News Thu Mar 07 2013

Electric Daisy Carnival Chicago Announces Lineup

By Katie Karpowicz

Our city is still buried in about five inches of snow (in March nonetheless) so the obvious thought would be: what better a time than to discuss summer music festivals?

This morning came with a mysteriously under-hyped announcement of Electric Daisy Carnival's (EDC) lineup for its first Chicago installment set to take place over Memorial Day weekend.

Seriously, for as huge of a festival event as this Las Vegas-born festival has been in the past, I expected a slew of Facebook posts and a Twitter feed clogged with the #EDCChicago hashtag as soon as this news finally came out. Instead, a simple article from Gret Kot announcing the lineup and discussing the festival's history was published to the Chicago Tribune's website early this morning to relatively little reaction. Currently, the festival hasn't even published the lineup to its own website yet, instead sharing Kot's article across its social platforms. See the full lineup after the jump.

Above & Beyond, Andy C, Armin Van Buuren, Arty, Avicii, Blond:ish, Borgore, Brillz, Bro Safari, Christian Martin, Crizzly, Culture Shock, Dash Berlin, David Guetta, Delta Heavy, Dirtyphonics, DJ Boats, DJ Fresh, DJ Fury, DJ Koze, Dub Phizix, Ed Rush & Optical, Empire of the Sun, Fallen, Gareth Emery, Gina Turner.

Hardwell, Heidi, Helicopter Showdown, High Contrast, Huxley, Jack Beats, Justin Martin, Kaskade, Kill Frenzy, Koan Sound, Loadstar, LowRIDERz, Luminox, L-Vis 1990, Markus Schulz, Matrix & Futurebound, Mayhem & Heroes X Villains, Metrik, Michael Mayer, Midnight Conspiracy, Mimosa, Morgan Page, Mt Eden.

Nadastrom, Nick Monaco, Noisia, Nu:Logic, Popof, Quintino, Rene LaVice, Run DMT, Sander van Doorn, Schoolboy, Smooth, S.P.Y, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Tale of Us, Terravita, The Bloody Beetroots, Three, Thug ... , Tiesto, Tittsworth, Uz, W&W, Wilkinson, Wolf + Lamb, Worthy

Even more underwhelming than the announcement, in this writer's opinion, is the lineup itself. Trance and Euro-pop fans will be especially pleased as EDC has stepped up to fill a genre void that's largely been created by the increasing number of dubstep and other bass-heavy artists on recent Chicago festival bills.

However, as far as big names to fill a big space (the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet) go, there are few. David Guetta, Avicii and Tiesto have had enough radio success to headline a 9,000-person capacity (per day) festival, but what about the rest of the day? If you're constantly looking for the next big thing when it comes to electronic music, this could potentially be the place to do it. But, you'll have to shell out between $200 and $420 -- plus trek out to Joliet -- to do so. But, hey, there will be a ferris wheel. So that's cool.

I don't mean to appear decidedly down on EDC. It just seems as though a first year festival (or, in this case, a veteran festival with a new location) should put its best foot forward. The three EDC Chicago headliners are hardly abstract, unexpected or particularly exciting choices for a festival of this ilk and unless you're seriously passionate about underground EDM, the majority of the rest of the names on that list is fairly meaningless.

The good news: The summer is still looking up for electronic music fans in Chicago. With four other festivals that boast either entirely or heavily electronic artist lineups, we're still due for a little fun. In case you haven't been keeping up, here's how the rest of the summer is shaping up:

Spring Awakening Music Festival, June 14-16 -- Local electronic music leaders React Presents have extended this second-year festival from two to three days of programming. The first round of acts, 75 artists, was announced last month. If you attended Lollapalooza last year, you'll be seeing some familiar faces: Zedd, Porter Robinson and Zeds Dead as well as headliners Bassnectar and Calvin Harris are moving from Grant Park to Soldier Field this summer. Last year's Wavefront Music Festival headliner Boys Noize will be there as well as well as a handful of acts that played North Coast Music Festival (Excision, Mord Fustang, Paul Oakenfold). By my count we're still due one more headliner so expect another big announcement in the works.

Wavefront Music Festival, July 5 - 7 -- Another second year festival that's been extended to three days, this one pioneered by the same people behind Spy Bar. Is anyone else getting worried about the ratio of notable electronic artists to the number of full days of festival programming we'll be seeing in Chicago?

Though there haven't been any official announcements yet lineup wise, a lowly publicized Groupon deal last week for tickets revealed a few artists assumedly booked for 2013: Benoit & Sergio, Caspa, Maya Jane Coles, Crookers, Guy Gerber, Nicolas Jaar, Jamie Jones, Chris Lake, Damian Lazarus, Rusko and Danny Tenaglia. You might remember Crookers from their popular remix of Kid Cudi's "Day 'N Night." Aside from being an excellent live DJ, Rusko is a particularly great booking. Considering his last two stops through Chicago were sold out shows at the Congress Theater and Aragon Ballroom, Rusko is a much bigger name than last year's headliners Duck Sauce and Boys Noize who typically have stuck with more condensed venues like House of Blues and The Mid while in Chicago.

Lollapalooza, August 2 - 4 -- A possible lineup leak several weeks ago caused a stir when it listed Skrillex as a headliner. However, a week later Jay-Z (another headliner listed on the rumored lineup) announced that he'd be bringing his joint summer tour with Justin Timberlake to Chicago just weeks after Lollapalooza weekend, so that essentially crumbled the "leaked" Lolla lineup's credibility. Lolla is known for the continued growth of Perry's Stage (its electronic outlet) and has pulled out its big guns to book one EDM mainstage headliner per summer for the past two years (DeadMau5 in 2011 and Avicii in 2012). However, Skrillex has already announced he'll be doing very few (if any) shows this summer and it's been well documented that, despite a new album on the way, Daft Punk claim they will not be touring in 2013. With those two favorite for Lolla potentially out of reach and many other obvious choices already claimed by other Chicago festivals, it'll be interesting to see who's really a part of the Lolla lineup. Expect an official announcement in April.

North Coast Music Festival - August 30 - September 1 -- It's barely even March. Don't expect any lineup announcements for "Summer's Last Stand" for at least several more weeks. It will be interesting to see if the increase in the total number of days Chicago-area electronic festivals will be in effect this summer causes NCMF to up its number of rap and jam band acts or if they'll play it cool and still come through with what's always been a consistently great lineup of DJs and producers. Either way, it should be good.