Electric Daisy Carnival Kicks Off: Is Las Vegas America's Answer to Ibiza?

Swedish House Mafia Las Vegas is known internationally for its casinos and hotels, but the city is fast becoming Mecca for 35-and-under dance music fans hell-bent on hedonistic thrills set to a pulsing soundtrack -- day and night. Look no further than this weekend's Electric Daisy Carnival, where headliners Tiësto, Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta are expected to draw as many as 300,000 people.

While Los Angeles and Miami have traditionally been America's hotspots for international DJs to drop in and play for thousands, now more than ever, it's Las Vegas where the fans are at -- and the DJs, if the money's right.

"The volume [of bookings in Vegas] is just incredible," Joel Zimmerman, a booking agent for William Morris' music division who specializes in dance talent, tells THR. "The amount [billed] compared to last year for us in Vegas is up 1600% percent." Zimmerman adds that between festival bookings, residencies and one-offs, some 500,000 fans are expected to partake in dance music-themed events in Vegas annually.

"Attendance levels are also up around 150%," says Zimmerman, who boasts a robust talent roster at the recently formed William Morris Electronic, which features top European names such as Sweden's Axwell and Germany's Boys Noize.

Hotels such as Vegas' The Wynn and hot new City Center-adjacent The Cosmopolitan are reaping the benefits of fanatical dance music tourists as well, and profiting as a result. Several ancillary daytime events tangentially related to EDC are taking place at both hotels' pools, and the Cosmopolitan is officially sold out this weekend and packed with festival goers. In fact, the demand for hotel rooms has driven up the prices so dramatically on EDC weekend that the going rate for the two-star Comfort Inn way off the Vegas Strip is $300 on Saturday night.

So what's behind the recent upswing in bookings and attendance in Sin City? The reasons are myriad, but as dance music's popularity has swelled, Las Vegas, more than Los Angeles, appears ready to make a bid to be America's answer to the Spanish resort island known for orgiastic all-night club sessions. "The parallel to Ibiza is the transient nature of the market," says Zimmerman.

And for the DJs who frequently play Las Vegas to visiting tourists, the city is increasingly a cash cow. Names such as Paul Oakenfold and Kaskade embraced high-paying residencies at various high-profile nightspots in the city a few years ago, and fans responded in kind, prompting rival casino-hotel hybrids to book their own residencies with top names in an effort to compete.