting back to some sense of normalcy as festival seasons are underway.

Last year, EDC LV 2021 was pushed back toward October making it hard for those who had planned on other September through November festivals as I’m sure it dug into people’s financial plans. Though EDC LV 2021 was a sold-out event, it was still lacking on attendees as people tried to sell their tickets off while others eventually ended up having to forfeit them.

For the last several years of attending EDC Las Vegas, I have mainly opted for the Skydeck experience, so stories about the restroom situation may not be something I’d relate to but outside of that, I always manage to immerse myself through the festival grounds like the rest. As Skydeckers, the artists we want to see most will dictate our table location so for day-1, it was imperative that we were at the Circuit Ground for Eric Prydz, Boris Brejcha and Charlotte de Witte and to no surprise, their sets were as expected; epically good if this was your first time hearing them or just fairly typical if you have lost count. For me personally, it was the combination of seeing them on this stage that only Insomniac knows how to do it. We didn’t stay long due to high winds, but also we had two other nights to rest for.

To no surprise, day-2 was perhaps the busiest out of the weekend and even though the drive there did not feel like it as it took us nearly 1.5 hour on day-1. Being techno heads, we settled at the Neon Garden but our group immediately split out as of one of the set I was looking forward to catch was the Deadmau5 and Kaskade duo under the Kx5 project. The music was a good fusion of what both artists are known for which was progressive and techy. They had one of the most interesting stage setups that reminded me of the Star Wars ride at Disneyland. Each men had their own DJ booth which moved back and forth; and various position on the stage. It was just very interesting.

Unlike most time I’ve attended EDC, I didn’t walk around as much though I did hangout a lot at the Kinetic Field to catch some Tiesto and the fireworks there, but later we ended up resting and dancing most of the night at the Neon Garden to close out the event with Charlotte De Witte and I Hate Models.

Day-3 was the most anticipated for me because I did not want to miss Adam Beyer as the Neon Garden Skydeck became homebase for us. Though I may have been a little tired from the previous two nights, this was probably the night where I did most of the walking and ended up hanging out in places that I don’t normally venture to such as Wasteland. The night was such a blur that I don’t recall being in one place more than 30 minutes as we were just trekking throughout the whole festival; but oddly enough I never made it to the Cosmic Meadow, not once out of three nights. But the highlight for me was spending nearly over two hours at the Neon Garden for Adam Beyer and wrapping our EDC journey at the Kinetic for Kaskade’s redux set.

Having been to EDC LV countless time, I go there mainly for the experience first and all others second. EDC LV 2022 was a sign that everything was shaping back to normalcy as displayed by the sheer amount of people sweeping through the festival ground over the weekend. I had the opportunity to attend all three days, and though I was pretty tired, I felt I could have gone a fourth day. No matter how often I’ve gone to EDC LV, the desire to return has yet to subside so I’m definitely looking forward to next year.

-Jawn Gee