REVIEW — “Under The Electric Sky”

Under the Electric Sky is a documentary, directed by Dan Cutforth (Katy Perry: Part of Me) about the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), a music festival in Las Vegas that focuses on various types of electronic dance music. The footage for the film is from the Las Vegas festival in 2013. That year over 300,000 dance music fans attended EDC over 3 days to dance and ride carnival rides from 7pm to 5:30 am.

Ok, people. I’m warning you right now that this is the most biased review that I’ll ever write. I have personally attended the festival six times and I always have the time of my life. Some of the most magical memories I own take place under the electric sky. I’ll do my best to be objective for you guys but I’m not making any promises.

Under the Electric Sky shows audiences what EDC is by presenting it through the perspective of those who produce it but mainly by those who attend. Some are first time attendees and some are seasoned veterans of the festival. Each of their individual stories begins with their background and home life then leads up to their journey to and at the music festival. The film does a great job at showing all of the different types of people who are drawn to the festival

For all you EDC attendees, this movie is a dream come true. You know who you are, trying to cope with the other 362 days of the year that you AREN’T at EDC by scouring YouTube for HD festival footage. I promise that Under the Electric Sky is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Dan Cutforth is no stranger to directing large scale music documentaries and perfectly captures the beauty and euphoria of the festival and its attendees.

My only complaint is that the film focused too entirely on the “experience”. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed re-living all of my most cherished EDC moments, I hoped that it would be more informative. I was disappointed that there wasn’t more behind the scenes information on how the festival gets produced. Like how much money and labor it takes to put on an event of this size? Where they get all of the materials? All we get, as far as the planning process goes, is Insomniac’s CEO, Pasquale Rotella, pointing at some small scale stages and saying things like  “I want more fire!”, followed by his team saying that they would make it happen.

If you have attended EDC in the past or have any interest in dance music, Under the Electric Sky is a must-see. And if you aren’t, I think it’s still worth seeing in the theater. I brought, 2 sisters, 2 friends and 1 grandmother all 5 of them had a blast watching the movie. The film is incredibly energetic and the next best thing to experiencing the largest party in North America.

4.5/5 Stars