EDC Orlando has traditionally been a great festival, but this year’s edition was undoubtedly bigger and better than any year before in just about every single way possible. From days to grounds size to lineup to stage production, every aspect of the festival was that much better than before. And the attendance rightly reflected all of that with a massive 225,000 people attending the three day event. In fact, EDC Orlando moved up a weight-class to take on Ultra Miami directly in terms of size in acreage and attendance.
We wanted to give you a detailed review of the changes compared with years past and explain why this year was better than ever.
The Venue
Of the new and improved aspects of the festival, the stage production improvements were definitely the most noticeable. In the past, EDC Orlando was a scaled-down version of EDC Vegas. You couldn’t directly compare it to something like Ultra Music Festival because it was a “satellite” event. Now EDC Orlando is full scale, boasting 40 acres and 225,000 in attendance – bigger than Ultra on both counts.
There were certainly some growing pains that came with this. The layout was totally different, so longtime veterans might have lost their bearings a bit. Now the Circuit Grounds was in the mainstage spot – and that was totally isolated from the other 3 stages. Mainstage and Circuit were a major hike apart. Even with all of the added space, it felt relatively crowded all over the grounds. It wasn’t pushing and shoving crowded, but it was easy to lose your friends as you went from one area to another.
The Stages
With EDC Orlando moving up a weight class, we got an additional stage and size upgrades all around. Circuit Grounds felt about as large as Ultra’s mainstage and Kinetic had a massive sprawling crowd space as well. The production at all of the stages was top notch. The Neon Garden grew as well, although it has the most room for growth since the stage was consistently packed and you know EDC has the capacity to use a megastructure if it wants. In the future we’d probably like to see Neon Garden switch places with the new Stereobloom stage. Stereobloom was consistently the roomiest stage, so it would make more sense to stick it right next to mainstage.
The Lineup
Yet another standout improvement of the year. Insomniac is always known for curating a broad range of sounds for every attendee. And being a smaller festival in the past, EDC Orlando wasn’t always able to provide the greatest range of genres. This year’s edition had no such issues. From the standard festival mainstays like Above & Beyond & Diplo to the techno beats of Adam Beyer and Green Velvet to the hardstyle of Da Tweekaz to Excision’s dubstep to Simon Patterson‘s trance sounds, this lineup truly had everything you could possibly want in a festival lineup.
The Smart Things
This one revolutionary idea was so smart it deserved its own section, especially because the cell service at EDC Orlando is still pretty abysmal. Depending on the stage, reception and data were spotty at best. However, EDC implemented a system where each stage that used lighting pillars had huge numbers to identify the pillar. So in Neon Garden, each row of pillars had a code on it that anybody could identify. Now you can tell your friends exactly where you are and they can find you. How has nobody thought of this before?! This was like Tomorrowland level smarts. Bravo EDCO, bravo!
All in all, EDC Orlando 2019 was an incredible show and we can’t wait to do it again next year for its 10th anniversary on Nov 13-15, 2020.