PI Update: Sunday Night On The Island

Sunday night on the way to House of Blues, of course had to visit beautiful Pleasure Island!

The foyer of Mannequins was all lit up! Had not seen that before. Ran into someone who had been inside the previous week and confirmed the revolving dance floor is definitely in there! They found a dead squirrel in there too.

The foyer of 8TRAX was also lit up but the other outside lights that we saw on a few weeks ago were not.

And gigantic flowers have sprung up throughout the island! GO PLEASURE ISLAND!!

Club Report: House of Blues (SIN)

House of Blues.....Downtown Disney.....Sunday night.....Service Industry Night!

DJ Magic Mike was on the stage, opening with a patriotic tribute to "Osama Bin Laden is dead."

Every Sunday night at HOB is Service Industry Night (SIN) featuring DJ's spinning mostly House and Dance. On holiday weekends it's nearly always Magic Mike. Anyone with any "service" job gets in free.

The dance floor is jammed wall-to-wall every Sunday night but especially so on holiday weekends.

Dream on boy; ain't gonna happen!

A couple of go go dancers took turns on both sides of the dance floor.

Let me tell you; this was the BEST performance I've ever seen from Magic Mike. In my past experiences he would open with 30-45 minutes of Dance and then switch to Hip Hop. Last night, it was two straight non-stop, high energy hours of House, Dance and Breaks. There was one fifteen minute segment of mashed Hip Hop songs. The biggest surprise was a fifteen minute segment of Dubstep which completely perplexed the dancers who did not know how to deal with it.  But thanks to the lesson learned from the Save Pleasure Island Blog, I recognized it for what it was and actually enjoyed it!

Very much a young crowd at House of Blues.

Jammed to the rafters!

Mannequins!!

EDC Day 2 Report

Electric Daisy Carnival - Orlando - Day 2 CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Began this day's journey at the bassPOD with Electro & Dubstep from Liquid Stranger (USA).

There was already a crowd growing at this stage for later DJ's that would include Feed Me and Datsik!

At the neonGARDEN stage DJ Keith Mackenzie (USA) put on an excellent Breaks performance for the early arrivers.

The small crowd here was already better than what we saw the previous night and this would continue to build.

The much-anticipated arrival in Orlando of DJ HeavyGrinder (USA) followed!

She has a large international following.

People were dancing all over as the Break Beats continued!

She is always very interactive with her audiences which is one of the reasons why she is so popular.

And she looked damn awesome in her black-on-black-on-black ensemble!

Then it was time to head over to the kineticFIELD main stage where the crowd was building up here too.

DJ Morgan Page (USA) came on at 6pm.

Good daylight view of how many were watching.

Page remains somewhat unknown but the number of hits he's produced are many.

Something interesting to see no matter where you turned!

But back to the neonGARDEN for DJ Baby Anne (USA)!! Largest crowd in two days.

DJ Jimmy Joslin (USA) giving her some tips on operating the equipment here.

A good hour of mostly Breaks continued this stage's theme of the evening.

Trying to see as many DJ's as I could. And with four competing stages, it got difficult. But back to the main stage for DJ Markus Schulz (D) putting out the House!

The great thing about such an event is that for one price you get to see so many internationally famous DJ's, one after another after another!

The main reason I purchased my ticket though was for this guy....DJ Ferry Corsten (NL)! I had seen him previously at Zinc Bar in downtown Orlando and at Pasha in New York City.

He too is very interactive with the masses.

Day turned into night during his 8-9pm performance.

It was absolutely jammed across the entire field, much larger than the previous night. Apparently a lot of people purchased Saturday-only tickets.

The biggest reaction is when he played his current hit "Feel It". It really had everyone moving. My only disappointment was that he did not play the Mannequins classic, "Rock Your Body Rock". That would have been so excellent.

Back to the neonGARDEN stage for DJ Icey (USA). He was as good as I've ever seen him!

A really large crowd had gathered for him! He absolutely killed it; he had Baby Anne dancing!

He had Keith Mackenzie dancing!

I was starving so I just did not have any time to watch much of DJ Benny Benassi (I) perform. He was playing mostly House including a number of his big hits.

There had to be twice as many people at the main stage on Saturday night than on Friday night. And Friday night was jammed!

The biggest headliner of the evening was DJ Paul van Dyk (D) who put on close to 90-minutes of mostly Trance. This was the only fairly decent shot I could get of him due to the lighting.

On my way out, also a huge crowd for Dubstep DJ Datsik (CDN) over at the bassPOD stage.  I call the event a success; it was not a sell-out like Ultra was last March in Miami but it was still a great show which hopefully will return again to Orlando next year!! EDC has 1-day concerts in Denver on June 11th and Dallas on June 18th but the talent-list is nowhere near as impressive of what we got in Orlando these past two days.

EDC Day 1 Report

Electric Daisy Carnival - Orlando - Day 1  CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

So much going on simultaneously on 4 stages that I had to pick and choose who to go see. This is DJ Chris Lake (GB).

The early evening crowd at the main stage was really starting to build!

The cannons would receive future use.

Good view of the set-up of the main stage while Chris Lake performed.

Over at the neonGARDEN stage, DJ Sandy (House of Blues) was spinning House and Dance.

But during each of my visits few people were watching. The main stage was just too much of a draw.

I think this is DJ Hive spinning Electro at the bassPOD stage.

A few more people watching here but still most everyone hung out at the main stage all night.

As night fell, DJ Dirty South (SRB) took over at the kineticFIELD main stage.

He was very animated compared to some of the others.

Lots of furry boots in attendance along with across-the-forehead headbands and feathers!

Back at neonGARDEN, local favorite DJ Andy Hughes played to a few.

The DJ duo of Gabriel & Dresden (USA) came on as the crowd's excitement really began to grow.

But it was short-lived as a ferocious thunderstorm rolled over the event. Many fled for the few covered areas that existed yet many stupid partiers remained out in the open as lightning struck the area. This is something organizers and the City of Orlando are going to need to deal with next time before tragedy strikes. The lower concourse of the adjoining Citrus Bowl Stadium could have been opened to offer refuge. But after a 45-minute delay, it was "on with the show!"

Gabriel & Dresden finished their rain-shortened set.

And then it was Afrojack (NL) on the decks!

At this juncture real estate was way too valuable to give up!

He wasted no time playing his big hit Take Over Control, inserting it as his second song of the night. He commented that this was his second visit to Orlando and that he loves Orlando! Of course, don't we all!

But everyone was waiting for the biggest name of the night, Tiësto! (NL)

Some of the momentum of the evening was lost though as his appearance was delayed about 15 minutes due to technical difficulties with the changeover.

Lots of steam, fire and cool lighting effects though as he played a number of his past hits.

Now THAT's a true Tiësto fan!

A good look at the Tiësto crowd at its peak. Tiësto performs tonight in Las Vegas. Day 2 today and tonight includes my favorite Ferry Corsten but also Morgan Page and Paul Van Dyk!!