The things you do for the love of music

After returning from ASOT in Utrecht, Amsterdam for the first time, I was jumping back on the plane to Mexico City for another dose of my favorite artists, John O’Callaghan and Bryan Kearney as Key 4050.

Arriving to EDC Mexico was a trip in itself; the traffic was crazier than Los Angeles, and it took about 50 minutes to go five miles during lunch hour. I also didn’t realize how huge the Autodromo Hermonos was in comparison to the map; they have a soccer field, race tracks and park all connected within the stadium. With the attendance of 230,000 people for the next two days, I knew it was going to be similar to EDC Las Vegas notorious crowd. We arrived at will call, which then took longer than expected. This was due to many complications with Americans not having the credit card they purchased their tickets with, and they had to buy another ticket on the spot, then have their other purchased ticket refunded by Ticketmaster. It was a horrible process that Ticketmaster decided to uphold, and it cost us an hour and a half just to pick up our tickets due to the long lines and wait times. Many headliners were missed on the first day due to this confusion, but that wasn’t going to stop our excitement. We shook it off and proceeded to the main entrance, which was about a quarter-mile walk from the gate.

There were many outside vendors selling EDC and artist related tee-shirts, lanyard, cups, bracelets, body paint, head crowns, tissue paper for porta potties, ponchos; name it and they probably sell it.

EDC Mexico hosted eight stages this year, including the Kinetic stage (main stage), Circuit Ground, Neon Garden, Wasteland and two smaller stages: the Parliament cart and BoomBox cart and a sponsored stage by Dos Equis .

After going through ticket check and security check, we proceeded through Gate 6 and surveyed our surroundings. The BoomBox cart welcomed everyone with their funky beats and familiar cover tracks as we walked down Rainbow road, which lead straight to Mother Gaia at Kinetic Field in all her beauty and glory. We then made the long walk to Circuit Ground, but before getting there, we passed by the VIP section, which had a lot of amenities I had not seen before, such as coat check. The Sky Lounge was also connected with the VIP area but needed an extra wristband for table service.

There were also all sorts of hands-on activities, from jumping out of Interjet airplane models, makeup-decorating face paint and alot of food and drinks, which made going to Circuit Ground a fun adventure even if it was actually pretty far. However, if you did not want to walk, they also had a mini train located near the VIP bathrooms that would go from Kinetic Field to Circuit Ground. No matter which way you go, making it to Circuit Ground was well worth it; there was plenty of room to dance and wave your flags without hitting or disturbing anyone else’s moves, just the way I like it!

The Dos Equis stage was located at the intersection of Rainbow Road and Electric Avenue which hosted all new upcoming talent. Following this stage was the big purple tent we are all familiar with from last year’s EDC Las Vegas – the Quantum Valley stage, but this time as Neon Garden. Leaving Neon Garden, the Magic Forest welcomed us with time for resting and more hands-on activities: a 360 degree camera which shot mini videos of you as danced, posed, or kissed. It was one of my favorite things to do as I felt like I was on the red carpet on VH1 for a minute.

Leaving the fun Magic Forest, we got to the steel containers of Wasteland, where the bass can be heard as we ented Electric Avenue from Rainbow Road and saw lasers beaming high and bouncing off the metal. With Parliament cart staged directly across from Wasteland, the sounds coming from the two were completely different – hard-style to house/ progressive – so when we stood in the middle, it was quite the mix.

Being my first international EDC, I didn’t want to stay in one area, so I opened my mind and heart to all stages and danced whether it was my style or not; I wanted to get the full feel of this event. Upside Down stage mainly hosted psy-trance and progressive artists day one, such as Static Moment, Barakuda and Interactive Noise. I was bummed I didn’t get to see Barakuda’s set due to the Ticketmaster fiasco, but was able to make Static Movement’s set and it was a nice set to start off my first international adventure.

After getting our first taste with Upside Down House, we walked over to Kinetic Field, but only to be distracted by Ferris wheels, different kinds of vendors walking through the crowd with pizza, cups of Ramen, and beer – everything comes straight to you! At Kinetic Field, we saw a little of ATB, but I was waiting for Eric Prydz. With a little drizzle starting to come in, techno master Eric Prydz was on at prime time, playing his fan favorite Opus and my favorite Stay With Me. Right after that, we shuffled our way to Wasteland; my friend wanted to check out Ghastly and I wanted to see what my friends all raved about. It was a pretty decent set, and though I usually prefer Trance slower melodies, I found myself getting into it. The stage set-up was small in comparison to the other stages as large, stacked containers covered in graffiti enclosed you in from all sides to make it feel like an old, rugged, and abandoned Army command post.

Moving on from Ghastly’s set, we moved back over to Circuit Ground for our first visit. The stage was set up similar to EDC Las Vegas, but much larger and almost as large as Kinetic Field. We then went up to the VIP section and towards the viewing deck as we wanted to watch one of Raquel’s favorite artists, Slushi. We didn’t stay long, but we got to scout where we would be for mainly part of day-2. Taking the train back to Kinetic Field, we went to watch Tiesto, but we only stayed for his opening track and few after. I noticed that Tiesto tends to play the same EDM tunes in all of his sets. I always have high hopes that he will play some of his old tunes, but it gets crushed during the drops. We then moved on to Neon Garden to look for Dan. We thought it would be easy to locate him, but we thought wrong; there were so many people within the tent, it was impossible to find him even holding a flag on a pole. However, I quite enjoyed my time walking around and searching for him as Neon Garden was dark with different colored lasers and I listened to the sweet beats of Maceo Plex. By the end of the set, I wasn’t even upset that we didn’t find him til the end as the music was wonderful and being under that tent as it started to drizzle was perfect.

Day-2 was finally here and I couldn’t be more excited, Key 4050 was playing at 7:25pm and that’s all I came for! In the meantime, I started our day at Kinetic Field to catch CID. I had always enjoyed house music ever since I was little girl and I love his style of mixing and breaking down different tracks. It was the perfect way to start my day. After CID, we grabbed a few drinks and waited out for Andrew Bayer and Ilan Bluestone’s back-2-back set, and my friend couldn’t be happier to see them.

When people say money can’t buy happiness, I believe it does, as it bought me two plane tickets to two different countries to experience two different festivals. I never thought I would be able to it, but I found the will and the way to make it work. This is my external bliss: trance music. I would pay anything to keep that smile on my face and the feeling of sublime going. My first international EDC was so much more than just successful; I had so much fun with my friends and interacted with many headliners.

I will be back to EDC Mexico, but this time with more friends so that they can have the same experience.

-Karttie Wahoff