Insomniac is one of the premiere electronic events companies in the world. In addition to organizing festivals and hosting club nights all across the U.S., they put on events in Puerto Rico, Mexico, and even the UK.
However, like many other promotion companies, Insomniac has a flagship festival; a festival that embodies the spirit of the company and represents its evolution year after year. For Insomniac events, that festival is EDC Las Vegas, which has sold out faster than ever before this year.
Only coming to Vegas after the debacle that was EDC LA 2010, Insomniac made two things clear after the move: 1. That EDC would never again descend into the logistical depths of the 2010 installment, and 2. that EDC Vegas could compete with more established and diverse festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza.
By 2011, Coachella attendees were in the same position they are now; waiting by the computer until the second the clock strikes noon to become a part of the virtual stampede competing for tickets. Even in LA where EDC had been established for years, there was never much of a danger of the festival selling out, and the first year in Vegas was the same. Early on, three-day passes to the event came out to around 180, and there were single-day and three-day passes available at the door.
What Insomniac didn\’t expect (or maybe they did) was how successful EDC Vegas would be. Even those who coveted a festival in LA were overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of EDC on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and EDC\’s new home was set.
The following year (2012), three-day GA passes were bumped up 80 dollars right off the bat. Relatively, $260 for a festival isn\’t that ridiculous, but an 80 dollar jump is uncanny. 2012 was the first year Coachella did two weekends and the tickets only went up $15 from $270 to $285. Also keep in mind that $260 was merely the general on sale price. Those who purchased their tickets later on had to pay more, but they didn\’t seem to mind as EDC Vegas 2012 sold out after the lineup was released a few weeks before the event.
This trend continued throughout 2013 and 2014, with tickets being bumped up by at least $50. With service fees, 2014 tickets were almost $400 (more expensive that Coachella tickets), but these two years displayed how much hype there was surrounding EDC as the festival sold out before there was even a lineup. Many headliners were less than thrilled about the prospect of blindly buying an EDC ticket though. In 2014, Insomniacs founder, Pasqualle Rotella, who is very good about replying to his fans on social media, found it necessary to take to Facebook and publish a piece apologizing for the long wait for the lineup.
And yet in 2015, EDC tickets sold out faster than ever, with ticket prices still ending up close to $380. (Once again more expensive than Coachella tickets)
What Insomniac has been able to do is curate an unforgettable festival experience and an extremely loyal fan base simultaneously. It is quite likely that many of the people who complained about the lack of a lineup last year were the first in line to buy 2015 passes, and it is even more likely that those people have been attending for at least the past 3 years.
EDC isn\’t just about buying a ticket to see your favorite artists anymore. It\’s about trust. If you want a secured spot under the electric sky, singular pieces of the festival like the lineup can\’t be a defining factor in your decision making process. You have to take the $400 dollar leap, knowing that the only guarantee that comes with your ticket is entrance to EDC, and for hundreds of thousands of headliners, that\’s more than enough.
Not all hope is lost though, there are limited VIP passes available for EDC Vegas here
