At first glance you would think Pasquale Rotella and Mike Tyson are two people who come from totally different backgrounds. Mike Tyson found his stardom by becoming Boxing’s undisputed World Heavyweight Champion. And Pasquale is the founder of Insomniac, one of the world’s leading festival and event production companies. But, as the two sat down for an hour to talk about each others lives on Tyson’s Hotboxin’ Podcast, we found they have more in common than you think.
Mike and Pasquale first bonded when he called these music festivals more than just dancing and how they have become “Spiritual Retreats.” I think we all can agree that attending music festivals can impact how we perceive life. They then dived into how Pasquale initially fell in love with dance music. This passion started to build thanks to the “undergrounds“ in Los Angeles. These underground raves opened Rotella’s eyes to EDM and the loving community within it.
In 1991, Pasquale had an awakening that inspired him to create massive events like EDC Las Vegas. With the rave community taking major hits and becoming almost nonexistent, Rotella looked to create it himself. Although it had felt like forever, a year later he put on his first event that attracted 300 people.
One of the central points of the podcasts was a potential partnership between Tyson and Rotella. One of Pasquale’s dreams was instead of making a festival that you have to tear down after only 3 days; create a permanent place for events to occur. Mike Tyson just so happens to have hundreds of acres to host one of these “cities.”
This sounds like an incredible idea that I am sure all of us would like to see. Music festivals can already be compared to Disney World for adults, but imagine if there was a permanent one? It seems Insomniac is just getting started. The two of them are very excited for this future partnership.
Pasquale closed out the podcast by talking more about his upbringing. They chatted about Nocturnal Wonderland being his first big festival. Overall, we really got to dive into how he got to where his is today. It is inspirational for a guy who didn’t grow up with much to create one of the biggest festival brands in the world.
You can check out the full podcast here! Stay tuned, as more news about this permanent Insomniac festival may come out shortly.
