EDM Keeps Halloween Alive In L.A.'s 'Day Of The Dead' Fest

Here's A Dead Man's Party...

Upwards of 30,000 revelers will converge on L.A. HISTORICAL PARK near CHINATOWN in downtown L.A. on NOVEMBER 3rd, for the Electronic Dance Music Mardi Gras better know as the Day Of The Dead. Twenty-eight acts will perform on four stages, offering a worldwide variety of eclectic dance flavors to this high-tech music genre.

Like this summer HARD Fest headlined by SKRILLEX, Day of the Dead will feature four stages, two them in tents. The Discotheque tent will feature music in the underground house and disco vibe, while a new Moombahton Massive tent, headlined by DIPLO and HARD Summer Fest performer DILLON FRANCIS, offer dance-musical variations at 100 bpm. The Earstorm stage will offer a handful younger groups, aside from veteran FOREIGN BEGGARS, with top-billed KNIFE PARTY, interestingly enough, playing before TOMMY TRASH. The HARD main stage will be headlined by French duo JUSTICE, who'll follow Jamaican dancehall spinner MAJOR LAZER and four other acts.

While the basic set-up remains the same, "We definitely changed things up," HARD Fest Founder Gary RICHARDS told ALL ACCESS. "Working with LIVE NATION, their braintrust and I rethought the entire thing. It’s going to be our best show for sure."

Looking For More Radio

While EDM's top-billed artists continue to sell hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of tracks and albums, terrestrial mainstream radio is still doing little more than putting their toes in the water, which concerns RICHARDS. "We’re fine selling tickets and just letting our artists do their thing, but somebody’s got to step up are start serving up this music on the radio," he said. "It’s what a growing number of people want. Why they aren’t getting it, I don’t know. I know that if I was a PD, I’d be programming it."

While there are those believe EDM is too dancey for Alternative and and too rock for Top 40/Rhythmic, the music's biggest supporters continues to be SIRUISXM's BPM channel (which will stream Day Of The Dead performances), a handful of the more cutting-edge commercial stations, but mostly specialty shows. "We’re doing some giveaways with KROQ and AMP Radio in L.A., who have reached out to promote the show, but we still can't figure out why they won't take a bigger shot with this music."

The disconnect may work both ways. While RICHARDS believes that EDM's major stars would welcome opportunities to do more radio appearances, "With a lot of these guys, I don’t think they understand the value of working with radio," he said. "They all learned how to make it without depending on it, so for them, they can pretty much take radio or leave it.

"For me, I see both sides of the equation because I worked in radio. I can see how this can be a perfect match with adventurous DJs and radio stations. Which only raises the question again of why there isn’t more collaboration with this music and FM radio ... it makes perfect sense to me."

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