Pasquale Rotella

Pasquale Rotella is not an easy man to get a hold of, and for good reason. Insomniac Events, the small company he founded back in 1993, has swelled to a multimillion dollar juggernaut of an organization currently responsible for, on average, 12 major festival-styled events per year in over a dozen cities, including Puerto Rico, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, Orlando and Los Angeles. it was a clear and very public indicator of just how far the 37-year old promoter has come, and just how large his company’s influence is, especially at a time when 120BPM electro provides the DNA for half the songs on the Billboard Top 10. “Me and Pasquale are old friends, since we were 15 years old in junior high school,” says the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.I.Am. “We were going to raves in the ’90s and he has made EDC into a phenomenon. I am proud of his passion dedication for dance music.” Of all Insomniac’s marquee brands—SoCal institutions like Nocturnal Wonderland, Audiotistic and Bassrush—the Electric Daisy Carnival has undoubtedly become their biggest and most infamous. The numbers are staggering. 2010’s controversy-laden EDC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum—whose biggest headline was the highly publicized, Ecstasy-related death of 15-year-old Sasha Rodriguez—took in 180,000 attendees over a two-day period. This year’s three-day installment, relocated to Las Vegas due to added complications with the Coliseum Commission, hosted 230,000. Pasquale Rotella grew up in Glendale, California as a first-generation American born to Italian parents with ferocious work ethics. The family owned Rotella’s, a restaurant in Venice Beach, CA