This past week, Jay Z and Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the west coast version of Made in America will be happening downtown LA, in the brand new Grand Park (and its surroundings) during Labor Day weekend. But the LA Weekly has learned interesting details about the event, ‘some of the top rave promoters in the nation might be integrated into the festivities’… and the newspaper suggests that this could be the beginning of downtown LA rave parties: ‘Two concert industry sources with knowledge of the situation told us that Made in America organizer Live Nation was weighing the possibility of having two of America’s largest rave-oriented promoters host the dance stage at Made in America. The Hard festival would take Saturday and Insomniac Events would take Sunday. But the idea is just that, a proposal in its early stages, we were told. Live Nation owns Hard as well as half of Insomniac.’
Well they won’t see my face at this festival if it features so many EDM acts,… But is it the fate of all festivals? More and more EDM DJs every year? EDM promoters have had some difficulties to find a venue around LA, and since the Los Angeles State Historic Park (home of Hard Summer and Insomniac) is currently closed for renovation, it is crucial for them to find a new venue, and that’s why the EDM promoters are all eyes for Grand Park.
I guess they are crazy to even think about bringing EDM and rave parties in the core of the city, last time that the Electric Daisy Carnival was held in the LA Coliseum, things turned badly, with a riot, many drug-related arrests and even a death due to an overdose, the scene was out of control and they canceled the festival. And now they want this to be happening downtown? What about all these downtown residents? They are going to be sooo happy! The problem (and chance for the ravers) is that our mayor is an EDM fan, he even had a fundraising event featuring Aoki and Moby a year ago, and he is totally DJ-endorsed: he has been very clear about wanting ‘huge festivals like electric daisy carnival’ to happen in LA again. He was basically elected on the platform, ‘LA is the music capital of the world’, and ‘should have some signature festivals’… What can I say, we have a hipster mayor, who lives in Silver Lake, grows his organic garden, posts on Reddit, practices Yoga, drives an electric car and loves rave parties… Downtown can say bye bye to its quietude, a big rave is coming brought to you by the duo Carter-Garcetti.
