Will EDC-Orlando Ever Be Back?

Will EDC-Orlando ever be back? Normally after EDC concludes, Insomniac posts a message thanking everyone for coming and announcing the dates of the next EDC. They didn’t do that this year. This year they posted their “Thank You Headliners” and a “See You Next Year”. But they never said “See You Next Year in Orlando” either.

Here’s what we know and speculate. The Jacksonville Jaguars will be playing their 2027 season and pre-season games at Camping World Stadium (or whatever name it will have by then.) Everbank Field, the Jaguars regular stadium in Jacksonville, will be undergoing a huge renovation which necessitates the Jags playing elsewhere in 2027 and that elsewhere is here in Orlando. But to make our stadium NFL quality, it too must undergo a heavy renovation and that project has already been approved by the City. Construction is supposed to begin very early next year (after the bowl games) in order to be completed by approximately August, 2027. So it appears unlikely Tinker Field will be usable by next November for EDC unless they can somehow pause construction for one weekend for EDC. Not sure how that can be done when this project includes demolition of both existing upper decks and building new ones and constructing new NFL quality skyboxes. So perhaps the lack of posting of next year’s EDC-Orlando dates is because they don’t yet know when that pause could be.

But then indeed, once the Camping World Stadium project is completed, will there even be a large enough footprint remaining outside the stadium at Tinker Field to host an event the size of EDC? You may recall the last construction project at CWS took up so much land adjacent the stadium that the massive kineticFIELD main stage had to be moved from where it was (where the smaller circuitGROUNDS stage is now) to a new field. The Tinker Field baseball stadium that was there was also demolished because the grounds were no longer large enough to play professional baseball. How much land remains after this project?

^ Camping World Stadium approved plans.

Some people have suggested the Central Florida Fairgrounds but those grounds are small and there’s only one road in and out. Insomniac has hosted other music festivals at our Fairgrounds (i.e. Forbidden Kingdom) but they were much-smaller than EDC. The main rumor currently is that EDC (at least next year) will take place at the Speedway in Daytona Beach. It’s huge and they know how to handle crowds over there including parking and even camping within the oval. Lots of hotel rooms in Daytona too. EDC there could be on the scale of what they do at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway at EDC-Vegas. Airlift into Daytona’s airport is relatively poor but both Orlando International and Sanford International are still there too and not that far. Another rumor is Tampa. The Florida State Fairgrounds is a large space and that city has plenty of hotel rooms along with two international airports. Either could be used as an alternate for Orlando before returning here if space permits. Although, when they see how much extra revenue could be made with the addition of camping and glamping and all the extra space for even more stages, will they want to return? Nonetheless, columnist Patrick Connolly of the Orlando Sentinel quotes Insomniac‘s founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella as saying, “Insomniac will actively work to improve crowd movement for next year’s (emphasis added) event while working with the City of Orlando to factor in the approved $400 million renovation of Camping World Stadium.” So there does appear to be an intent to return next year, even if we can’t figure out how.

So this is nothing official; just rumors. We reached out to the press office at CWS but never got a response. So we still have to wonder, have we seen the last of EDC-Orlando?

UPDATE: Insomniac has announced dates for EDC-Orlando next year, specifically November 6/7/8. And the Van’s Warped Tour has announced for the following weekend. Both will take place at Tinker Field so apparently there is a planned hiatus of construction to allow for both music festivals. So somehow these events will take place. We’ll see how they pull it off but for now, both shows are ON.

PHOTO CREDITS: TOP PHOTO: Insomniac BOTTOM PHOTO: City of Orlando