EDC week and Memorial Day in Las Vegas: the survival plan

For one stretch in late May, Las Vegas runs hotter than any other week of the year. EDC, the massive electronic festival out at the Motor Speedway, brings a flood of people to the city, and it lands right around Memorial Day weekend. The two events stack, the clubs book the biggest DJs on the planet for after-parties, the pools run at full tilt, and the whole city operates on no sleep. It is incredible and it is exhausting. Here is the survival plan so you get the most out of it without burning out by Saturday.

Understand the schedule

EDC itself runs overnight at the Speedway, typically from dusk until sunrise across a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That overnight schedule is the key to everything else. Festival-goers sleep through the morning, hit the pools in the afternoon, nap, and then head to the festival at night. The club after-parties run in the windows between festival nights, often very late, sometimes into the morning. If you try to do all of it, every day, you will not last. Pick your spots.

The pools are the daytime anchor

EDC week is the busiest pool stretch of the year because it overlaps the Memorial Day pool peak. Every major dayclub runs special programming and books festival DJs for daytime sets. Wet Republic goes all-in on the EDM crowd and is the natural home base for festival-goers. Encore Beach Club books huge names for the week. Expect higher minimums and earlier sellouts than a normal pool weekend. The dayclub calendar will show who is playing where, and the lineups for this week are usually announced weeks ahead.

The after-parties

This is where the biggest names land. During EDC week the nightclubs book the festival headliners for official and unofficial after-parties, and these are some of the best club nights of the entire year. They also start late, because everyone is at the festival until sunrise. A few rooms to know.

• XS at Encore traditionally hosts marquee EDC after-parties and runs both the club and the pool.
• Omnia books festival headliners and brings the full production.
• Marquee runs hot late-night sets that fit the festival crowd.

Book these early. EDC-week after-party tables are some of the first to sell out all year, and the minimums reflect the demand. Our pricing guide explains how special-event minimums work, and a host can tell you which after-party is the real headliner and which is just marked up.

The survival rules

A week this intense rewards a little discipline. Here is what actually keeps you going.

• Hydrate constantly. Daytime pool sun plus late nights plus the desert will wreck you faster than the alcohol does. Water between everything.
• Do not do all three festival nights and all three pool days. Pick the pool days and after-parties you actually care about and skip the rest. Nobody wins by going non-stop.
• Plan transport. The Speedway is a serious drive from the Strip and rideshare surges hard during EDC. Know your plan before you need it.
• Eat real meals. Sounds obvious, gets skipped, ends weekends early.

The free guest list during EDC week

Even in the busiest week of the year, the free guest list still runs at most rooms and pools. It will not work for the biggest sold-out after-parties, but for the secondary nights and the pools it still saves you the door upcharge and skips the general line. If you are spending your money on the festival and a couple of headline tables, using the guest list for everything else keeps the week affordable. No booking fee from us, ever, even this week when other services pile on surcharges.

If you want tables

For the after-parties you care about most, a bottle service table is the way to guarantee you are inside for a sold-out set. Size it to your group, book it weeks ahead, and let your host tell you the real cutoff times because they run later than normal during EDC. For a deeper read on which nights carry the heat, our best nights guide still applies, just shifted later into the night.

EDC week sells out earlier than anything else on the calendar, so the time to plan is now. Tell us your dates, which festival nights you are doing, and your group size, and a real host will build the pools and after-parties around your schedule. Start on the free guest list or hit our contact page and we will answer fast.