Ten miles of darkness and 2000 cars separated us from the festival we had only dreamt about. As we stared forward, excited and anxious, there was a faint flicker towards the sky and then the familiar explosion of fireworks in the distance. A roar ripped through the desert from the cars around us. Indian chiefs and their topless girlfriends yelled and cheered out their windows, as packs of neon spattered fur boots ran by on foot. This was the scene I had heard so much about. The one that would save dance music events

Saturday, May 19 was probably the craziest day of one of the year’s craziest music festivals, the Electric Daisy Carnival, held at the Metlife Stadium in New York. There was more glitter and face paint than a seven-year-old’s birthday party and with all the neon cutoffs and shades, the scene could have passed for a circa 1992 episode of Saved by the Bell—the crowd was pretty young but there was the occasional Mr. Belding feeling the beats.

The biggest names in electronic, house, progressive, techno, and dubstep music from across the globe were gathered here for one heart-pounding and sweat-dripping weekend. This was a dance music lover’s dream and one might argue that Saturday had the best lineup of artists.

Carl Cox likes to party. The 49-year-old producer is widely regarded as the 'grandfather' of British house music, having dominated the house music scene since the mid 1980‘s. Last week he reasserted his perpetual musical relevance at Miami’s Winter Music Conference, with appearances at multiple venues including his very own “Carl Cox Tent” at Ultra Music Festival. But performing for fans just wasn’t enough for this British sensation, so last Thursday he hosted his own very lavish, very exclusive yacht party for his intimate inner circle.

My Facebook Newsfeed poses a cultural contradiction: walls wail a lament of New York City nightlife, while simultaneous posts pop up about the surge of underground parties, which do truly host superb local talent. With Electric Zoo officially breaking the barrier of electronic sub-genres, where the future of house music lies is unknown, and in terms of dubstep, scary. For those of us underground lovers who refuse to shy away from this massive event of commercial mayhem, we do it for the Sunday School Tent, (and I'll speak for myself as I "Nordic-track" to Armin Van Buuren in gleeful reminiscence of raves circa-2000.) We do, after all, only get to see many of these artists once or twice a year, because sorry guys, right now Europe's party scene is 10-fold what we have here in New York. Nicole Moudaber is one of those such artists who you should not miss next weekend.

Don't lie. It hurts to be at work today. It hurts to celebrate your independence, we know.

Particularly if you danced all weekend at Governor's Island for the Dance.Here.Now.

So here's to the weekend party. Grab some of the hair of the dog that bit you. (That never hurts, especially at lunch time.)

If you feel good today, here's to what you missed.

Friday night premiered "the tent," a construction that domed over the concrete, much like a smaller version of last weekend's tent at Vegas's Motor Speedway for Electric Daisy Carnival. The black interior provided the perfect surface for AG's lights to do their magic, flashing and blaring the crowd as though they were in a kaleidoscope. The lights also reflected off a giant, hollow octagon stationed between the DJ and visual screen, creating a unique cage-like effect. And, while very few party-goers wore red, white and blue, there was no shortage of glow-in-the dark orange painted onto hands that pumped 150 beats per minute into the air.

½ . Avicii

½. Twibak

2. Alesso

Another young artist hailing from Sweden, Alesso’s tracks have been played by huge DJs such as David Guetta and Erick Morillo. Last week, Alesso opened for his inspiration, Swedish House Mafia, at Pacha Ibiza’s kick-off of this summer’s Masquerade Motel.

3. Cocodrills