From Coachella to EDC: The Electric Sky is Waiting

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Pack up the flower crowns and pull our some kandi y’all because it’s time to dance under the electric sky. Three nights. Three sunrises. Hundreds of thousands of people. A skyline of kinetic art installations and carnival rides spinning under the stars.

If you’ve never been, let me tell you: nothing fully prepares you for the first time you walk through that hill at the speedway and see it all laid out below you: stages glowing in every direction, fireworks bursting overhead, bass you feel in your bones before you even hear it. As prepared as I thought I was last year, I definitely wasn’t. Here’s a list of tips I wish I had to better prepare myself.

01 — Essentials: Pack Like Your Life Depends On It

EDC is an overnight festival — gates open at sunset and the last set drops around sunrise. That means you’re dealing with desert heat, then desert cold, then the weird electric energy of 5am when everyone’s still going. Your bag needs to respect all of it to keep you going.

👟 Comfortable shoes. You will walk 10+ miles per night on asphalt. Cute sandals are a trap. Break in your shoes before you go.

🧴 Sunscreen + body glitter. The daytime entry hours are brutal if you do decide to go while the sun is still up.

🎒 A solid small bag.Fanny pack or mini backpack. Check EDC’s bag policy — they mean it. No hard-sided bags.

💧Hydration. Is. EVERYTHING. Empty reusable water bottle. Hydration pack if you can. Free water stations are everywhere!

🧥 Layers for the cold. Don’t forget this is still the desert. It get’s pretty damn cold.

Fleece-lined leggings — pretty compact, easy to pack, keeps you warm AND is practical festival fashion
Emergency thermal blankets also come in clutch since they’re super tiny to pack. See: me and my bestie as we become burritos at 3am

🔋 Portable charger. You’ll need your phone for photos, set times, and finding your crew. Keep that bad boy alive.

Anker Laptop Power Bank, 25,000mAh Portable Charger with Triple 100W USB-C Ports – kinda chunky but also has enough juice for the whole squad and probably even for the whole weekend without needing to recharge
Anker Nano MagSafe Power Bank, Ultra-Slim 5,000mAh Magnetic Battery Pack – I personally carry this one around because my bags are teenie tiny
Anker MagGo Power Bank, Ultra-Slim 10,000mAh Magnetic Battery Pack – a little thicker than my own, but also twice the stored power

🎧 Ear protection. High-fidelity earplugs let you hear everything clearly while protecting your hearing. Non-negotiable if you’re near the stage. We’re old. We don’t want tinnitus.

I adore my Loop Experience 2 Plus earplugs.
Eargasm High Fidelity Blue Earplugs are also an excellent choice

💊 First aid basics. Ibuprofen, bandaids, antacids, allergy meds, any prescriptions you take. The medical tents are staffed and judgment-free– also likely ravers themselves.

Pro tip: Write your phone number on your arm in Sharpie. It sounds old school. It has reunited more lost crews than any app ever will.

02 — How to Actually Survive (and Thrive)

GET SOME SLEEP. Don’t be like me and think you can hit up the day clubs every day too. Pace yourself.
Plan loosely, wander freely. Know the two or three sets you absolutely cannot miss. Everything else? Let the music pull you. Some of my best EDC memories are from stages I stumbled into by accident. Shoutouts to DJ Snake’s hip hop set last year.
Set a crew meeting spot and a check-in time. You will probably get separated. Cell service kinda sucks. Agree on a landmark and a time to reconnect.
Eat before you go in. Food on-site exists, but lines are long and prices are festival-priced. A real meal before gates open will carry you further than you think. I’m pretty sure I also got tip scammed a few times because I’ve had the server turn the kiosk away from me immediately after I paid and before I saw the tip screen, so be careful of those too.
Stop and look up. The art installations, the carnival rides, the fireworks, the stage designs — EDC spends millions on the visual experience. Take it in. Put your phone down for a minute and just be there.

03 — PLUR: It’s Not Just a Saying

If you’re new to rave culture, P(eace) L(ove) U(nity) R(espect) is the north star of the community, the four principles that have shaped how ravers treat each other since the early days. At EDC, you’ll see it everywhere: in how strangers share water, help lost people find their friends, and dance together in complete joy with no agenda. It’s not cheesy. It’s actually kind of cute when strangers adopt you because you got lost.

The PLUR handshake is a whole ritual — fingers, hands, wrists, hearts — and kandi trading is how you make it physical. Kandi (those colorful beaded bracelets) are made to be given away. When someone offers you one, you do the handshake, you trade, you carry a little piece of a stranger with you for the rest of the night.

Tl;dr: be kind, be present, look out for each other. It’s really not more complicated than that.

EDC is unlike anything else on the festival calendar. It’s not about the headliner lineup or the influencer sightings or the Instagram moments. It’s about three nights under a sky full of fireworks, surrounded by people who all came to feel something big together. It’s loud and overwhelming but also completely, utterly worth it. Just make sure you get some goddamn sleep.

Pack your kandi. Charge your powerbanks. Stay hydrated. Maybe prep with your vitamins now because my ass caught COVID-19 last year. Find a stranger to dance with at 4am. Be safe and I’ll see you under the electric sky.

Follow me on Instagram to keep up with my travels!! www.instagram.com/improbablykrys/

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Have questions or tips to add? Drop them in the comments below!

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