BY DC CUEVA
■ @DC408Dxtr @ TW / IG / YT
In England, thousands descended upon Windsor Castle and St. George's Church in the county Berkshire - an hour east of London - for the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as the world watched an American actress tie the knot with a member of the Royal Family. Hours later in London itself, Wembley Stadium hosted the most prestigious day in English football as the FA Cup Final saw Chelsea defeat Manchester United in a titanic clash of Premier League powerhouses.
Across the pond, Las Vegas took on the role as the capital of the country for several reasons. This year's darlings of American sports, the Vegas Golden Knights, clinched the NHL's Western Conference title as a journey of being the newest major sports franchise continued in magical style. Just hours after they posed with the Clarence Campbell Bowl, the MGM Grand hosted the 2018 Billboard Music Awards, as Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, Christina Aguilera & Demi Lovato took the stage, Salt N Pepa and En Vogue brought everyone back some 25 years earlier, and noise levels reached its zenith when BTS performed a year after they were introduced to America on the BBMA's - and ultimately scoring their first #1 album in America.
And a half-hour's drive up the way from the Strip, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway hosted the latest installment of what is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, and the rite of summer to the ever-increasing legion of fans of electronic dance music, or EDM. It's the one they call the party "Under the Electric Sky" -- the Electric Daisy Festival.
But while the EDC franchise takes place year-round in venues around the world, the flagship event was moved in 2011 to Las Vegas. Upwards of 130,000 people descend upon the Las Vegas Motor Speedway each summer, up until last year being held at the beginning of the infamous desert heat that engulfs this Oasis of the American West in June at triple-digits. Unlike most other festivals, EDC Vegas begins at sunset, continues all night in the usual Vegas way of being up all night, and ends when the sun rises above the horizon. Multiple stages adorn the entire Speedway infield, allowing everyone who ponies up hundreds each fall when tickets go on sale to be immersed in the largest festival of its kind anywhere.
Under The Electric Sky also followed several individuals who went to the 2013 EDC event and the journeys their made from all over the country to Las Vegas. One of the selected parties hand-picked to have cameras follow them were a group of seven guys who named themselves after the most dangerous group to roam Las Vegas since the days of the Rat Pack, the "Wolf Pack." Being based in Cape Cod, MA, instead of spending a fortune to buy plane tickets to the five-hour trip cross country, they took the long route: 2,360 miles from the very tip of their state an hour south of Boston, all the way east over several days on their RV to Sin City.
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| Twitter @TheCapeBoys |
Dione and the guys partied hard and in Michael's memory as they carried an old Sixers jersey with his name on it as he was there in spirit. The last scene in Under The Electric Sky saw the Wolf Pack arrive straight off of their drive back from Vegas to Cape Cod to the final resting place of their late friend and sharing a group hug at dusk. And in the last interviews for the film, the group got choked up when Dione remembered, "This will forever be in our heads the craziest, best trip of our lives."
Straight off of the 2013 event, Under the Electric Sky made its debut at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Colorado, and then made its way to theaters a year later before the 2014 EDC festival began. The film also documented those who came from as near as San Diego and as far as Japan, and even one of them being confined to a wheelchair to experience an event that brings fans of EDM together in the name of peace, love, unity and respect and in the universal language of music.
EDC 2018 was held just a month after the untimely passing of one of EDM's biggest names and one of the reasons for the genre's mainstream acceptance in recent years, Avicii. This year's performers took the opportunity to honor his memory and perform to the hundreds of thousands who came from all over the world for this Carnival, including those who performed this year and in 2013 in Afrojack, Armin Van Buuren, Hardwell and Tiesto. Joining them were, among others, Alan Walker, Cheat Codes, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Diplo, Kaskade, Kygo, Marshmello, Martin Garrix and Zedd.
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| Brandon as Marshmello (IG/@Tindel10) |
And in a strange and ironic twist to this story, a person who Dione shared a hotel suite with when he returned to Vegas as a member of the cast of Real World: Go Big or Go Home in 2016 was among the festivalgoers: several times Challenger Kailah roamed the same festival grounds that the one she was in love with in DTLV went years back. And the Vegas resident was joined by another member of Team MTV who calls America's fastest-growing city home: Brandon from Are You The One Season 2 - who took the chance to don the famous helmet used by Marshmello... as did fellow alum Casandra from Season 5 who also went to the East Coast's biggest dance event, Ultra Miami over Spring Break. In all, not a bad weekend to be in Vegas.
- I AM DC
#DCBLOG
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