Elite Interviews: Nathan Leong, Co-Founder Of Electric Candy Land Events

Nathan Leong is the talent buyer and founder of Electric Candy Land Events (ECL Events). They are a special events organizer and team who also operate and program nightlife in venues. ECL has their own pop-up event called Electric Candy Land - which is strictly an EDM special event.

On February 22, ECL Events launched their first opening of Electric Candy Land at Pedro Zamora’s nightclub, Stage 48 in New York City.

How did you become involved with Electric Candy Land Events?‬

I came up with the concept of Electric Candy Land Events last summer, so I contacted my buddy from Royale Marketing, an events company based in NYC to help me with the promotion of ECL Events. With Royale Marketing’s full promotional support, Electric Candy Land Events is now coming to reality.

‪How has the explosion of dance music personally impacted you?‬

To be honest, I grew up listening to electronic dance music (EDM). I was born and raised in Puerto Rico where EDM is one of the more popular genres. One of the coolest things about EDM is the fact that you can hear how different cultures influence the sounds of EDM from the melody and drops to the beats per minute; creating so many sub-genres within this genre of music – for example, you have sub-genres like moombahton, trap, dubsteb, tech-house or progressive house.

‪We have seen an emergence of electronic dance music festivals and events lately. What separates Electric Candy Land Events from all the other event organizers such as Made Event, Insomniac Events, RPM and ID&T?‬

The one thing that makes us different is our vision. As we grow and establish ourselves in the industry, we hope to develop a concept and formula that will allow us to combine and deliver the festival, concert and nightlife experience as one.

Who would be your dream line up?

My dream line up is to get guys like Bingo Players, Tiësto (been following him for over 12 years – now that’s a DJ that can evolve and adapt to the likes of society), Hardwell, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Steve Aoki, Fat Boy Slim, Diplo, Chuckie, W&W... the list never ends. There are way too many talented artists out there!

What trends do you see in the upcoming year for music festivals and the dance scene?

I am 110% sure that there will be a lot more competition. Everyone knows how popular they have become over the past year, just look at the popularity that music festivals like Coachella, EDC, UMF, Electric Zoo and Tomorrowland have gained. These festivals are no longer something the host city looks forward to, but the whole world. EDM has officially reached the mainstream at an international level and you’ll only see more and more event groups try to break into the scene. For DJs and producers, it’s going to be much harder to have their breakthrough opportunity as the window is much smaller now than it was three years ago. They really have to carry such a unique sound to be noticeable nowadays.

What kind of preparation goes into holding events such as the one Electric Candy Land Events hosted in February?

Electric Candy Land Events is currently on the track of producing events where capacity is on average about 1500-2000 attendees. For events of this size, I would say we put most of our time into coordinating with marketing, promotions, advertising, strategic partnerships, business development, working with ticketing outlets, costume designs, booking the talents and production – such as installing special effects and the stage for the DJs.

Where do you see ECL Events in the next three years?

I want to be able to establish the brand Electric Candy Land Events to the level where it has the power to draw audiences just by the brand. For example, when you hear that they are bringing an Avicii concert to your city everyone automatically floods to buy their tickets and becomes overly excited about it…now that’s my goal. I want to be able to take the brand touring throughout the United States or even the world.

For more on Electric Candy Land check out their website, Facebook, or Twitter: @Elec_Candyland

Evelyn Pelczar | Elite.