Opulent Temple has been such a great place to enjoy music at Burning Man, and we are forever thankful for all the great music they have given us. Syd Gris and his crew have done excellent work all these years, and one of the big ways they can fund this, is with fundraiser events like this one.
A big thank to all the artists who played that night either for a reduced fee or no fee, Paavo was there to represent Above & Beyond and performed to a packed room while our TFSF locals manned the other rooms. Thank you to everyone.
So great to be back with everyone after the unusual and lower attendance EDC last year:
Home, Sweet Home
TFSF + TFLA meetup
Getting there and back was harder than all previous years, due to the record 166K attendees. I went for the shuttle again, which was a known
fun to go through the Air Force base each time
The Grounds:
For those who didn't know, EDC technically starts at 17:00, but that's only for a single stage, cosmic maedows, and the rest does not open until 19:00. What was funny was watching the opening of the rest on day #3, and the mad rush of people trying to get to the merch store to avoid the 2H+ lines (some say 4H?)
it was somehow important to be there :)
Downtown EDC is always fun:
As always, a good way to see EDC, is from higher up, and the ferris wheels are the best way to do it:
lovely Quantum Valley where I spent most of my time
As always, one of the most impressive parts of EDC Vegas is the amount of effort put into all the stages and decors:
nice to have various burning man art
The neon light tunnel to carnival square was also nice:
One addition to my outfit was a camera, that allowed me to rebroadcast what's in front of me:
so, who didn't know there were cell phone chargers at carnival square (and didn't bring their own), now do
Pixel Forest is still a fantastic place to enjoy, especially the dual pixel forest tunnel:
And the view from above:
Fireworks and Drones
EDC now has a drone show, but it's hard to see when you are at Quantum Valley, on the other side and looking in the wrong direction, especially given that it's silent. Still, I was able to see this on the first (windy) day:
Fireworks were cancelled due to wind on the first day, but did happen on day 2 and 3. At least those I knew were at 01:30, and was ready to watch and record on day #2 and #3:
Fireworks of the last 2 days:
The People
As always EDC has been great because of the people who attend and the many friends I made over the years:
Still happy to see other people bringing LEDs :)
And dancers of course:
And it was so much fun to be able to meet favorite DJs as always:
Of course, I couldn't resist meeting a few more DJs :)
But anyway, let's get on with the festival:
Day #1
Got a ride with Michael (thanks) and arrived smack for the opening of the rest of the grounds at 19:00 (after about 1h45 from leaving the hotel). It was nice to be there from the start as shuttles tend to arrive 45mn late on fridays due to traffic:
Day #1 was very windy (and therefore cold due to wind chill), this also caused Kinetic Field to close due to high winds and cancelled most of Seven Lion's set, but most everything else went on.
Great night with friends as always:
Nice to be able to see sunrise again and end with Xijaro and Pitch:
Video Summary:
Day #2
By day #2, it was possible to take the 18:00 shuttle and get there by 19:00 and see Khromata's set:
yeah for lasers!
Astrix was supposed to play but got covid, so Blastoyz was a great replacement, lovely set as always
like most DJs, Blastoyz is a great person
so glad I was able to get Afik to Blastoyz who happened to be walking the side of quantum valley
and somehow Craig Connelly got the 04:30-05:30 slot. A bit late, but he did another lovely set
fairly long lines at 05:45 to get back. Hopefully people didn't wait too long
Video Summary:
Day #3
Hello lovely, I hope you had an awesome night!
Kinetic Field before it got busy as hell
after a quick tour of the grounds, back to Quantum Valley
Hanna's set was surprisingly good even if I couldn't tell whether she was actually singing
it was fun to see rez, even if techno isn't really my thing
and it was cool to meet the creator arcane creations and the rez inspired neopixel glasses I wear
After that, it was time to find a good spot to watch Illenium and Armin at the now packed Kinetic Field:
cool to see the flower
turn into the insomniac owl
Finally it was time for Armin, it was more club/festival music than trance, just like ASOT 1000, but still enjoyable:
I tried to replicate the Armin's sign
Then, there was one hour left before the end of the night and festival, and time to get a shuttle back to town to catch the morning southwest flight out, so we went to Neon Garden for a bit of techno to end the night.
finished the night with some of my friends
Video Summary:
Conclusion
While last year's EDC was lower attendance than normal and tickets were being re-sold at a loss, this one sold out and tickets were being re-sold for profit. The event was packed and went really well outside of the typical horror stories of getting that many people in and out of the festival.
Thank you to everyone at the insomniac team who put so much effort into making so many details right all over the place, with the great result that we all got to enjoy..
I spent a short time at Megamart with Alvin last year, it was fun to go back during EDC while being more awake and being able to enjoy it the way it was meant to:
After finishing Megamart, there was a bit of time left to check out some of Area15:
There is more to check out, will have to go back :)
The day before EDC, Gareth Emery had a new version of his laser show in a Vegas warehouse. I didn't expect it to be to the level of laserface in San Francisco, and it wasn't, but it was still fun to see.
There were multiple opening DJs, unfortunately they apparently got told not to overachieve too much, which made the first sets not as interesting:
By 23:30, Gareth took over and the laser show actually started:
and after 1h30, the show was over. Gareth did a good set and the lasers always make it more fun :)
After Guy Savoy in Paris, being in Vegas for EDC made it a good excuse to try the one in Vegas. I'll be honest that in the $400-$500 range per person before wines, Joel Robuchon has a better menu with more options, although by the time I figured that out, it was already full, so Guy Savoy it was.
While not being cheap, and with a more limited menu, it was a very good dinner, even if it only had half the courses compared to the Paris location:
plates looked familiar :)
the bread options were good
butter
very similar black truffle soup, just like in Paris
With the continuing droughts, Stevens Creek has been running dry for the first times in mostly forever. Not great news, but I guess it was an excuse to go hike it:
It had been a while since I last went, nice to go back up with friends:
weather was unseasonably cool, nice for hiking up
lots of butterflies
A few views from the quary, not the best bit
We were not in a big rush, so we got to the top in 3h40 (3h15 moving time) for 7 miles and climbing about 3000ft up
black mountain again, but this time we earned it
The picts from the top aren't bad, but they're better on the hike:
Then, what goes up, must go down, and it's gravely and slippery at the top, after that we got to some nice trails again:
we went down the other way, that's the PG&E trail that we took up
hummingbird
We then took a slightly longer trail down to the farm, it was more shaded and a nicer trail
Back at the bottom, a lot of people were looking up at a tree and we found why. An owl and its babies. That kind of stretched the zoom on my camera, but it worked:
All in all, it was a bit over 15 miles and just a bit shy of 8h, we took our time
Due to the recent deal between Google and Mclaren, they brought last year's racecar to google for display. I went with a few Mclaren friends and we checked it out :)
It had been a while since I went to Mt Umunhum, good day for a drive back up:
After that, went to check out the Almaden Quicksilver Museum, a very interesting museum about mercury that was mined there, and used for a fair amount of things, including getting gold from gold ore:
Next was a good hike in the Almaden Quicksilver County Park:
It had been a while since I had gone to the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival, especially since it was cancelled the last two years. Very happy to go again this year.
so cute
I didn't even know Jyorei existed, very cool
kois are serious business in japan :)
Ikebana, flower arrangement, is always enjoyable:
The performances have always been good and enjoyable:
This was lots of fun, looking forward to the next time.
