See You Under the Electric Sky! ໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১

There’s always a first for everything and this past month, I was so grateful to attend my first EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas) with my family and my closest friends. This was actually the first rave I attended with my family, and my inner child was leaping with joy. Growing up, we would always do an annual road trip to a lake to go jet skiing or camping in a forest with our families. And for at least 5 years, we hadn’t done a family trip like that (due to life getting in the way) until last year when we road tripped to the Colorado River. We’re all grown up now, and to give some context – there’s 9 of us cousins, all around the same age of each other. 

I love the relationship I have with my family because all of our parents would have gatherings every week (they still do to this day) and drink (as we Vietnamese people do) while us kids would hang out with each other. Growing up with weekly family gatherings felt like I had eight other siblings besides my one brother. And because they’re mostly boys, it felt like I had so many guardian angels looking over me. I knew they had my back, and I theirs. Now that we’re all old enough to party, we’ve really grown to be like our parents because now we hold the same gatherings making the same memories (sometimes even during the same night as our parents’ gathering but in different houses). When our parents heard we were all planning to go to Vegas for the weekend, they even wanted to crash our party and join us. We said, “No, thanks!,” quickly shutting them down. (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

With us being around the same ages (and us just being Asians in general) comes the natural introduction of the rave scene. I haven’t been to a rave since before 2019, so you can say I’ve been retired for quite a while now. My family brought me out of my retirement, and realistically they are probably the only people who can pull me out of my retirement (iykyk). With EDC being my first rave back, I felt like I was sorely underprepared. I just knew that I had to keep telling myself that EDC is a marathon and not a sprint. With how the weekend went, I can say that I was right in thinking that I was underprepared. I’m hoping this blog post can help you prepare yourselves if you’re also thinking of attending EDC next year. 

To be realistic, this was how my weekend went…

Thursday

12:00pm – Drive to Las Vegas from Orange County, CA

5:00pm – Arrival to hotel 

6:00pm – Unpack and fill up the bathtub with ice to make one huge cooler for drinkies

7:00pm – Eat Tacos El Gordo for din

8:30pm – Pre-game in the hotel room

9:00pm – 1:00am – Casino time

Friday

10:00am – Wake up

12:00pm – Eat some food

1:00pm – 6:00pm – Chill, move to a different hotel, get ready, and eat din

7:30pm – Leave to get to standard shuttles at Grand Prix Plaza

10:30pm – EDC arrival and rage on

4:00am – Head to shuttles to go back to hotel and hop on shuttles

5:00am – Got back to the Grand Pix shuttle

5:30am – Got back to the hotel, showered, knocked out (or at least tried to get some sleep before day 2 rager)

Saturday

1:00pm – Slowly wake up/get up 

3:00pm – Get ready and eat

6:45pm – Leave to get to standard shuttles at Grand Prix Plaza

9:45pm –  EDC arrival and rage on

1:00am – 3:30am – Break, hangout at downtown EDC and bleachers at Cosmic Meadow

3:30am – 530am – Rage on

5:30am – Head to shuttles to go back to hotel and hop on shuttles

7:30am – Got back to the Grand Prix shuttle

8:00am – Got back to the hotel, showered, knocked out (or at least tried to get some sleep before day 3, last day best day!)

Sunday

3:00pm – Wake up, pack suitcases, get ready and eat

6:30pm – Leave to get to standard shuttles at Grand Prix Plaza

9:30pm – EDC arrival and rage on

1:30am – 2:30am – Break for stretching, filling up on water, bathrooms, enjoy the fireworks, book a new flight bc there was no way we were going to make our 6am flight on Monday

2:30am – 5:30am – Rage on

5:30am – Head to shuttles to go back to hotel and hop on shuttles

7:30am – Got back to the grand prix shuttle

8:00am – 12:00pm – Got back to the hotel, showered, took an Uber back to the original hotel we stayed at on Thursday and knock out

Monday

4:00pm – For the rest of the night – wake up, got pho to fuel the soul, nap, chill, eat din and sleep

Tuesday

5:00am – Wake up and head to airport to go back home to NYC

5:00pm – NYC arrival!

And to be honest, I didn’t know that the schedule would literally be to wake up, eat, get ready, rage, sleep, and repeat for 3 days straight… and now I know, and so do you. If you have some expectation of time to explore Vegas, I would suggest flying in on Thursday and flying out Tuesday or Wednesday. There definitely is a possibility to explore Vegas, going out to eat, and even going to a dayclub on the same days as EDC (because my cousin Kenny did exactly that), but just keep in mind that because it is a marathon and not a sprint, preserving your energy is a necessity. 

Besides energy being a necessity, so are these for your EDC bag/hydropack:

• Your license (put your debit/credit cards on Apple Pay so you dont have to bring them into the festival– but tbh I didn’t buy anything inside EDC)
• Reusable plastic flasks (sneak these inside and you don’t have to pay for alcohol)
• Protein bars (my diet the whole weekend consisted mostly of protein bars)
• Lidocaine patches like Salonpas for your whole body
• Vicks VapoInhaler for overstimulation 
• Head scarf/pashmina for managing overstimulation/when it gets colder
• Blacked out sunglasses for overstimulation (lights and lasers will get to you, thank me later)
• Mylar Thermal Blanket for when it gets cold (you can grab some of these at the medical tents at EDC too)
• Lip balm (it’s real dry out there)
• Hand sanitizer + baby wipes (expect those portapotties to run out of toilet paper)
• Ear plugs (save your eardrums plz)
• Handheld fan (it’s Vegas, and it gets so hot out there)
• Liquid IV (stay hydrated! everytime we filled our hydropacks, we put Liquid IV in it)
• ZippGuardTM Safety Lock for your bags (protect your stuff bc EDC thieves are not playing!!!)
• Anti-Theft Phone Tether (brands like Clutch Loop will help protect your phone from being stolen)
• Walkie talkies if you have a big group (this was a lifesaver to find our group if there were people who were doing side quests)
• Not in your bag, but a totem if your group is bigger than 10+ people (this was so helpful to find our group too)
  • Sidebarring here, our totem was the noob from Maplestory since we grew up playing it together, and this was soooo healing for my inner child. So many people took photos of it and finding it randomly on social media has been so fun for us!

Having all this in my bag saved my life all three days, and hopefully for you when you hit your next rave/music festival. 

Something else to note is when things get a little too overwhelming and overstimulating for you, a helpful mantra to tell yourself (assuming that you’re in a group with your loved ones) is that you are safe, you are loved, and you are having fun. There were definitely times when my anxiety would kick in and having that mantra in my head helped me. Usually when things get too overwhelming for me, nothing a good blacked out sunglasses, ear plugs, and scarf covering my head and face can’t fix. If it does get too much though, taking a break is probably the best decision for yourself and your body. I recommend going to Downtown EDC where the music isn’t too crazy loud to get that little break in. Make sure you stretch, have a good breather, go to the bathroom, and stay hydrated. Reassess how you feel in thirty minutes to an hour, and go from there! Side quests are always fun at music festivals so think of this moment as a side quest!

I had the most amazing time with my family, and I wouldn’t have wanted to go with anyone else (cue the Fast & Furious “FAMILY” meme). Thanks for coming along to recap the weekend with me, and maybe I’ll see you at the next one!

Signing off,

Vanessa

Words & Photography: Vanessa Le