Our bodies are still feeling the high vibrations from this past weekend, and as usual, we return home with our hearts full. Electric Daisy Carnival in Orlando engulfed us with fantastic sets and divine energy. Tinker Field hosted tens of thousands of “headliners” for three days of absolute mayhem. Once again, we’re happy to discuss our favorite moments from the weekend, as well as feedback we hope can improve the event even more. Let’s do it!
It’s crazy to reflect on how far this festival has come and how much it has grown from its inception in 2011. Even 10 years ago, the festival was much smaller than it is today, with fewer stages, fewer people, and fewer days. In 2025, EDC Orlando is executing at such a high level that you can readily compare it with flagship festivals like Tomorrowland and Ultra. The production, lineup, and scale are definitely at that type of level. The festival plans to continue growing and improving, with Camping World Stadium set to undergo a major renovation beginning next month.
Production
Extravagant and maximalist, EDC Orlando remains one of the highest quality events on the East Coast. Giant screens, beautiful structures, character designs, interactive installations, carnival games, pyrotechnics, and drone shows this year continued the trend. Every single stage had enough space for dancers and/or aerial performers. The mainstage design was one of our favorites in years. Neon Garden had one of our favorite upgrades compared to other years. It may not be our preferred warehouse structure from 2021, but the visuals, the crowd, and the underground feeling to the stage kept us there for hours.
This year, the Kandi Casino became a fan favorite activity. Also brought out during EDC Las Vegas and EDSEA, the Kandi-making party became accessible in the middle of the festival, instead of just at the VIP areas. There’s also plenty of cool brand activations across the festival grounds, with one of our favorites being the Casa Bacardi. It’s actually a fully equipped stage with its own lineup and specialty drinks. It’s definitely one you want to check out!
The rain may have affected logistics on Sunday afternoon, which stopped the music for about an hour. Nonetheless, the festival continued operations as effectively as possible. The mud affected certain areas on each stage, which then caused bottlenecks during crowd flow.Some attendees had some concerns regarding the crowd pinch points and the water station this year, which was moved to one large location as opposed to a few smaller ones in past years. In response, Pasquale Rotella, the Insomniac CEO, released the following statement:
So all in all the plan to move the water station was not a mistake because it moved the crowd flow away from the choke point areas, located around Circuit Grounds and the perimeter of the stadium. A large water station has enough capacity for all and it moved the crowd of people away from the choke points. The problem was that early Sunday rain showers caused the grounds to get muddy which meant people were hop-skipping and jumping around or avoiding muddy areas. This severely narrowed the available walking spaces for people, creating a tighter situation than normal. Pasquale Rotella previously explained to EDMTunes that the festival is never oversold and capacity is constantly monitored live via scans of wristbands at various locations. It’s really an art of scheduling enough counterprogramming and creating a smart crowd flow. Insomniac has plans to expand the grounds in the future, but they involve purchasing land and demolishing
The Music
This year’s lineup saw some of the strongest performances of the year. Major highlights include the GIRLBOSS herself Sara Landry at Kinetic Field, dropping insane high-bpms and tasteful unreleased IDs, SVDDEN DEATH’s VOYD set took us to the underworld with heavy Bass and Trippy textures, and Charlotte de Witte melted our brains off with an Acid heavy set to celebrate her debut album release.
This year, House had tasty and crispy moments. Sets such as San Pacho and OMNON gave us groove and powerful emotions to dance the night away. Moreover, Chris Lake commanded the audience with his sultry and warm undertones. Lastly, Green Velvet b2b Alok delivered a performance for the books. Other incredible sets included Seven Lions taking us on a journey with Psytrance, Dubstep, Trap, Midtempo, and Hard Techno, and Indira Paganotto’s Psytechno wonderland.
And who can forget Friday performances from Argy and Porter Robinson on the mainstage, while Adam Beyer’s Drumcode artists were slaying the crowd over at Neon Garden with Bart Skils, Kevin de Vries, Adam Beyer, and Layton Giordani.
Overview
We truly believe EDC Orlando is one of the most consistent festivals in terms of vibes, music selection, production, and logistics. The weather on Sunday affected operations momentarily, yet artists delivered top-notch tracks and memories. Moreover, the City of Orlando approved the proposed $400 million Camping World Stadium renovation, which could potentially benefit and upgrade Tinker Field for the upcoming years, as Pasquale has mentioned before. It may be over, but EDC will return next year, taking over Mexico, Thailand, and the newest location in Medellin, Colombia.
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