With an estimated 345,000 revelers shuffling in and out of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the June 8-10 edition of Electric Daisy Carnival, unhindered by the collective paranoia of last year’s test run, I dreaded the possibility that an attendee would get a little too cavalier with recreational substances and become the first EDC Vegas casualty. The audience was just too large, in a city as freewheeling as Las Vegas, and I know the role drugs play in music culture. Similar scenarios have happened at non-rave music festivals with a much smaller attendance.
No one died inside the Speedway. However, two people did after exiting it, and that’s enough for media outlets to once again put the crosshairs on Insomniac, the producer of the event.