05 May How to Be Prepared for Electric Daisy Carnival: Tips and Tricks

With Electric Daisy Carnival coming up this May, the additional camping and diverse lineup are attracting many newcomers. Since EDC is located in Las Vegas and is a three-day festival that runs all night in the heat, it takes a lot of planning for before, during and after the event to assure safety, health and pure enjoyment. Here are some tips to consider if attending EDC:

Preparation Tips For Before Electric Daisy Carnival…

When buying the EDC ticket you can either pay for it all at once or do the monthly payment plan. Both work just fine and will receive your wristband with collectible items. College kids can definitely benefit from the payment plan because it doesn’t put a burden on your bank account.

Booking Your Flights

Planning for EDC wise, try to pay everything you can off at least a month before the event. If you are traveling from the midwest or even the east coast planning flights months beforehand will help with the prices.

For EDC 2017 which was in June, I bought my flights around early April. Unfortunately, at that time they were $550 round trip. I noticed that if I had bought those flights even a month or two earlier, the total would have been much cheaper.

When planning flights or arrival into Vegas try to arrive at least a day or two before the event and plan on leaving a day or two after. This will provide you with enough time to settle in before the raving begins and have enough time to rest after Electric Daisy Carnival ends.

Why Booking With Unity Travel for Solo Ravers Makes Sense

If you are going to EDC solo and you do not want to spend a boatload of money to have a hotel room to yourself, finding another person to get paired up with can really save your bank account. Las Vegas is by no means a cheap city to visit. This is especially true when you forget about those sneaky “resort fees” being added to your hotel stays. The price you have to pay to recover in a nice air-conditioned hotel room continues to rise.

Enter Unity Travel. This festival travel company has it all figured out for solo ravers. They work out private deals with hotels in order for you to get the best price and match you up with a room buddy. Click here to get $10 off PLUS save money on those annoying service fees with Unity Travel. 

If your friends ditched out on you or backed out the last minute, don’t stress over it too much. I really think you should still go. If you need some additional convincing as to why you should still go, click here to read our post on the three reasons why you should travel to EDC Las Vegas alone. 

Best Hotels on the Strip

If you have never visited Vegas before, I highly suggest staying on the strip in a hotel. Hotels in Las Vegas vary in prices based on location and somewhat (loosely) on their quality.

I haven’t stayed at too many hotels there but, some of my personal favorites are The Cosmopolitan, The Aria, Caesars Palace, The Venetian, The Palazzo, and the MGM. These hotels are on the pricier side but if it’s your first time in Vegas, try to at least check out some of these hotels even if it just means walking the casino floors, eating at their fancy restaurants, and playing poker at their tables.

For some of the cheaper hotels, I recommend booking at The Luxor, Stratosphere, SLS, or Hooters (but this one is off the strip FYI).

Getting to Electric Daisy Carnival from the Strip

If you end up staying in a hotel on the strip, you will also need to secure your shuttle bus pass. These shuttle bus tickets are purchased through Insomniac Events which will take you to and from the event. The shuttle buses this year are being run by a third-party vendor rather than Insomniac itself. This is great news as in past years, the shuttle experience wasn’t a walk in the park.

The shuttles are really reasonably priced at the regular pickup locations for only $99 for the entire weekend.

Why Not Uber?

While Uber is a great resource for you to have in case of an emergency, it’s not the ideal way to get to Electric Daisy Carnival. EDC is a solid 30-40 minute ride depending on where you stay on the strip. You really don’t want to have to spend that much money traveling there and back three days a week. I’ve heard past ravers tell me their one-way trip alone was anywhere from $75-$100.

It’s also much more difficult to request and then find your Uber too if you request one for pickup at the speedway. Most uber drivers aren’t around the speedway and are way less likely to make the drive all the way out to pick you up.

You’d probably get back to the speedway much faster by making friends with someone who has a car and carpooling it back to the strip with them. I want you to be safe while you are there so I do not recommend you actually do this. I’m just trying to get across my point across that your best and the cheapest bet is to book the shuttle.

Why You Should Avoid Air BnB

I really don’t recommend booking through Air BnB. Why? There are a lot of horror stories in recent years with hosts canceling reservations anywhere from a month to the day of the festival. Some of these hosts realize how much they could have charged you because of the high demand that they will cancel on you so they can get a better price outside of the Air BnB site. If you get canceled on, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Nobody like to have to scramble to figure out where you are staying the last minute when prices can easily soar into thousands so close to the event. Book yourself a hotel room and save yourself the potential nightmare.

What about Camping at Camp EDC?

For the second time ever, Electric Daisy Carnival has added a camping option right outside of the Motor Speedway which has really helped reduce the usual bumper to bumper traffic from past years. The added camping has many amenities from rave aerobics all the way to an EDC barbershop. If you enjoy camping, I suggest trying that out especially if you have not attended a camping music festival before.

We have a few additional posts for you to get prepared for Camp EDC if that’s the route you want to go. Click here to read Fefe’s experience camping at EDC in 2018. Click here for our full guide on Camp EDC.

Health Tips To Prevent Sickness

Try to take multivitamins daily and drink Emergen-C packets in your water at least a week before EDC Begins. This will help boost your immune system since you will be up during all hours of the night and if over 21, partying and having a blast during the day. Click here to get my favorite pink lemonade flavor of Emergen-C packets on Amazon.

I’ve heard really good things about Raveolution Recovery Formula from friends who took it after the show and didn’t get sick while the ones who didn’t take it, did. Sounds legit. So what is it?

Raveolution Recovery Formula is an all natural powdered beverage mix which you can quickly and easily add to a bottle of water. It has high-quality ingredients such as 5-HTP, magnesium, vitamin C, B vitamins, electrolytes, green tea extract, and more. Get it before the festival so you have it on hand to take every night after the show. Click here to get 10% off  Raveolution Recovery Formula when you enter the discount code EDMWorld at checkout.

Body Preparation Tips

I also suggest doing a combination of cardio, HIIT, or weight training at least two weeks before the event to prepare yourself both mentally and physically. You will be on your feet for most of your stay in Vegas. Make sure you’ve built up some strength so you don’t feel the need to take as many resting breaks during the festival.

Also, some things to avoid before EDC are tattoos and piercings. The Vegas sun is scorching and will irritate your tattoo if you attend a pool party. Moving and dancing around the festival constantly could also irritate that fresh ink. It’s the last thing you want to have to worry about when you are trying to enjoy your weekend.

Preparation Tips For During Electric Daisy Carnival…

Make sure you are hydrated throughout the festival. Remember, Las Vegas has really dry heat. Don’t make the mistake of only drinking water. Have other drinks like Gatorade and coconut water that provide electrolytes for your body. This will help with your energy and your stamina. Many suggest bringing a hydration backpack so you have water on you at all times. This will prevent you from having to walk back and forth to hydration stations.

Hydration Pack Tips

The hydration pack I recommend is called the Lunchbox. This backpack stands out from the rest because not only does it help keep you hydrated, but it also anti-theft. Avoid pickpocketers from getting into your bag once and for all as this backpack has inward facing pockets and protected clip-in zippers. There are No locks required! If that wasn’t enough, it’s also made out of 1680D military-grade ballistic nylon so no one can slice your bag open while you’re not looking. Click here to get your Lunchbox backpack.

If paying for Gatorade or coconut water isn’t your thing, you can also bring in electrolyte powder single serving packets to add to your water throughout the night. This is particularly helpful as the water in Las Vegas tends to taste, well, pretty gross. Instead of having to buy bottled water all weekend long, you can just fill up your hydration pack for free at the refill water stations, add in an electrolyte mix, and enjoy the wonderful taste of passion fruit instead. Trust me, this stuff is a life saver.  Click here to get Liquid I.V. electrolyte power (passion fruit) single serving packets from Amazon. 

Accessories to Bring in with You to Electric Daisy Carnival

When packing your backpack or fanny pack for the festival, take into consideration what you may need. Since the weather is so dry and hot you should bring products like chapstick, powder for chafing, and a cute fan like this one on Amazon. Since EDC is such a remarkable and crazy festival, your phone will die from taking unlimited pictures and videos so consider bringing along a mini on the go charger like this one on Amazon.

By day three of Electric Daisy Carnival, most of the time the bathrooms are disgusting and don’t have much toilet paper left. Make sure you bring some along with you. Also, be sure you bring some sealed wet wipes with you. If you bring an already opened package you may risk having security take them away from you. I suggest buying the small travel sized wet wipes. I wasn’t able to find them individually wrapped at CVS but they do have them on Amazon. Click here to get individually packaged wet wipes on Amazon.

Tips to Conserve Your Energy All Weekend Long

At the end of the day, you need to know your body. Think of EDC (or any music festival) as a marathon and NOT a sprint. Going way too hard on the first day of the festival or even going too hard during the day before EDC can cost you. I don’t recommend attending the day pool parties if you are also attending the festival. During the day is time for you to be sleeping and re-energizing since EDC runs from dusk to dawn.

Deep Sleep Necessities

With this in mind, be sure to bring earplugs for sleeping. Earplugs will help you get a deeper sleep during the day while you are sleeping and the rest of the world is awake raging. Some hotels pool parties are so loud you’ll be able to hear them from your room. I always recommend asking for a room far away from the pool area the sound is minimized. I usually use the cheap throwaway ones as they don’t bother me as much as the heavy duty ones do while asleep. Click here to get foam earplugs on Amazon.

Another thing to get for deeper sleep is a sleep mask. This is especially important if you are staying with other roommates who might need to put the light on before you to get ready. I recommend getting one that is silk to help prevent wrinkles. Click here to get a sleep mask on Amazon. 

Electric Daisy Carnival has eight stages that really resemble each genre of EDM and many art cars that drive around under the electric sky. Whether your favorite genre of EDM is trance, house, or even dubstep, discovering and checking all the stages out is definitely the way to go.

For example, the Basspod has mostly dubstep and drum and bass music and the energy is outstanding. If you want to hang lowkey for some time and listen to some chill music, Neon Garden is the way to go. To check out the EDC lineup by stage, click here.

Most importantly, have fun and always take what EDC offers: unity. Do you want in on experiencing this life-changing music festival? Click here to get your tickets to Electric Daisy Carnival before they sell out.

What’s your number one tip or trip for those attending EDC? Swipe up and let me know in the comments below!