SPIN

This summer, more than 230,000 fans flocked to Las Vegas for the flagship stop on the annual Electric Daisy Carnival, a traveling dance music festival boasting more than 200 performers from musicians to dancers, fire twirlers, aerialists, and stilt walkers. This year the highlights included SPIN cover star Skrillex, David Guetta, Rusko, Steve Aoki, Boys Noize, and many more, and Los Angeles-based photographer Harper Smith was on the ground capturing all the zaniness for SPIN, including the above shot of a reveler lapping it up in Sin City…

"This was the end of the first night, at 5 A.M., and the sun's just starting to come up. The light is gorgeous!" says Smith. "We saw this girl exiting the venue, laughing and running with crazy amounts of energy. I was drawn to her because she was part of this more organic set of people that weren't in fluorescent candy raver outfits, which was cool and unexpected."

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"This is the second night of Electric Daisy Carnival, at around 7 P.M., which is when the concerts were just starting. You can see the Vegas Strip in the background. When I look at this photo, the first thing I think about is how the style and clothing of the rave generation has changed. It shifted from JNCO jeans and raver candy necklaces, to all these different demographics of style. There were so many styles clustered together at EDC; it was like all the cliques at high school went to a party together."

"There were a lot of these girls wearing matching outfits, makeup, and wigs that belonged to dance groups," explains Smith. "This girl's group was dancing with David Guetta and later with Skrillex. They'd go from stage to stage busting out sexy dance moves. They're basically rave cheerleaders!"

"This girl is really cute and bizarre. She posed and modeled for me, then just disappeared. I usually have conversations with the people I shoot, but EDC was so loud and overwhelming that talking is impossible. So it's like a moment -- it's a look, then, 'Oh, hi, what's up?' Then shoot the photo, smile, and walk away. That's it -- there's no interaction beyond just the taking of the photo."

"She was precious!" says Smith. "When I found this girl in the carnival riding on the carousel, I thought, 'Oh my god -- she's amazing.' I was so excited by this little discovery, of this beautiful girl in that outfit, that I actually ran in circles with her, bumping into people while I shot photos. That's why the photo is so blurry -- because I was moving along with the carousel itself."

"Steve Aoki is a very, very funny man," Smith says of the Los Angeles-based DJ-producer. "That was one of the more funny experiences of the weekend. Night one was all Steve Aoki craziness. He has ADD in the best way. He creates such awesome energy and amazing photography. I didn't even talk to him. I just followed him around. We had about 15 minutes to shoot before his set on the main stage, and we followed him back to the trailer area."

"Steve's buddy shows up and they start planking on this golf cart. Soon he's got to get to his show. We all pile in the golf car and Steve's hanging off the golf cart as we were driving. This poor woman who was hired by EDC to drive this cart is freaking out. Steve's all over the cart -- on top, on the side, hanging off the roof. It was awesome!"

"He was invisible the entire time," explains Smith of the set by German producer-DJ Boys Noize. "He's like a puppet master: You can only see his body, his silhouette. It's more like a production than a performance. Artists like this aren't actually performing like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga would. They're not up there dancing their little asses off in cool outfits. They're at their computers making shit happen and they've got other people performing for them."

"It's funny and genius -- here's this huge marquis and a little itty-bitty silhouette of a man. He's physically there, but it's not like you see him at all, you just hear what he's doing. It's an interesting way to watch someone perform."

"I had to run halfway across the festival to get to Skrillex's performance," says Smith. "And I was completely blind to what I was getting into -- I had no idea what a big deal this guy is. It was packed! I can't get backstage. Cell phones don't work, so I can't call his manager. I'm supposed to be onstage while he's performing. It's just a bad dream with tons of crazy outfits in your face. I can't see shit. Finally, I see Skrillex walk past me up onstage. I yell his name. He stops, grabs my hand, and pulls me up through this massive amount of people. We finally get onstage and I stand next to him as he performs. I'm looking out over a sea of thousands of people. I can't believe I'm standing there. He hits his first notes and starts dancing like a crazy person. Next thing I know there are dancers and sparks – I don't even know how to describe it. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life."

"This kid was really cool. He hammed it up for me. He was posing for more than 10 minutes. He's such a unique character. He had that indie rock-meets-raver style that was a nice juxtaposition to what I'd been shooting all weekend."

"I had been hitting the rides in the background all day -- I walked through the Fun House and ran into four plexiglass windows and a mirror. All these drunk kids were laughing at me. I also rode the ride that takes you way up into the air, then drops you. Frightening!"

"This is what fans backstage look like at Electric Daisy festival! [laughs] I shot them for awhile and they were eating it up -- they loved posing in those outfits. I kept seeing them walking around together, both nights of the festival. They planned out their outfits together -- and they stuck together. I was like, 'Did you make your outfit?' and they said, 'Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss!!!' That's about the extent of the conversations that go down at Electric Daisy [laughs]."

"That's Rusko. He's a performer. He's fucking rad. That's it. Done. He has this crazy English accent-- and it's dirty hot."

"I met Skrillex and Rusko at the same time. Skrillex introduced me as a SPIN photographer, and said something like, 'Oh, she'll probably take pictures of you later,' or something. Rusko immediately said, 'I hate photo shoots. I hate 'em. Seriously, I really don't want to do this.' So I give him this sweet, corny little photographer face, like, 'Please, don't ditch me.' And he's like, 'Fiiiiiine.' Of course the minute I fucking put my camera up he's posing like it's his job. I was making fun of him, like, 'You little shit, you're not afraid of the camera.' But it ended up being an awesome accidental shoot with him."

"This duo were backstage watching David Guetta, who came onstage in a fuckin' helicopter. That's how late he was running. So late that EDC hired a helicopter to fly him in so he'd make his set on time. Showing up to your own concert in a helicopter? That's pretty badass. It was basically the only stunt that could have topped these two girls' outfits, right?"

"Philip Sherburne, who wrote the cover story for SPIN, said something really interesting before we met David Guetta. He said, 'As much as I love David, there are so many American performers here that we get to enjoy. America's coming up in dance music.' He wasn't hating on David; he was like,'Just wait until you see Skrillex. He's the new generation of rave.' This new generation of rave and dance music is what's going to hit hard soon. Philip was proud that this young American boy was making it happen. It was like a passing of the torch."

"Major Lazer was one of the only performers that I saw who properly performed. He was singing and running back and forth across the stage. This girl that was dancing with him was doing some crazy contortionist, circus freak shit. She was lying on her back, lifting her legs over her head and wrapping herself into a ball. It was like a circus performance. I was going nuts. The way this girl was putting her body into shapes was so bizarre. I had never seen anything like that before."

"This is the sun rising the morning after the last day and night of Electric Daisy Festival. As the sun starts rising you can properly see all the trash and the people passed out on the ground. The sun bathes all of them. It's weird. It's like someone turned the lights on and you can finally see the reality of all the crazy shit you've been doing to yourself all night long!"