ORLANDO, Fla. — While the COVID-19 pandemic is still omnipresent in the daily lives of most Americans, there are signs that many people have moved on and are looking for ways to return to a pre-pandemic normal.
One popular way is the return of live music to our culture. For many, that means wandering into the local saloon and watching an artist or group performing on stage, or maybe in a corner. On the other end of the spectrum, concert tours are back on the menu and have been met with an enthusiastic response from a public weary of COVID rules and ready once again to get their groove on.
Cavernous Raymond James Stadium was just filled not with NFL football fans – but with rapturous fans of one of rock and roll’s greatest and most enduring acts, the Rolling Stones, who gave the people what they came for.
Music festivals are also back, where tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people gather over multiple days to experience not only the music, but being a part of something that is much bigger than the sum of its parts.
EDC, short for Electric Daisey Carnival, is one such festival, and it makes its return to Orlando’s Tinker Field on Friday after a one year hiatus because of the pandemic. This is the 25th year of EDC Orlando, which has grown to become an immensely popular electronic dance music (EDM) festival that drew approximately 225,000 fans in 2019, according to organizers.
And there aren’t any signs of a post-COVID hangover. According to Insomniac, the festival promoter, tickets for the three-day festival are 95 percent sold out. With the weather forecast trending favorably, huge crowds will descend upon the site near downtown Orlando for the show, which features dozens pf performers on several stages. Two of the stages are immense platforms that dwarf the performers and the attendees, and besides the loud bass-driven music, will feature smoke and fire, pyrotechnics, and laser shows that are as high-tech as anything ever seen.
The slogan of EDC is “PLUR”, which stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. Often described as “rave”, the EDC community shrugs off the negative connotations and embraces the positivity that is the EDM community: treating everyone with respect, acceptance, and inclusivity for all.
Ticket and event information can be found here.
