Fans dance at the National Orange Show at the Insomniac event Audiotistic. (2010/File Photo)
Electronic Dance Music promoter Insomniac Events finally revealed the long-rumored partnership with entertainment giant Live Nation Wednesday, June 19 just ahead of Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival festival in Las Vegas.
Insomniac’s CEO Pasquale Rotella made the announcement about the Live Nation/Insomniac partnership in a panel at his EDM Biz conference. Live Nation is purchasing half of Insomniac. Rotella promises the experiences for fans will stay the same, but that Live Nation is providing infrastructure for the company.
So what does this mean for the Inland Empire, home to some popular Insomniac-produced EDM events?
Expect more of them. Live Nation, which operates San Manuel Amphitheater in Devore, approached the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors earlier this year to get permission to run four EDM events at the site. Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland was the first one at the venue. County officials called Beyond Wonderland a success.
RELATED: Fan photos of Beyond Wonderland’s San Manuel Amphitheater debut
I think we’ll also see multi-day festivals at that site. The Mumford & Sons campout/show on June 2 was a success at using the space at Glen Helen Pavilion and I think it showed Live Nation that the space is viable for larger-scale events. (I’ll go ahead and add weather permitting, because it’s not a great option for the dead heat of an I.E. summer).
The next Insomniac event on tap for the venue is Nocturnal Wonderland, which will be held Sept. 21 at San Manuel Amphitheater. Tickets go on sale June 27 at noon.
Furthermore, the big entertainment news in Riverside this week is that the city is in talks with Live Nation to operate a number of downtown venues, including the Fox Performing Arts Center, the Fox Entertainment Plaza and the Riverside Municipal Auditorium. Of those spaces, I think the Muni could be the right size to get some EDM solo shows.
EDM fans what do you think about the partnership? Does this bolster Insomniac’s ability to put on various events and expand? To use terrible punk terms, did Insomniac “sell out”?