November 23, 2012 A message was sent to me by a young DJ here in Missoula who's name I'll withhold from this article. It reads:
"Aaron,
Is it me or are promoters, more so EDM (Electronic Dance Music) promoters, just plain snobby, rude, and clique-ish? I ask you this because I know you were once deep into the rave scene and also have a vast knowledge of how party promotions in Montana work.
Electric Daisy Carnival is an annual electronic dance music festival that was originally held in Southern California from 1997 to 2010, then moved to Las Vegas in 2011, and expanded to MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands of New Jersey in 2012. Talk about constant downgrades.
April 24, 2012 "..it's over. Nobody listens to techno!"- Eminem
And just like that, the scene ended. Once the song "Without Me" hit the airwaves back in the early 2000's, you'd swear it was the nail in the coffin for the underground American rave scene. Time to hang up the JNCO jeans, the teddy bear back packs, and spit out the glow stick mouthpiece. For the next 10 years the music scene had shifted from peace, love, unity, and respect (or "P.L.U.R" as old-skool ravers lovingly put it) to sex, money, cars, and clothes. A full decade of white boys acting hard. Thank God that scene is all but over now.
Fast forward to 2012, and the Missoula County Fairgrounds is the scene of history practically repeating itself. The backpacks, check. The glow sticks, check. JNCO wide bottom jeans? Let's just leave those behind, shall we? Animal Nite 2012, a rave (scratch that, we can't say "rave" anymore. It draws too much negative attention), er, "Electronic Dance Music Festival" was brimming with the same excitement as the events that were held so many years ago. Everything is just as it was, but not without a few modernized changes..
