Thursday, November 10, 2016

A Look At EDC - Orlando 2017

Back when EDC first hit Orlando in 2011, capacity was limited to 25,000 guests per night. EDC took place in the fields adjacent to the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium (now named Camping World Stadium) but did not utilize the stadium facilities.

During the early years of EDC, available space was greatly compromised by the ticket booth building and grandstand of Tinker Field, former home of the minor league Orlando Twins and spring training home of MLB's Washington Senators & Minnesota Twins.
With those ancient facilities finally razed in early 2015, it allowed for a capacity expansion of Electric Daisy Carnival. EDC last year also for the first time began using the areas below the Citrus Bowl bleachers for the guest entry process, freeing up even more field space!
Never heard of an official revised capacity number but sources have told the Blog that 43,000 attended EDC this past Saturday night and that was a sell-out with ticket sales suspended.
Indeed, I had never experienced anything quite like it there! So what are plans for the future now that capacity has been reached? I've seen fans asking for a third day of EDC on the Sunday of the weekend but I've heard no rumors along those lines.
Instead, I'm hearing that EDC wants to close Rio Grande Avenue during the event, the street along the stadium's east side.  They would then rent the fields to the east of the stadium that are currently used for parking and add 1-2 more DJ stages in those fields. This would allow for a significant increase in guest capacity while turning EDC - Orlando into the third largest Electronic Dance Music event in the nation after EDC - Las Vegas and Ultra - Miami. I observed very few troublemakers in the crowds this past weekend considering the numbers and even much of that was from people outside simply wanting to purchase a ticket to get inside and being unable to. Considering Orlando's strong place in the history of Electronic Dance Music; considering the huge revenue that this brings to the city and considering the PLUR nature of the crowd that EDC brings to town, this idea seems like a real winner. After all, the Orlando area is the happiest place on earth!

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