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Ipse dixit: ... about the importance of artists at the massive events: "Talent means nothing."
Ipse dixit: "............ "At Burning Man, when I can't find my friends, I find 10 new friends." (from interview by Matt Oliver)
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Excerpts from OCWeekly
..................... Of course, it would be an understatement to say there was some interest" in what the founder of a hugely successful EDM juggernaut like Insomniac has to say on the state of the business behind mainstream music's latest cash cow. Some of his keys to throwing a successful EDM event were yawningly predictable (a great production team, the right venue and support from the city). But when it came time to discuss the importance of artists at these massive events, he threw the panel and all attendees in for a curve ball, with three simple words:"Talent means nothing."
"Burning Man doesn't have a lineup and it's successful,"says Rotella, while the rest of the panel threw out big names like Skrillex, Tiesto and Bassnector throughout the discussion.
Rotella says he doesn't see himself as a promoter.
He kept referring to when he first started, no one cared who the DJ was it was about the music.
"You didn't even know the lineup until you got to the party," Rotella says.
As new EDM festivals have emerged, he feels people are now seeing the same DJ play over and over again. Unlike like corporate, AEG Live or Live Nation-backed festivals, Rotella says Insomniac festivals are about bringing people for a once in a lifetime experience and production value, not a lineup filled with huge DJs. In an era were corporations are frantically buying out EDM promoters left and right to make a quick buck, it's no secret that we're in the wild west days of EDM. Rotella admitted that it is intimidating at times, but reinforced his motives. "People around me didn't start doing this because they looked at a spread sheet. Once you don't have people with a soul for EDM, it will not work." (by Matt Olivier)
Excerpts from LA Weekly News
Pasquale Rotella (Insomniac Eventsfounder) in 1992, as an 18-year-old, opened the doors to his own party, Unity Groove, even as the underground rave scenein Los Angeles looked to be winding down.
The party was legendary but people crashed the gates as police in riot gear tried to stop the madness.
Knott's would never again host a rave. "The scene died," Rotella says. "Rave became a bad word". But even as the Orange County white kids who kept the underground afloat slunk home, Rotella decided to dive in, hosting weekly $5 events. He called them Insomniac, and when 500 peoplestarted showing up, he raised the price to $7. It was 1993.
His parties were a hit, and Rotella learned an important lesson he carries with him today: It's all about the venue. A contact who worked in real estate would give him the keys to unused spaces, allowing Rotella to move Insomniac from week to week.
Insomniac quickly became one of the only true, positive-vibe raves in town, drawing 1,200 people a week. At its one-year anniversary in 1994, Insomniac brought 4,000 people downtown to the old Shark Club.
n February 1995, he organized a party billed as "Insomniac Presents Nocturnal Wonderland" in East L.A. It sold out, becoming Insomniac's signature, annual event.
Slowly, he was bringing raving back into fashion. Rotella helped organize Organic '96 in the San Bernardino Mountains, a before-its-time mix of Coachella-style crowds and European dance-music massives, featuring the Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Orbital and The Orb. It was financially unsuccessful, he recalls, but still "sparked interest in people who thought EDM didn't exist anymore."
That same year he took Nocturnal Wonderland to a venue that would, in a few years' time, become the epicenter of American rock festivals — the Empire Polo Club in the Coachella Valley.
By 1997 artists like Moby and Prodigy were being billed as the Next Big Thing for a music industry looking to replace grunge. Raves from Rotella's Insomniac — as well as Go Ventures, B3 Cande and Fresh Produce — reached new heights by expanding to the National Orange Show fairgrounds in San Bernardino, the desert and the San Bernardino Mountains.
By the mid-aughts, electronic dance music wasn't just back, it was huge. Daft Punk's performance at Coachella in 2006 introduced a new generation of alt-minded hipsters to the edgier side of dance music, a side that would be reflected in the launch of the next year's HARD festival.
EDM fests were starting to take over the biggest venues the West Coast had to offer. Raving was now Bill Graham–level stadium rock. "
.......... more about the man behind EDC (by Dennis Romero)
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Video -Pasquale Rotella Discusses the Electronic Daisy Carnival
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnJqp9w2R9o
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Video -Pasquale Rotella closing EDC Vegas 2013
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGgGDjx2WYI
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