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festival reviews

EDC 2019 Review

Another EDC has come and gone, which means only 50 weeks until we are all reunited under the electric sky in 2020! Before I dive into my review, I want to mention that I tried living in the moment a little more this time around, so I don’t have quite as many pictures to share!

EDC Week

For those of you who have read my posts before, you’ll know that last year was a last minute trip (learn about it here). This year, we were able to fully plan ahead and drive up to Vegas on Thursday afternoon.

The drive from Southern California to Vegas was really quick and we checked into our favorite spot, Desert Rose. This place is actually a time share and we love it because there’s a kitchen, spacious rooms, and easy parking! It’s pretty quiet too. We did our typical ritual of grocery shopping at Whole Foods for the remainder of the week (I have a whole checklist here)! That night we went to Marquee for the Dreamstate event to check out Aly & Fila, Marlo, John O’Callaghan and Ferry Corsten. The club was surprisingly open and we even got free drinks! Marquee has always been one of my favorite clubs in Vegas, and it was the perfect way to kick off EDC.

Getting some recovery and help with Reset IV!

Getting Ready with Atomic Style Lounge

After a couple hours of sleep, we woke up and started prepping for rave day! I had a hair and makeup appointment with Becky from Atomic Style Lounge in Downtown Vegas. If you are looking for someone to give you a unique look, search no further than this retro spot! Becky decked me out in UV glow-in the dark makeup and added rainbow extensions to my super cute hair style! She is so talented and offers a variety of styles and options to help you really stand out among the crowd.

EDC

At about 7, we headed out to the Tropicana to catch our shuttle. We had purchased premium shuttle passes in hopes to bypass the long lines, but unfortunately this did not help us out on the way there. Our time slot for the shuttle was 11, and since that is way too late for us, we arrived early at 7 as the email said we should be able to get on faster for the standard shuttles. This was not the case and we ended up waiting a while to board. Unfortunately day 1 usually has a lot of issues with shuttles, so it took us about 3 hours to get in to EDC once we hopped on. When we finally arrived, it was pretty cold and windy. Such a 180 from how the weather has felt in years prior! There were a ton of amazing art installations added and the production just gets better and better.

Wearing Cyber Fyber bodysuit, Ellie Shoes, Flower Child Revolution choker, and Britt’s Blossoms light up ears! UV makeup from Atomic Style Lounge!

My Favorite Sets

My husband and I are big trance/techno fans, so we pretty much lived at the Neon Garden and Quantum Valley stages. Some of my favorites were Above & Beyond, Adam Beyer, Captain Hook, System F, Enrico Sangiuliano, and Andrew Beyer. I was impressed with Quantum Valley this year as they broke out the mega structure and the lights were popping off. Can’t say I loved Neon Garden as much – I miss the warehouse vibes and intimate space. I barely checked out the other stages since getting in and out of the crowds was pretty bad this year. I really felt the increased capacity this time. Kinetic Field had an interesting design and we were hoping to catch Get Real during the sunrise set on Saturday, but the high winds closed down this stage and a few others unfortunately!

Hat from She’s Crowning and bra and Tutu from Electric Couture Dreams! My friend on the right: https://www.instagram.com/ravin_rach/?hl=en

The Vibes

Saturday was by far my favorite day and was loving all the vibes at Quantum Valley! For the first time in like 4 years I traded a ton of Kandi and we made plenty of new friends! As mentioned above, it was definitely cold and windy, so day 3 was really tough for me to get through. EDC was definitely more crowded and it took us 25 minutes to get water and 45 minutes to go to the bathroom. Hoping that they add more stations and restrooms next year to mitigate this bottleneck. I had an amazing time at EDC as always, but do feel as though some of the magic was lost due to the cold and crowded spaces. Walking around was definitely difficult and that’s something I love to do at this event because there’s just nothing like it.

Hair from HeaHair and Fluffies from Funki B Clubwear.

Visited a talented friend who made me this fan! She was working at EDC and it was nice to visit her in the chill space!

Closing Thoughts

To follow up on the shuttle topic, the lines were so much better day 2 and 3! We used the premier shuttle each night at around 4 AM, and it was totally worth it for no line!

All in all, it was a great experience and of course I’m coming back next year for my 8th EDC! Still unsure of camping, but I hear it’s amazing! What did you think of the event? Let me know in a comment!

May 26, 2019 6 comments

Featured Festival Reviews

A Review of Insomniac’s Factory 93 Featuring Carl Cox

written by festivalfashionista

A Review of Insomniac’s Factory 93 Featuring Carl Cox

2018 is becoming a year of so many firsts, and attending the Carl Cox event by Factory 93 was no exception! Factory 93 is the techno child of parent company Insomniac and strives to give festival goers an underground warehouse type of feel. Techno is one of my favorite genres of EDM, so I was extremely excited for my first experience to be with the legendary Carl Cox. Tickets were released months in advanced and were fairly reasonable at around $50 each. I hadn’t seen Carl Cox in 6 years and kept getting FOMO from all of his Resistance sponsored stages at Ultra, so my husband and I vowed to go no matter what! Tickets sold extremely fast, so I am really grateful we snagged a pair in time. Did I mention this event went from 2-10 PM? The absolute dream for me! That’s enough of a preview for now, so let’s dive into my full review of Insomniac’s Factory 93 Featuring Carl Cox!

The Venue

Upon arrival, Factory 93 is located near Downtown LA and if you’ve ever been to the City of Angels, then you know that the parking and traffic are the worst things here! Luckily, Factory 93 is by some industrial areas and we were able to park on the street relatively easy for FREE! Our spot was about a 5 minute walk to the venue and we pretty much followed the sound of the bass to the check-in line. On the walk over we spotted some fun murals and other picturesque locations, but we were eager to get in and catch Pleasurekraft.

The comfiest bodysuit from Unspoken Fashion!

The line to get in was quick for girls for some reason, but it took forever for the guys to get through. Security was pretty chill and I didn’t feel too violated when I was being patted down. As you can see in the picture above, I went all out! This bodysuit from Unspoken Fashion was the comfiest!

Once you enter the venue, you get this apocalyptic type of feel (I mean that in a good way). Brick and high buildings surround you, a train runs on the right, and graffiti decorates the tunnels. Insomniac of course added their flair and production of lights, umbrellas, and a giant disco cube! it felt like a mini EDC!

Loved these umbrellas!

The pros of the venue were the décor, sound system, stage, and the fact that there was some seating. The cons were that there were horrendously long bathroom lines (about a 45 minute wait each time for the port-o-potties), the ground to dance on was basically dirt and uneven so the mats they laid down got wrinkled and some people tripped, and the Fiji water was $7 a pop (disappointing considering Insomniac almost always has free water at their events)!

The Food and Drinks

There was a pretty decent variety of food to choose from. Everything was a food truck. Outside the venue was a Mexican type of food truck and the inside had everything from fish tacos, to chicken nuggets and fries, to pizza. I was shocked at how much food they gave! I usually eat everything in one sitting, but I actually saved the rest in my container and put it in my backpack for dinner, haha! Drinks were a rip off as always at around $12 for a beer and $17 for a single shot drink. As mentioned above the water was basically extortion at $7 each.

Factory-93-Carl-Cox-Review

The Music

By far the best thing about this whole experience was the music! Pleasurekraft was amazing and Carl Cox did not disappoint one bit! Everyone couldn’t stop dancing and the sound was great as well as the stage production.

Carl-Cox-Factory-93

The Crowd

Overall the crowd was pretty cool! It was definitely more of a mid-twenties and up type of group and it was nice to be surrounded by fellow techno fans. Most were friendly and fun to interact with, but someone did steal my friend’s bag when we snagged a quick photo unfortunately! It all happened so fast and it’s so sad that this type of thing happens at these great events, but long story short we saw someone carrying her bag later claiming that they were going to return it (weird if you ask me), so it all worked out in the end!

There’s the disco cube

If Insomniac can continue booking this kind of talent, I would love to return to another Factory 93 event! Until next time! Looking for more reviews? Click here to see my review of CRSSD.

April 5, 2018 2 comments