It's estimated that around 345,000 EDM fanatics packed the recent Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas a few weekends ago, which was 100,000 more than attended the year prior.
It's an impressive figure to be sure, dwarfed only by an even bigger number: The millions of disappointed souls who didn't get to go and had to be content with merely listening to audio streams, reading extensive blog coverage, or jealously sifting through hundreds of thousand of gleeful tweets from those in attendance.
It's these same disappointed electronica fans that the folks at Live Nation are hoping will eagerly snatch up tickets to this summer's Identity Festival, a touring EDM extravaganza that will hit 15 cities nationwide, including a stop at Phoenix's Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion on August 19.
The summer-long tour is the latest move by the concert-promoting giant to grab its slice of the multimillion-dollar electronic music pie. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino was recently quoted by Billboard as saying that EDM is "the most exciting thing to happen to live music in 20 years" and that the corporation is making many inroads into the scene.
As such, in the past year they've formed a new EDM-specific division (Live Nation Electronic), bought up both British electronica event Creamfields and Dutch festival Sensation, and are backing Kaskade's "Freaks of Nature" tour this summer.
But whatever qualms one might have about Live Nation's attempts to rule the EDM world, you have to admit that their lineup for the Identity Festival features a pretty impressive lineup of performers. While it naturally isn't as star-studded as EDC, Live Nation has so far booked a good cross-section of DJs, producers, and electronica artists representing a diverse range of genres for the Identity Festival.
It includes many cats who pulled sets at this year's editions of both EDC and Coachella, such as London drum 'n' bass duo Nero, Netherlands-born duo Bingo Players, and electro-house wizard Porter Robinson.
House music gurus Wolfgang Gartner and Paul van Dyk (recently listed as one of the richest DJs in the world) are also on board for the tour, as are hardstyle twosome Showtek, remix king Eric Prydz, hipster favorite Le CastleVania, and French electropop producer Madeon.
Naturally, there will also be plenty of dubstep (natch) blasted eardrums during tour stops, courtesy of a bevy of bass-loving artists like Datsik, Doctor P., and Excision.
Better bring some earplugs along with your glowsticks and candy kid accessories if you plan on heading out to Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion when the festival rolls through town.
