Thanks to Pasquale Rotella, the founder and creator of Insomniac Events, music fans have been able to experience festivals curated by one of the largest and most renowned electronic dance music (EDM) companies in the world. Over the past couple decades, Pasquale Rotella has dedicated himself to organizing legendary music festivals – and the massive popularity of Insomniac events scattered across the globe is evidence of their success. Recognized as one of the original pioneers of EDM culture, Rotella has helped create a legacy of some of the best EDM music festivals in the nation.
Favored and long-term running Insomniac events like Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) have made a great impact within the global EDM community. What started off inside the underground warehouses of Los Angeles back in the 90s has evolved into a more respected collective of music events that involve much more than a mere three hundred people dancing inside a musty warehouse.
History of Insomniac
Rotella told “Forbes” magazine about how his love of the underground sparked the creation of Insomniac. “The death of the underground scene and my love for it is why I started Insomniac and why Insomniac exists today,” he said. One of the first Insomniac events to bless the world of EDM was Nocturnal Wonderland back in 1995. This two-day event (that quickly became a three-day event from 2011-2016) became one of the longest running festival brands to ever hit the scene to this day. Providing a series of stages with around 60 different artists and DJs of favored genres like techno, bass and house music, Nocturnal Wonderland was a huge hit for fresh 90s festivalgoers following the scene.
The cultural influences that initially stemmed from the underground dance music scene in Los Angeles soon reached new heights within the community. Driven by this need to provide the ultimate experience, Rotella and the team behind Insomniac Events were committed to transforming the way people would go about experiencing these new music festivals.
What began with hundreds of people in a small space filled with an assorted display of neon-colored mushrooms has now transformed into crowds of thousands lining up all year to experience a major audiovisual event. Now offering more than just a couple flashing LED lights and some basic in-house synthesizers, the festival’s years of low-quality surround systems and underwhelming stage production are finally over.
Insomniac continued to deliver top-tiered music festivals, and it wasn’t too long after that they followed up with another unforgettable signature event. Electric Daisy Carnival hit the scene hard, and by 2010, it welcomed one of its biggest crowds in LA. An estimated 185,000 attendees filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The demand for the event grew bigger each year, and the California EDM fest soon had to relocate to the Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, EDC is by far one of the biggest and most renowned EDM festivals in the world.
Rotella explained to “Forbes” that his own role as a fan plays a huge part in the growth of Insomniac:
“I’m doing it for everyone that’s coming to the shows, but I believe that as an uber fan of the culture and the music that if I keep looking forward and tapping into my own soul and what excites me that other people will understand that. I hope that they understand that. They have so far. It keeps growing, It’s that simple.”
Pasquale Rotella has successfully created some of the most beautiful and loving communities that have helped define the true essence of this often misunderstood culture. Rotella has earned multiple spots on Billboard Power 100 for three consecutive years as well as being credited as the No. 1 most powerful person in EDM by inthemix (and the second most important person in EDM by Rolling Stone). Thanks to his commitment to curating the ultimate experience and providing an all-loving environment for the community, his reputation remains well-respected within the music community.
We can thank Pasquale Rotella for these popular events
Nocturnal Wonderland
Electric Daisy Carnival
Electric Forest Festival
Escape Halloween
Audiotistic Festival
DreamState SoCal
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