Las Vegas Weekly

It's here. Electric Daisy Carnival. The biggest dance music festival in the U.S. arrives this weekend, and it's expected to bring many of the world's best DJs, 250,000 spectators and more glow sticks than we'll try to count to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway from June 24-26. But it's also bringing a good deal of controversy. At last year's festival in LA, a 15-year-old girl died of a drug overdose and more than 100 others were hospitalized, many for drug complications. For this year's festival the minimum age has been raised to 18 and promoters say they will take additional security measures, but just last weekend a smaller EDC event in Dallas left a 19-year-old dead of a drug overdose. Like it or not, Ecstasy is part of dance-festival culture, and while it's hard to hold organizers responsible for the safety of guests who sneak in illegal drugs, the eyes of the outside world will be on promoter Insomniac beginning Friday night at 8. We can only hope Las Vegas' Daisy goes smoothly, and that everyone gets home safe after sunrise.