It's bad enough when you've got to figure out which music festival you're going to drop a lot of money on this summer. It's worse when two music festivals appealing to the same fan base are going down on the same day. It's the worst when both of those music festivals are going on within 100 miles of each other. Such is the case between the Electric Daisy Carnival New York and the Mysteryland Festival, which are both going down this Memorial Day weekend.
Electric Daisy, like the Super Bowl, won't actually be in New York, but rather MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. A hundred miles north in Bethel, NY (the site of the original Woodstock), the first American incarnation of Mysteryland festival will be going on at the same time.
It's not exactly an accident. Mysteryland is under the umbrella of SFX, a promoter specializing in the EDM scene, and a promoter that's been pushing the buttons of its competition in recent weeks (see the lawsuit that may be aiming to steal Electric Forest from AEG). Daisy is a fairly well-established event in the New York area, and SFX may be trying to steal customers from Insomniac's Electric Daisy Carnival and dissuade other companies from coming on its turf. SFX also partially operates Electric Zoo in New York City.
If anything's going to give Electric Daisy the win, it won't be proximity to the city or the acts performing: It will be the age difference. Mysteryland is sticking with a strict 21-and-over age limit, whereas Daisy will be 18-and-over. Those three years will bring a large number of college students to Electric Daisy.
Both events will have stellar lineups. Mysteryland is packing Steve Aoki, Nicky Romero, Kaskade and Moby into its weekend. Electric Daisy will throw Tiësto, Calvin Harris, Hardwell and Afrojack at its fans. So go with your heart, NY EDM fans.
