Electric Daisy Carnival festival history: The first Electric Daisy Carnival was held in 1997. In the past, there have been many unique venues in Southern California that have played host to the annual electronic music festival. These include the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Exposition Park in Los Angeles, National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino, Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach, Lake Dolores Waterpark in Mark Lapro Barstow, Hansen Dam in Sylmar, and the International Agri-CenterTulare. The festival has sold out venues with 30,000 maximum capacities and reached crowds of 100,000 (40,000+ on Friday; 90,000+ on Saturday) recently in 2010, making it the biggest electronic music festival outside Europe. Insomniac Events have also brought the festival to other regions including Colorado and Texas. 2009 marks the first year that the festival is brought to Puerto Rico. In 2010 the event expanded to include Dallas, Texas.

The Electric Daisy Carnival is one of the world’s largest electronic dance music festivals.  In fact, it has the highest attendance of any music festival of its kind outside Europe, leading some to dub it “The American Ibiza”.  Founded in 1997 by Insomniac Events, and named after Steve Kool-Aid’s original creation, the festival has gone from big to massive in recent years.

DC expanded very quickly.  It was first held in 1997 at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles where 5000 ravers packed the hall.    Originally set as a California only event, these days EDCs are everywhere!  EDC can now be found in Colorado, Texas, Puerto Rico, Florida, and even the Garden State of New Jersey. At the 16th annual EDC, the event took place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for 3 days on  June 8th through June 10th.  The music festival pulled in over 300,000 people and featured over 100 EDM artists from around the world.    Unfortunately, the electronic music festival became tainted by the deaths of 2 festival goers.  A drunk raver was killed after being hit by a truck while crossing the street and a young college pre-medical student who fell out of her hotel window after consuming ecstasy.

1997 – Shrine Expo Hall (Los Angeles, CA) 1998 – No Info 1999 – Lake Dolores Waterpark (Newberry Springs, CA) 2000 – World Ag Expo (Tulare, CA) 2001 – Hansen Dam (Lake View Terrace, CA) and Thunderhill Raceway Park (Austin, Texas) 2002 – Queen Mary Events Park (Long Beach, CA) and Travis County Exposition Center (Austin, Texas) 2003 – NOS Events Center (San Bernadino, CA) 2004 – NOS Events Center (San Bernadino, CA) 2005 – NOS Events Center (San Bernadino, CA) 2006 – NOS Events Center (San Bernadino, CA) 2007 –Memorial Center and Expo Park (Los Angeles, CA) 2008 – Memorial Coliseum and Expo Park (Los Angeles and CA Arapahoe County Fairgrounds ( Aurora, CO) 2009 – Memorial Coliseum and Expo Park (Los Angeles, CA), Arapahoe County Fairgrounds ( Aurora, CO), The Arena Fairgrounds (Puerto Rico) 2010 – Memorial Coliseum and Expo Park (Los Angeles, CA), Arapahoe County Fairgrounds ( Aurora, CO), Fair Park (Dallas, TX), Estadio Sixto Escobar (Puerto Rico) 2011 – Tinker Field (Orlando, FL), County Fairgrounds ( Aurora, CO), Fair Park (Dallas, TX), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Las Vegas, NV), and Estadio Sixto Escobar (Puerto Rico) 2012 – MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Las Vegas, NV), and Panamerican Pier Complex (Puerto Rico)

Rotella's rise as rave master has been meteoric. Ten years ago, nearly half a dozen Southern California promoters were vying for the electronic dance music festival dollar, and Rotella's was just a face in that crowd.