Founded by Insomniac Events in 1997, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) now spreads across seven US states and also plays to fans in Puerto Rico, Mexico and the UK. However, the daddy of them all is the edition that took over the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the fourth consecutive year this June, entertaining a phenomenal 345,000 partygoers over three days. Kinetic Field, EDC’s traditional main arena, saw its stage transformed as Insomniac’s largest so far – and reportedly the biggest ever built for a North American festival. Provided by Stageco US -this was their début for EDC- and referred to as ‘The Cathedral’, the structure’s chapel-style pillars were accentuated by animated waterfalls, and bookended by two heavily detailed inflatable owls sporting enormous wingspans. For Stageco, the EDC project began in March with a test build at its Belgian HQ. Up until this year, Insomniac’s team had been putting up large scaff-based stages that were very labour intensive, and in the end, no matter how you dress it, you can’t escape the fact that it looks like a big, old scaffolding structure. In the weeks leading up to the June 20 kick-off, the steel systems were fabricated in Belgium and shipped in containers across the Atlantic. Seven containers arrived at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway site direct from Belgium, while 27 trailers came from Stageco US’s Colorado Springs base ahead of the seven-day stage build. A crew consisting of 14 Stageco supervisors worked through the evenings and early hours to construct the monstrous stage structure, the front of house mix riser (minus roof) and 11 delay towers including two for another of the seven stages. The main stage measured 120 metres (400’) wide in total with its height rising from 22m (72’) at the sides to 30m (98’) at the centre – notably taller than the 2013 stage. The centre portion featured 10 lines of columns, with six towers on one side and seven on the other. With support from its trademark black steel, Stageco’s only scaffolding on the main stage was a 20m high row on to which the two inflatable owls were attached. It would have been completely impractical to work under the unforgiving heat of the desert sun. You cannot even touch the steel during the day out there so everything was done overnight when the site cooled down to 30°. It was one of the few shows we have done where we didn’t provide a roof, but that’s the Vegas climate for you.
Stageco United States