El Paso Live: No timing concerns about DeadMau5 NYE show

Some of the hottest names is electronic music will be ringing in the new year in El Paso, as part of the “Lights All Night” tour.

Excision, RL Grime, Felix Cartal and Deadmau5 are scheduled to perform at the El Paso Convention Center Saturday, December 31st. The tour, which is hosted by Highland Concerts, is an electronic dance music festival normally held in Dallas, but for the first time, it’s being expanded to El Paso.

“They caught wind of the EDM kind of concerts that happen here like the successful Neon Desert Music Festival, so they figured this would be a great market to expand to,” El Paso Live’s Assistant General Manager Ryan Lympus told ABC-7 in June.

Officials with Highland Concerts tell ABC-7 they have been watching the market play and saw how other music festivals like Neon Desert Music Festival succeeded. Officials added because of the growing music and entertainment scenes, they wanted to expand Lights All Night to the Sun City.

“Lights All Night is going to be the largest party happening for El Paso for New Year’s Eve, it is the best EDM concert. We’re expecting probably 10,000 people, there’s still tickets available of course, but it is going to be a great night. Deadmau5, RL Grime, Excision, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Felix Cartal, Bigou, a whole lineup of people,” Lympus said.

Internationally known DJ, Deadmau5, is expected to headline the show. The last time Deadmau5 performed in El Paso was in 2012 to a sold-out show that brought in at least 10,000 people.

“Two of the main reasons we looked at is, honestly it’s far enough away to where it doesn’t canalize the Dallas show, but it’s also close enough to where we believe that Lights All Night the brand has gotten brand recognition where people have may even, “hey that looks like a really fun NYE even but it’s so far away” and Dallas is a more expensive market when it comes to hotels especially during NYE,” Highland Concerts CEO Scott Osburn said.

Deadmau5 is also scheduled to perform in Dallas the same night, then a few hours later in El Paso at 1 A.M. Lympus tells ABC-7 there’s no concern whatsoever about the timing.

“He’ll be playing early in Dallas and then flying out here, on his private jet that they’ve got here for him to make sure he’s here on time, to play the final set of the nigt” Lympus said.

Deadmau5 will be flying to El Paso as soon as his set his finished in Dallas. He’s scheduled to perform until 10 that night in Dallas.

“I think the flight time on a private jet is only about 1 1/2 at the most, I think a little bit less actually, and then he’ll just be able to land in El Paso, which will give him about 1-1/2 prep time to get ready for his set,” Osburn said.

“It seems like there’s plenty of time in there for him to get to the airport, get on a plane, we save an hour coming to El Paso which will help out a little more and then the private transportation ride to the building. Everything will be ready for him when he gets here, he has his production people that will already be here to make sure everything is set up for his set list and then he’ll roll in and start spinning,” Lympus said.

Osburn says the weather is expected to be great in both cities so they aren’t worried about any issues, but he says they have backup plans in case are are.

“I’ll tell you this, our backup plan is that we have multiple jets rady to go in case there are any problems with any of them,” Osburn said.

The show will begin at 6 P.M. and will wrap up at 2:15 A.M.

“I’ve seen some diagrams of the light show and the projections and the video, it is going to be an incredible show and a great way to ring in the new year,” Lympus said.

There will also be a staff of more than 100 people that night–from security, police officers, to bartenders and event staff.

“A whole line of security, security guards, police officers that will help make things safe and we have a great sponsorship with Uber who will be here after the show and of course taxi cabs to get people home safe as well,” Lympus said.

The event is 16 and over. Everyone attending will need to have driver’s licenses to verify their age. Alcohol will be sold to those 21 and over.

A specific list of prohibited items can be found here: http://lightsallnight.com/el-paso/prohibited-items/

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online here: http://lightsallnight.com/el-paso/tickets/