Dance Music & DJ's. . . Incredible!

Hi Jennifer & Friends: I don't think young people know what a recession is, because it certainly doesn't stop them from dancing, or maybe they just don't care.

This past weekend, North America's largest dance music festival, Electric Daisy Carnival, packed in more than 135,000 people over two days at the L.A. Coliseum and Expo Park, topping the producer's anticipated numbers by more than 30,000. Proving again that dance music (and massive parties) are in high demand in Los Angeles. Hoards of teenagers and 20-somethings paid anywhere from $55 to $200 to experience over 100 performers, plus art installations and a carnival atmosphere. (For those of you doing the math in your head that's between 7 & 10 million dollars, on the low end, just in ticket sales! Holy shmoly!)

But in LA sometimes really big crowds of young people is dangerous. Event producer Pasquale Rotella and his crew at Insomniac pulled off an event of staggering size and complexity, but EDC was not without its chaotic moments, as waves of gate-crashers sometimes clashed with police and forced the fire marshal to temporarily stop the event at one point. Even in the face of Insomniac's impeccable production values and organizational efforts, the party-going masses proved that they had power to both make up and shake up the dance music festival.

Jennifer, I had no idea that dance music and the producers of this ever growing event style industry was so popular. The stages, the sound system and technology, not to mention the light shows and pyrotechnics are amazing. Putting on these shows is just like booking a touring band and promoting it. These DJ's have semi's that haul all the equipment and stages as well as stage managers and roadies who keep it all straight. What I find so interesting is the money involved for people mainstream America has never heard of. Like me!

Who are these dance, DJ, music producing people anyway? Benny Benassi, Oakenfold, David Guetta, Infected Mushroom, Simian Mobile Disco, Paul van Dyk, . . . . ! I've never heard of them but to young people they're God's! They sign autographs and have security guards to protect them from their adoring fans. Seriously, they arrive in limo's and have an entourage.

So, the way I see it, disco isn't dead! It's alive and well and growing rapidly. It's also not disco anymore. Well, its kinda' like disco but it's all dressed up with confetti cannons and really cool stuff.

It's funny how when cultural things change they have a tendency to come back the same only different. But they do come back.

Lynn Los Angeles, CA