During EDC week the pool parties stop being the main event and become the afterparty. The festival itself runs overnight at the Motor Speedway, well off the Strip, and the dayclubs fill the daylight hours either side of it with the same artists, on a schedule that runs several hours later than normal all week.
When it lands
A week in mid May, with dates set by the promoter each year.
What is different about this weekend
The same venues, the same city, behaving differently enough to be worth planning around.
The schedule inverts
The festival runs from dusk until sunrise. People sleep through the morning and arrive at the pools in the afternoon, so the usual pool timetable shifts later for the whole week.
Every dayclub runs a separate programme
EDC week lineups are announced apart from the regular residency calendar, usually a few weeks ahead, and they sell separately too. The regular weekly schedule effectively does not apply.
The most expensive week that is not a holiday
Rooms, tables and transport all price as though it were a holiday weekend, because in practice it is one, stretched over five days rather than four.
How the weekend runs
- The festival dates come from the promoter, normally announced the previous autumn. Everything else in the week is scheduled around them.
- The pool parties on the days between festival nights sell out first, because that is when everyone is awake and in town.
- The Speedway is a long way from the Strip and the journey back at sunrise is the part people underestimate.
- There is a smaller version in February. The halfway party runs under the heated dome at Marquee, which is how a pool party happens in Las Vegas in winter.
Getting in
- Festival tickets and pool party tickets are entirely separate purchases. Having one gives you nothing at the other.
- Book the pool days you actually want early. EDC week is the one stretch of the season where a mid-week afternoon sells like a Saturday.
- Plan the transport before the tickets. Getting to the Speedway and back is the logistics problem of the week, not getting into a pool.
The pools that run it
Every Strip dayclub opens for this one. These are the rooms, with what we last confirmed about each.
What has changed since the last time you read about this
The archive covers EDC week from 2013 onward, and the venue list has turned over completely: Daylight, Surrender and the Hard Rock pool all ran it then and none of them run it now. Marquee Dayclub, Encore Beach Club, Tao Beach and Palm Tree Beach Club, which is the MGM Grand deck that used to be Wet Republic, are the rooms that carry it today.
Why there are no prices on this page
Door and table rates for this occasion are set per venue, change every year, and are usually announced a few weeks out. Publishing last year’s numbers would be worse than publishing none. Each venue page carries what we have actually confirmed, alongside the date we confirmed it.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need festival tickets to enjoy EDC week?
No, and plenty of people come for the week without ever going to the Speedway. The daytime programme is a genuine festival of its own by that point.
When are the dates announced?
Usually the previous autumn, by the promoter. Nothing on this site can tell you earlier than they do, and anything claiming to know before the announcement is guessing.
Is it a good week for a first Vegas trip?
Only if the music is the reason for the trip. It is the most expensive, most crowded and least representative week of the season.
Check what is actually open today
Opening days and hours move through the season. The live list is the one to trust over anything written months ahead, this page included.
