My First iHeartRaves Unicorn Experience: EDC Orlando 2018

For the longest time, I’ve followed iHeartRaves' Unicorns page on Instagram and Snapchat. I loved seeing the Unicorns wearing matching outfits and getting to talk with so many ravers at various festivals. It was one of my dreams to get to do that one day. I saw on the iHeartRaves Unicorn Instagram that they were looking for Unicorns for EDC Orlando and thought, “Why not apply?” EDC Las Vegas was one of my favorite festivals and EDC Orlando would be just as good, and even better if I got to attend as one of the iHeartRaves' Unicorns. A few weeks later, I got the amazing email that notified that I was selected as one of the Unicorns for EDC Orlando!

This was the most exciting news I’ve gotten in a while. This was an opportunity for me to attend one of my favorite festivals in a completely different city while representing iHeartRaves, one of my favorite brands. I planned out my trip as soon as possible and all I had left to do was patiently wait for the weekend of EDCO to come.

Before I knew it, time flew by and I was finally on my way to Orlando. As soon as I got there, I was greeted by some of the other Unicorns at the airport. I had talked with them through social media beforehand, but getting to meet them in person got me so much more excited for the upcoming next few days. We headed to the hotel and planned out our outfits for the weekend!

Heading to the venue was one of the most exhilarating moments. As we approached Tinker Field, I could faintly hear the music and bass and see parts of the main stage. It was finally happening! We walked into the venue and I could see all the excitement from all the ravers. As soon as we made it through the doors, we were greeting other ravers and trading tons of kandi. Some people already recognized us as the iHeartRaves Unicorns and it was exciting to meet iHeartRaves' family, trade kandi with them and take photos together. I’m a big fan of exploring the venue, seeing the different stages and different artists, so it was perfect for me to be a Unicorn as we had to constantly venture around, going back and forth between the stages. Day one’s lineup was stacked with tons of bass-y artists at CircuitGROUNDS, one of the stages, for the Bassrush Experience. I was most excited to see Bassnectar, as I have never seen him before and have heard so many great experiences from my friends at his sets. We also checked out Midnight Tyrannosaurus, Boogie T b2b Squnto, Space Jesus and Ganja White Night at Circuit Grounds. I definitely headbanged a ton at this stage and with so many other ravers who rocked iHeartRaves clothes! The Unicorns traded loads of kandi with ravers at this stage. We, of course, stayed at the mainstage, kineticFIELD a bit too, and got to see Timmy Trumpet, JOYRYDE, Alesso, Martin Garrix and Don Diablo - who was my favorite set this day at this stage. One thing that I love about Florida is that so many people know how to shuffle so I definitely got to shuffle and dance my heart out at this stage. At whatever stage we were at, the production never failed: there were so many amazing fireworks and TONS of lasers all throughout the night, and lots of performers walking around. It’s called carnival for a reason and EDC never fails to give an amazing vibe an atmosphere, unlike any other festival.

One day down and hours of dancing, trading kandi, and meeting tons of ravers later, we were on our way out of EDC. We looked back on our Instagram and Snapchat stories and reliving the memories of day one through these stories. Despite all the great memories and experiences that occurred on day one, we still had another day to go! The second day of EDCO was way more stacked in my opinion and I was looking forward to seeing tons of artists I hadn’t seen before.

Walking in Day Two was just as exciting as the first day. I was getting the butterflies in my stomach all over again. We could tell that the excitement was even greater and there were tons more of ravers attending this day with it being the weekend. We kicked off our social media takeover and took tons more photos Day 2: the weather was perfect and we had already run into so many iHeartRaves family!

This day had tons of different artists that we were all excited to see! KineticFIELD featured some of my favorite artists, such as Kaskade, Alison Wonderland, Tiesto, and Vini Vici, who we all were able to see! My favorite at that stage was Vini Vici: psytrance is one of my favorite genres and their set was super trippy, especially with the lasers and pyro that were synced with their music. circuitGROUNDS had a completely different vibe this day: not many bass artists at all, but tons of house artists including my favorites such as Malaa and Tchami, and future bass artists like Illenium and Gryffin. During Tchami’s set at circuitGROUNDS, Vanessa Seco, a famous shuffler, held a shuffle meetup. A bunch of ravers showed up and got to shuffle their butts off during this meet-up: I got the chance to dance in their as well. The vibes were great and no matter how experienced or inexperienced people were, everyone was welcomed in the circle and cheered on by fellow ravers.

All throughout the weekend we got to meet so many people, including tons of ravers that rocked iHeartRaves gear, and as well as people pretty well known in the rave community, such as Rave Dora and Jake Ryan.

When I’m at festivals, I usually only socialize with my group of friends, but going as part of the Unicorn Crew really made me step out of my comfort zone and talk to so many more people and initiate conversations. We went into EDC with tons of kandi to trade and ended up with only a few, so we definitely made an effort to talk to as many ravers as we could.

I would definitely go to another festival as a Unicorn again! This was a life-changing experience for me and definitely gave me a different way to experience festivals. I learned that it is always great to talk to lots of different ravers and trade kandi with as many people as possible: it was such a touching moment when I would give first-time ravers their first kandi and teaching them how to trade. I learned a lot about what it means to be a great raver and can’t wait to apply all that I’ve learned at the future festivals that I’m attending. Hopefully, I’ll be back at EDC Orlando next year with the Unicorns!

For anybody looking to be a part of this awesome experience (and to apply), be sure to check out the Unicorn Crew section of the website. Or, follow the Unicorn Crew's Instagram.