It’s been a LONG time since there was hype like this about an EDC stage design. EDC always has excellent production, but the designs of the larger stages are a bit forgettable. For festivals like Tomorrowland and Ultra you can pretty quickly match the main stage design with the year, but EDC stages tend to blend over the years. It’s always some inflatable owl or goddess in the center with an array of columns on either side. This year, however, EDC is hinting at coming full circle to a design that is the most beloved in EDC history.
Pasquale Rotella took to social media to announce this year’s EDC theme: kineticCIRCLE. On its own, there isn’t much to get hyped about, but there are two things that make this tantalizing indeed. First, Pasquale talks about “the idea that everything in life eventually comes full circle”. Then the graphic shows the unmistakable arches that define the legendary 2014 Cathedral Stage. The design of the theme logo itself has almost nothing to do with circles, so there must be a deeper connection between the logo and the theme.
You see, back in 2014 EDC matured as a festival to the point where it would create an epic mainstage design for Las Vegas, and then condense the design down for EDC’s satellite events around the world (at the time). Before that, each EDC would have its own set of stages that were all pretty pedestrian by today’s standards. The very first main stage to travel across multiple EDC festivals was the Cathedral Stage. It is also the most beloved because it is the grandest in scale, a truly gargantuan stage that was towering in height but also vast. When EDC announced plans to tour with it, fans were ecstatic. This trend has continued to this very day, where EDC now brings mostly the entire full-sized Las Vegas mainstage with it to EDC Orlando and EDC Mexico.
The comments on Instagram and Facebook show how excited the fans are at the possibility of a rework of the Cathedral Stage. While Tomorrowland and Ultra Music Festival have reworked and updated past beloved mainstage designs, this would be the first time EDC updates a classic design. Needless to say, we are seriously hoping that this is the case and we can’t wait to see the final product.
