You know the festival drill by now. Your friend sends you the lineup, you look at the three headliners atop the list and squint to read the supporting acts as if they were fine print, ultimately helping you decide whether or not you’re going to go.
This commonplace way of selling a festival lineup has become such a regular practice because it’s often the best way for a festival to sell tickets.
EDC Orlando, however, doesn’t have that problem. Electric Daisy Carnival, which added Orlando to its multi-state/city/country slate in 2011, has long been touted as one of the premier electronic dance music festivals around the globe. With unparalled production and uniquely designed stages to go along with some of the premier acts from all genres of electronic music, there’s not much missing to appease the palette of the common EDM fan.
That’s why festivals like EDC Orlando can release their lineups in alphabetic order.
The wide array of genres and impressively deep list of talent merit a lineup that should be billed uniquely as a whole; because it is that good.
If we had to imagine the names atop the list, there’s a few that stick out. Armin Van Buuren, Diplo, Kaskade, Marshmello and Zedd are all names deserving of a headlining slot, but otherwise blend in on a lineup stacked enough to garner a expected record crowd of over 75,000 festival attendees.
To help get you ready for this overwhelming run of acts, we broke down six of our favorite songs, and the artists responsible for them, in order to better prepare you to head east on I-4 for the South’s largest electronic music festival not named Ultra.
Check out our picks below:
D3V – “Incinerator“
Starting off our list is Tampa’s own Devenn Bencon, who you’re probably more familiar with as D3V, his DJ alter-ego. As resident DJ at the Ritz Ybor, D3V has spent much of the last year headlining the Ritz’ notoriously rowdy Pound Fridays. Such a gig has also earned him spots opening up for mainstream EDM acts like Illenium and Flux Pavillion.
You may not see D3V’s name on this year’s official EDC lineup, but that’s due him being a late addition alongside other local talent performing at the Corona Electric Beach stage on Friday.
As any Pound Friday attendee could tell you, D3V’s status as a relative newby means very little to his ability to put on a great live show. His ability to switch between hard, wonky trap beats to anthemic future bass are what helps make his shows so fun and intimate.
Check out his latest track “Incinerator” to help get you better prepared for his set Friday.
Slushii – “Silence (Remix)“
While he’s not a Tampa native like D3V, Slushii is a name that most Tampa electronic fans should know pretty well by now. Aside from his main stage performance at this years Sunset Music Festival, Slushii has been a touring regular in the area with previous stops at the Ritz.
Evidently he can’t get enough of us, as he’s also set to throw down a New Year’s Eve set at the venue to help us ring in the new year.
The always jolly and flamboyantly dressed 20-year old has polarized many in the future bass fan base with his stellar live sets at festivals and venues across the country.
His EDC performance promises to be just as enthralling. Pair that with his history of bringing out fellow artists (he brought Ookay on stage at Sunset) and label mates Marshmello and Jauz booked for the weekend as well, his Friday evening set is a can’t miss.
Snails – “WFSU” feat. Waka Flocka Flame
As far as DJ names go, can’t say that Frederik Durand has the most appealing one with Snails, but what do you expect from one of the pioneers of a genre dubbed “vomitstep.” The 29-year old Canadian has wasted little time in making a name for himself since bursting on to the scene in 2015 with performances at Ultra, Electric Forest and Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival.
Two years later, fresh off headlining his own Sluggtopia festival at Red Rocks and the release of his first studio album, The Shell, Snails seems to be just getting started.
“WFSU” is off this recently released album, and features the ever boisterous and brassy Waka Flocka Flame to fill in between the other-worldly gurgling and oscillating bass drops that will no doubt rumble those in attendance on Friday at the “circuitGROUNDS” stage. No word yet on whether or not Snails will be bringing his custom 150,000 watt of PK sound for Orlando’s listening pleasure, but I’d say its worth checking out his set to find out.
Excision – “Throwing Elbows”
Friday’s closing sets at both headlining stages provide one of the first set conflicts of the weekend, where you can choose between poppy-electronic fad of 2017 Marshmello, or the notoriously riotous and loud Excision. While EDC Orlando provides an opportunity for fans to catch some of the more wonky, hard core electronic acts out there today, none are more well known for festering head banging extravaganzas than this Canadian producer (a lot of Canadian’s on this bill, aye?)
While some may draw comparisons between his shows and heavy metal shows, Excision’s live sets are truly one of a kind.
Last month, Excision kicked off the inaugural weekend for his dinosaur themed electronic festival, Lost Lands. His set there, which obviously featured multiple T-Rex’s on stage, was so “lit” that the stage actually caught fire (Excision would continue playing.)
“Throwing Elbows” is a track of his 2016 album Virus, and is a great example of how the 31-year old plans to send shock waves through the crowd at EDC.
If you do attend, make sure to come prepared with your neck ready to head bang.
Rezz – “Relax”
“There’s nothing, nothing of importance for you to do except relax. Relax!”
These are some of the first lines from Rezz’ first studio album Mass Manipulation.
And with her spellbinding and pulsating sound, its hard to do anything but that. Rezz, whose real name is Isabelle Rezazadeh, is another artist on our list that has blown up in 2017. The 22-year old became musically active in 2015 and after a series of releases on OWSLA, Skrillex’s label, she began releasing music on the mau5trap label under one of her inspirations, Deadmau5.
Even if you didn’t know any background on the Niagra Falls, Ontario producer, a glimpse of her live set would give away her admiration for the electronic music legend.
Rezz’ stage show is built around trance driven visuals and her unique headwear, a custom pair of LED goggles that when lit up are every bit as hypnotic as her music.
“Relax” is a great appetizer and sample of Rezz’ sound, and fans are sure to hear more of the same when she helps open up the “kineticFIELD” stage at 4:52 p.m. Friday.
Nghtmre – “On the Run”
The lone Saturday performer to make the list is someone Creative Loafing has been doting on often over the last year. Born Tyler Marenyi, Nghtmre has become a household name in the trap genre. From dynamic remixes (see: “Goosebumps”) to viral festival sets, the LA-native has all the tools to become not just a festival headliner, but a certifiable star for the genre. While the last year has taken him around the world and seen him accrue wide spread popularity, he’s been gearing up for an even bigger 2018. “On the Run” is one of two recently released singles from Marenyi, and he is set to release a “hip hop” track this Friday, lending to the belief that it may be sooner rather than later that we get a first official studio album from the artist.
Make sure not to miss his set Saturday night, or any of the other artists included on our list. EDC Orlando is set to be an amazing weekend of spectacular electronic music, and its acts like these that help make music festivals some of the best experiences out there today.
This article appears in Nov 2-9, 2017.
