They Keep the Dance Going Until Dawn

By STEVE BALTIN

Aug. 30, 2001 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

“Dance festivals have always been difficult to produce,” says Pasqual Rotella of Insomniac Productions, whose annual Nocturnal Wonderland event is expected to draw up to 30,000 people Saturday at Lake Havasu Landing Resort. “But they’re more difficult now than ever.”

The facts back up Rotella’s claim. Early this summer, it looked as if this coming Labor Day weekend would be a coming-out party for the dance music scene in America. East Coast ravers planned to groove to Fatboy Slim and Chemical Brothers at New York’s massive Creamfields event, while West Coast counterparts would have a choice between Nocturnal Wonderland and Mekka, a new touring package featuring dance-world star BT, among others.

By mid-August, however, only Nocturnal Wonderland was left standing. Creamfields was called off because of poor ticket sales and Mekka was canceled because promoters felt they lacked preparation time to put together the tour they wanted.

Even Rotella, despite having successfully promoted Nocturnal Wonderland for seven years in various Southern California locales, from a Los Angeles ballroom to Indio’s Empire Polo Field, had to struggle to find a spot to hold this year’s program.

Law enforcement officials and venue owners at Empire told Rotella they would welcome back Nocturnal, but segments of the community that complained about the noise didn’t feel the same.

“We know if we would’ve tried to get the permits for Empire, the community would’ve complained that it’s all night,” says the L.A.-based promoter, who insists he’s sympathetic to such concerns.

Some dance-world observers feel that it will eventually be necessary to switch these festivals from all-night to all-day to make them more accessible to the mainstream, but Rotella believes the after-dark element is key.

“Kids want all-night shows,” he says. “The all-night dance festivals are something this generation can call their own.”

Having attended festivals and raves for more than a decade, Rotella is confident that he knows what fans want. And he believes that keeps Insomniac prosperous in this difficult time for the live dance festival scene.

So what does Nocturnal Wonderland offer that keeps fans coming back?

“It’s not one thing,” he says. “We just try and put things in there that we want at a festival. Every year that might be different.”

Variety is part of Nocturnal’s appeal, such as different headliners or a new location, such as Havasu, on the California-Arizona border.

Rotella regrets that the distance to this year’s event might make it difficult for some Los Angeles-area residents to attend, but he is excited that the spot will allow more people from different cities to participate.

“We’re stoking people from Denver, from Las Vegas, from San Francisco, from Arizona,” he says. “If we could’ve found a closer location, great, but there aren’t many options for places that hold 20,000 to 30,000 people, and to find ones that allow you to stay all night is even more difficult.”

Nicholas Reichenbach and Jim King, the promoters of Mekka and Creamfields, respectively, as well as Cool World’s Sason Parry, producer of the Bay Area’s Cyberfest, second Rotella’s comments about the difficulty of producing festivals these days.

They believe the biggest hindrance to expanding the dance-festival circuit is the negative publicity associating raves with the drug Ecstasy.

Parry blames the media in part for the perception.

“The media has made [Ecstasy] and drugs the focus of their attention on the rave world, rather than the music or the fact that these multicultural gatherings are extremely positive,” he says. “They are very much about being part of a community.”

The promoters compare the pressure the electronic music scene is facing to the growing pains rock ‘n’ roll experienced in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

“You’ve only got to look back to the way large rock festivals were viewed with suspicion that the kids could all be smoking pot,” says King.

Many stars of the dance music world--including German DJ Paul Van Dyk, Moby and Uberzone--advocate sobriety at raves.

While Nocturnal doesn’t have the big-name headliner that other events might boast, the consistent lineup features top acts such as Rabbit in the Moon, Kimball Collins, LTJ Bukem, Common, DJ Rap and hot newcomer DJ Tiesto.

“We like to switch up our headliners,” Rotella says. “There’s a big buzz right now on Tiesto and people wanted to see him, so we got him.”

Nocturnal Wonderland, Saturday at Havasu Landing Resort, Lake Havasu, 6 p.m. $35. (310) 288-3436.