Electric Daisy Carnival London 2013 - review

Main Image: Howard Hill

Following previous mammoth one-day music events Wireless Festival and Hard Rock Calling, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has certainly been gaining a reputation this year as London's best new outdoor events space.

Turning the corner to enter the latest soirée to take over the space, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), you're instantly wowed with the vast size, thrusting you straight into the 'kineticFIELD' arena. The main stage sits at the end of this huge grassy area, itself surround with the obligatory food, merchandise, and general festival convenience stalls. EDC is big from the off.

Arriving slightly later than planned we practically sprint to the front and catch the second half of Hardwell's set; which is laced with all the bounce, bass and drops we were hoping for from one of our must-see acts of the day.

Concerned not to peak to soon, we wander to the back of the kineticFIELD and head on the fairly lengthy trek to the festivals tented areas, including the bassPOD, cosmicMEADOW and neonGARDEN tents. Passing some rather intense fairground rides (a towering zip wire, an upside-down-vomit machine, you know the sort) we arrive at the opposite end of the event.

Littered with glittering, mirrored daisy constructions (a brand essential looking back at the previous EDC's in Las Vegas and New York), and wacky performers in bizarre tricycle type contraptions, there's a definite air of the bizarre. It all has a great feel, but doesn't detract from what we're really there for; some awesome music.

We instantly fall back on a name we’ve loved for years, knowing we can rely on Jack Beats to lace our step with that much needed spring. The lads don't disappoint with a cracking hi-octane electro set perfect for getting us in our dancing groove.

Just across from us Jaguar Skills is going down a riot, we stroll by but don't quite have the stomach for it. A packed tent would think us mad. Instead we drift towards to grooves of Danny Avila and Deniz Koyu, two artists we’d not encountered in the flesh previously, definitely emitting an air of cool in the neonGARDEN. 

We’re then drawn towards the main arena for Steve Angello. Reliable as ever, Steve's set is a wonderful ode to his Swedish House Mafia days, with some personal twists and slightly more filthy bleeps and basslines. Having edged our way to the front, we even get some audience participation during his finale of SHM's 'Don't You Worry Child' (watch the video below).

Not as it sounds, thousands of people jumping from the ground in unison to the rousing chorus was nothing short of euphoric. You also can't go wrong with some OTT confetti cannons. All this is leading nicely on to what for us was the main event; Avicii.

At the time (and currently) riding the chart tidal wave of another huge global smash, 'Wake Me Up', it's safe to say the crowd arrived for this. Concerned we may be in for a slightly, dare we say, cheesy set, Avicii really blew us away.

Raising the tempo and throwing in, our eyes at least, some unexpected curve balls such as Disclosure's 'White Noise', kept every one of us totally engaged. Finishing of course with his breakout track 'Levels', we couldn't be happier with the Swedish wonderkids performance.

Final act on the main stage is the legendary Tiesto. We’ll confess we only stayed for around twenty minutes from the start needing both a rest and then a stroll, but what we heard in honesty didn't draw us in quite like the previous three DJ's. Not that the other thousands of people pounding the turf felt the same however… 

We wander back to the tented area, diverted to spend some time watching the masterful Chuckie do his thing and catch the end of Sub Focus. After a quick power sit the only place to be is back in the main arena and returning to watch the event's finale with Tiesto.

It was actually brilliant to now be looking ahead from behind the crowd for this moment, the full spectacle ahead of us practically in wide screen. A volley of fireworks and epic cheering from the crowd; the day has most definitely been a success. 

Being its inaugural event in the UK, plus taking place at what is still a very new and untested location, overall the success of London's first Electric Daisy Carnival is undoubted. The Olympic Park is a truly wonderful location for a day like this, never once feeling crowded - unless you wanted it to.

The stark contrast of the Olympic village buildings and towers, tented arenas, leviathan main stage and quaint grassy area complete with postcard style rive and foliage, is all perfectly at odds with the pounding electronic music coming from all corners.

Line-up wise we couldn't have been happier; the variation was never too much to put you off exploring one of the tents just one more time.  We can't wait to see what daisy-shaped tricks they pull out of the bag next year.

EDC 2014 is now on sale. Head here for your EDC London tickets, or click the links below. 

Saturday EDC UK tickets // Sunday EDC UK tickets