Kinetic grooves -- and a circuit switch

Electric Daisy Carnival, the annual dance festival at San Bernardino’s National Orange Show grounds, tried a new mix Saturday: a stage featuring primarily rock artists. The question: Would the bands overshadow the dance acts?

The answer was quickly apparent. While the Circuit Grounds, the band area, was often only half full, the rest of EDC was, well, electric.

Kinetic Fields, the main dance stage, was packed for most of the 10 hours with thousands of fans responding to a strong DJ set by L.A. favorites the Crystal Method and Dutch trance DJ Ferry Corsten.

The event offered a dizzying array of options, from a fully functional carnival to performers on stilts and, of course, six stages of music.

Despite all those choices, the top performers still found their audience. Among the musical highlights were Photek’s fast-paced drum and bass sounds, Kaskade’s progressive beats and Feelgood’s eclectic blend of house and techno. The top dance set of the festival, though, belonged to Junkie XL, who melded his engaging showmanship with expansive grooves and even some intermittent ambient sounds.

Among the rock acts, Louis XIV’s guitar-heavy garage sound pulled in the biggest crowd in the Circuit Grounds early in the evening, and the Donnas displayed strong attitude and impressive guitar work by Allison Robertson.

But it was hip-hop act Jurassic 5 that finally brought the rest of EDC’s energy to the Circuit Grounds. Mixing old and new songs, the upbeat L.A. crew had the area bouncing as one to their positive beats, some doo-wop-style singing and wicked DJ work on the turntables.