π
2025-04-25 01:01
in Clubbing, Edc, Festivals
Why EDC Korea? No, no, it's not quite a case of "collect them all", although, is it? :) The actual answer is that I enjoy travelling the world through festivals and getting to meet fellow EDM and Trance lovers around the world. Every country has their own customs and flair, and it's nice to see PLUR around the world indeed.
Kinetic field looked a lot like EDCLV!
Stereo Bloom:
Circuit Grounds:
Bionic Jungle:
Boom Box:
The shuttle situation was not ideal. At the time I bought tickets, or my hotel, there were no shuttles listed on the frontgate website. Maybe the shuttles were on the other korean only website, but I never heard about any until a few days before the event, by which time it was too late to matter. It was unfortunate that there was no shuttle going around the local hotels close to the venue. They were only a 5 to 10mn drive away, but it was a 30 to 45mn walk in frigid cold. Using taxis/ubers did not work well as there were not enough and once the few that were available, drove away to a farther hotel, people left over without one, were kind of screwed. I personally chose to leave early and miss part of the show not to get stuck, which was not ideal either. The fireworks at the end of the last day were really nice, but I only saw them a little bit through the taxi window.
Korea law on tickets is a bit unusual (for instance it's somewhat illegal to resell tickets), so it's probably because of that that EDC had separate ticket selling sites for Koreans (interpark) and foreigners (frontgate). Not an issue, really, just interesting. The one downside is that it was difficult to resell a ticket if you couldn't go since you had to go pick up your bracelet in person and only could resell it to someone else, there, and that was maybe not even legal:
VIP didn't really feel worth it. There were viewing areas for most stages, but they were off center quite a bit, and I didn't really see any other benefits. For instance, it was disappointing that they didn't have a bunch of gas heat lamps in VIP, huge opportunity lost. For the most part there weren't any places to sit either or a VIP concierge with cool trinkets, or nice bathrooms in most VIP areas. This is probably the first insomniac festival I went to where VIP really didn't feel worth it.
Security was reasonable outside of taking people's unopened packs of gum, and a few things like that.
Food options were good and took real money (credit cards). All good on that front. Drinks worked the same, no issues outside of water, see below...
No water refills? This was both surprising and disappointing for an insomniac event, but apparently the only water source was a single plastic bottle vendor, which claims that they are recyclable, but given that we've been lied too about plastic being recycled for the last 20+ years and most of it ends up in landfills or the ocean, I'm not going to take their word for it. More generally, what happened to water refills, especially in a 1st world country where tap water is drinkable?
This next comment is not just for this EDC, but also for EDC Vegas and others. I realize the line is fine in which advertisers and sponsors to allow. This is the same problem google had and eventually settled with Sergey's "don't be evil" motto and google not allowing any advertiser that was considered to sell evil things. I'd like insomniac to consider the same thing, and a quick search returns "No, Google Ads does not allow advertising of vape products, including e-cigarettes and e-liquids. Google classifies these products as "Dangerous Products or Services" and prohibits their promotion on Google Ads and other platforms it owns or controls. This policy also extends to Google Shopping listings." as well as "Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), Facebook Ads, and most other major platforms do not allow electronic cigarettes and vape products to advertise on their site". Now that some vape vendors have even been caught adding even more addictive synthetic chemicals in their vapes to make them even more addictive, does Insomniac really want to be linked to this?
As mentioned above, the entire festival went well, was well layed out, production quality was good and things went well for an event that was first time in that location (the last EDC Korea in 2019 was in another location). The one thing that felt short in my opinion was the VIP experience, but everything else was quite good given again that it was pretty much a "first time" thing.
Now, was this EDC remotely close to EDC Vegas? Of course not, nothing is. Even EDC Mexico definitely felt bigger and better if you wanted to travel to another EDC outside of the Vegas one, but EDC Korea still went well and was lots of fun outside of the cold. If you're in Asia or it's an easy flight, EDC Korea definitely is worth going to. If it's not an easy flight but you wanted an excuse to go visit Korea, which is very much worth visiting (that was my case), it's also a very good reason to go. The koreans at EDC were all lovely and fun to be with (as opposed to my recent report on Ultra Miami where PLUR was somewhat lacking, for instance).
Thanks to everyone who welcomed us (both the local korean trance family and EDM lovers, and the insomniac crews and entertainers)!
More pictures on Google Photos
Instagram Stories
Video Summary
so glad to see the ever cheerful and colorful insomniac entertainers
and we had a meetup with the international EDC crew :)
The Grounds... How was EDC in Asia and how does it compare with EDCLV, EDCMX, and EDC Orlando?
So let's get this out of the way first in case that wasn't already obvious: nothing in the world compares with EDC Las Vegas, as far as "wow" factor goes, and that includes the other EDC editions, that are lovely, but simply not as big. I haven't been to every EDC location, but I do believe EDC Mexico, which I did go to, is the 2nd largest, and this one probably ranks 3rd in size, just a bit ahead of EDC Orlando. No idea about EDC China since I'm still not sure about going there, and if anyone has been to EDC Thailand this year, I'd also be curious to know. Footprint-wise, the event was pretty big, but it also had some dead space in the middle and hills that were a bit of a pain to navigate. The ground was also uneven and somehow wet in places despite no rain, that was a bit weird. But we got the stages we are used to, and they were top notch.
beautiful
how on earth did they survive, wearing this?
that was the shortest the line ever was, it got much much longer later
felt a bit weird that they were combined :)
the fire from the statue was a good place to be a big warmer in the siberia-like cold :)
EDM Lovers in Korea and Asia
So I need to admit that the event wasn't packed. It ran from 17:00 to 03:00 and few people were there before sunset despite the weather not being vegas like and already cold during the day (for Vegas, you don't really want to go before sunset). I have no idea if enough people came to cover the costs the of the event, but if so, it was close, at best. But the crowds that did come were dedicated. There were a good amount of professional kandi traders who made the event even more fun, and enough people who came with cool costumes despite the cold. Thanks to all of you.
Plus a few pictures with friends:
Blaztoyz!
PvD!
G.O.
Marlo
The 2 days of festival
The first day, I opened the window of the hotel and thought "mmmmh, it's a bit cold, I'll put an extra layer between my t-shirt and my LED shirt (in blue in this picture):
Kataklops!
great trance from Casepeat
and my friend Kataploks
Giuseppe Ottaviani
Paul Van Dyk
Marlo
Thought/Impressions/Suggestions/Conclusion
In somewhat random order:
Links
See more images for My First EDC in Asia and First Festival in Korea! And the Very Coldest :)