How to avoid EDC crowds
So, a half-million revelers will be hitting Electric Daisy Carnival this weekend, but you’re not interested in counting yourself among them?
No problem.
It’s really, really easy to avoid all the merry mayhem that’ll engulf Vegas over the next three days: Just don’t leave your house until Tuesday.
Just kidding (sort of).
Yes, with that many EDC fans coming to town, things tend to get a tad crowded on our streets and tourist corridors.
Just look at the room rates downtown, for instance: They’re five to 10 times higher than average. On the Strip, where pretty much every nightclub is holding EDC-related events, rates are much higher as well. Both areas will be flooded with EDC fans.
It might be a good weekend to party elsewhere if you’re not into even more people than usual doing the same in those spots.
To limit your chances of getting ensnared in the notorious EDC traffic, try to avoid the upper stretches of Las Vegas Boulevard after 5 p.m. Friday to Sunday. The Cheyenne Avenue and Craig Road exits of U.S. Highway 95 heading eastbound will get congested quickly as fans take the back route to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Same for Interstate 15 north, which will begin to slow to a crawl within a few miles of the Spaghetti Bowl.
EDC goes all night, and while traffic leaving the event is never quite as severe as that leading into it, come 5 a.m. Saturday to Monday, the I-15 southbound lanes from the speedway to the Strip will probably be jammed — especially on Monday morning, when more people will be heading to their jobs at the start of the workweek.
If this is part of your normal commute, give yourself at least an extra hour — two if you want to play it safe — to get to work.
Or, if you have sick days to burn, you might want to call in with a case of EDC fever that day.
Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram.
