What it's like to attend Electric Daisy Carnival, one of America's biggest electronic music dance parties

Adi Adinayev for Insomniac

One of the world's biggest electronic dance festivals returned to New York this weekend. A wildly popular experience that started in Los Angeles and then moved to Las Vegas, Electric Daisy Carnival brought in over 79,000 visitors to New York's Citi Field Saturday and Sunday.

EDC is known for its whimsical themes: attendees dressed in bold costumes, rode a brightly-lit Ferris wheel and other carnival rides, and danced underneath a giant, stylized owl face that decorated the main stage. Each of the four stages, in fact, was a veritable light show — and, there were fireworks.

For legendary trance DJ Ferry Corsten, who's been in the business for over two decades and plays over 100 shows a year, EDC is still one of the biggest festivals around. This weekend, he brought his trance project Gouryella to the stage.

"What I like about EDC is that they always put a lot of effort into production," Corsten told Business Insider. "It's quite visual-driven."

Business Insider checked out the sprawling festival, where four stages hosted big-name DJs like Zedd, Kaskade, and Afrojack alongside up-and-comers like Alison Wonderland and Marshmello. As guests of Jägermeister, we got to have the full EDC experience. Tickets started at $119 for one day of access. 

Take a look at the weekend's adventure below.

During the day, the festival was a riot of activity and spectacle.

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Face and body painting were popular, and attractions like a ball pit and carnival rides kept partygoers entertained.

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As electronic dance music (EDM) and the accompanying festivals have blown up over the past few years, the music has had a tendency to be "very much bro music for the dudes out there," Corsten said.

Adi Adinayev for Insomniac

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