In this week’s #EDCTales, our hero struggles to get through Night 3, has some unexpected surprises (good & bad), and finally gets his little people…
Sunday afternoon came and I was hurting. It wasn’t the worst pain I had felt – I did run around once with a tumor blocking my intestines. I felt the mileage I had put on this meat sack. We were almost there, so I took the usual things to alleviate the pains, and we got dressed for Night 3.
I was going lowkey costume wise this night – DJ Santa, purple shorts and boot covers, and a Santa hat. It was about being as comfortable as possible. The Art Director was equally comfortable, but was also feeling the effects of our previous activities. We had logged something like 40k steps the previous two days. She was aching and I hate to see her hurt.
We got off late, but still arrived in very good time. As we walked in, it was a slower pace. But we did take time to shoot a video for Heather. Heather is a cunt and just a horrible person, but sometimes I see things that remind me of her. I miss seeing her (not the smell) and others.
One of the things about my amazing life is the amazing friends I lovingly refer to as the Degenerates. Let’s face it – without them, I am an old dude with a Christmas fetish. Sharing these unbelievable moments with others is what this thing called life is all about. Several of my friends who I wanted to share this with weren’t able to go this year – including MY Wendy, as well as the younger, hotter, blacker version of myself, Mamba.
As my mind began to make its way to melancholy, we made our way down the stairs to the event. Suddenly, I heard the music coming from the Cosmic Meadow stage. Suddenly, I was no longer anything but at peace. This music was causing a life changing moment. The melodic beauty revealed the beauty in this and every moment. I was moved to my core.
What was it? I will reveal this to you, in hopes that you too will be forever changed by it:
My spirit renewed and my soul cleansed, the Art Director and I made our way to find our little nuggets of humanity – The Mini Bar. I had looked at the map with more sober eyes and determined that we needed to take a different path. And soon we came to Downtown EDC and HOLY FUCK BALLS THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE HERE! We were going to check out the Mini Bar, just mere feet from us – but the crowd was not going to make that easy. We knew how to get there and decided to go to our meeting spot.
One of the things I love about Insomniac is that they love Burning Man art. When a piece is done at That Thing In The Desert, it will often find a home at one of the other festivals. One of these pieces was the Flower Tower, a beautiful metal structure that spit fire into the air – making it easy to find if the searcher was “altered”. We sat around the Flower Tower and waited for our crew to show up.
In the crowd was a totem that I recognized. A totem is some kind of signal for others to find you in crowds. This particular totem was the familiar face of a certain Degenerate that has seen many genitals thrust in it… both the face and the totem. It was Glory Hole Tran and holding it up was a wild muthafucking Mamba. He had come and was hanging with Beltran. Sadly Beltran’s better half, JoJo, wasn’t feeling good and was not partaking in this night.
Seriously, listen to that song again – it will make things magically happen!
Our fellowship was joined by Wendy and her friends. We decided that it was time to do some serious Mamba Shit. The Art Director also decided that Mamba Shit was going to include a trip later to the Mini Bar, but not tell him where we were going.
First stop was to see Tritonal. We made our way to the stage with Mamba leading our Degen Rave Train. Unfortunately, the Degen Rave Train was in the middle of multiple other rave trains and a sea of people were crushing us. This might be fun under certain circumstances, but the claustrophobia was overwhelming so we rave trained out way out of the crowd. Thankfully we have tickets to see Tritonal at Area 15 (who don’t pay me to talk about them, but really should.)
We made our way to the Circuit Grounds stage to see Zhu. Now THAT was a good decision! I first saw Zhu during the lockdown and really enjoyed him. This was some next level stuff. If so inclined check it out on YouTube. And I also saw the best totem ever.
But we had to drag ourselves away from Zhu to see the third and final set from Vintage Culture. Vintage Culture throws a lot of disco into their sets which amps up the vibe to a crowd that didn’t live through that. And even us old kandi enjoyed bouncing around. Met a some folks from the UK who were attending their first EDC.
Alright- time for some midgets! We left after Vintage Culture and made our way to Downtown EDC. We got to the Mini Bar and went inside. There were three little people behind the bar serving water downed drinks. They were also setting up for a little person band to play with tiny drum set and mic stands. Unfortunately, it was very hot inside so we left.
We made our way around to a few more sets, but I realized at some point that I had lost my phone. I say it was “lost”, despite losing the item from Night 1, I was very paranoid the following nights. I was constantly checking my pockets for my keys, my ID, my other packages, and my phone. But I had also been through a lot of crowds… so maybe it wasn’t an accident… not that anyone would want an old Galaxy phone.
As with a lof of other issues, it was a problem for Future Randy. We settled in at Kinetic Field and watched the fireworks go off. This was the closing ceremonies. The sun was beginning to tint the sky. EDC was coming to a close.
I stood there with the love of my life in front, arms around some of the closest friends I have ever had in my life. The music playing over the crowd echoed my thoughts and brought me to tears:
If the world is going sideways
I know my place is here with you
When all our good nights turn to dark days
I know I’ll stay next to you
When your hope’s gone, can barely hold on
When your sky is running out of blue
When the world is going sideways
I’ll be sideways, sideways here with you
I got it all. I got this whole EDC, PLUR, kandi, rave booty, etc… I got it all. Seventeen years to the day earlier, I got that other festival. But I have come a long way since then. I needed that then, just as I needed this now.
The sun was up, the music had stopped. It was time to go back to the real world. We gave hugs to Mamba & Beltran who were off on their next adventures. We made our way down the streets of EDC. My mind began-
WHAT!? YOU THINK WE’RE DONE? OH NOES MUTHAFUCKER! WE AIN’T STOPPING YET! FUCK REFLECTING! WE’RE TAKING THIS SHIT SHOW INTO OVERTIME! WE’RE DONE WHEN *I* SAY WE’RE DONE. YOU GOT THAT! SAY MY FUCKING NAME!!!
And the next installment – EDC Day 3.5: Camp EDC, and “Dude, where the fuck is my car?!”