In the entertaining whirl of lights and music at the recent Electronic Daisy Carnival (EDC) held in Las Vegas, a photograph of the festival’s outstanding drink menu swiftly became the talk of the town, and indeed, the internet. The snapshot ignited an uproar, especially among Twitter users, more specifically those not privy to the indulgent world of bottle service.
The eye-popping menu presented a lavish multitude of options varying from a bottle of Perrier Joet Belle Epoque Brut, pegged at an astounding $1,540 – a 616% hike from its retail price of $249.99 at Crown Wine and Spirits, to a shocking $94,000 label of either a Methuselah 6 liter bottle of Dom Perignon Brut or Dom Perignon Rose. For those doing the math, that’s a whopping 1,074% markup.
Fairness insists, we also shed light on the comparatively budget-friendly selections on this menu: a $975 bottle of Grey Goose that should really cost you $30; $875 for a $20 bottle of Jack Daniels and my personal favourite – a $140 price tag for a $10 six-pack of Bud Light.
That sort of pricing understandably had reactions flooding in through Twitter, with one user comically suggesting a reason for the drug scene at such events. Another found the prices too ludicrous to be real. Yet another chimed in on the humor, insisting that for $875, Jack Daniel himself had better be the one serving the drink.
These skyrocketing numbers did not apply to EDC’s regular bars where patrons could walk up, order a drink, and walk away cup in hand. Prices there averaged a much more affordable $25 for premium liquor – a cost that wouldn’t send your senses into vertigo.
The infamous viral menu boasted prices at EDC’s elevated viewing decks. Here, each purchased drink came bundled with a stage-facing table and an all-access wristband to all festival VIP areas. The highest of high-rollers, gracing EDC’s Marquee SkyDeck also enjoyed a golf-cart ride to their tables after securing beverages at these unearthly rates.
In truth, Las Vegas nightclubs and beach clubs have offered such bottle service offerings for around two decades. It’s not so much about the drinks themselves, but the glamorous experience – the luxury of seated comfort in a VIP section, personal drink servers, and sending out a grandiose signal to onlookers, hinting at your enormous wealth or extensive connections. It also gifts patrons the luxury of time, enabling their party to bypass what could potentially be an hour-long entrance line.
This trend of bottle service began modestly enough in 1988 at Les Bains Douches in Paris, where overcrowding led to table reservations being offered with a complimentary bottle. While the concept quickly caught on, the complimentary element was discarded. By 1993, this practice had crossed the Atlantic to New York’s Tunnel nightclub, demanding a $90 bottle purchase that was decently economical in comparison to $6 a glass alternatives. A mere two years later, bottle service began surfacing across New York, the price tag and popularity simultaneously escalating. By 2000, the trend had gripped Miami and LA, and Las Vegas welcomed bottle service with the inauguration of Light at the Bellagio in 2001. Today, scarcely a nightclub along the Strip is without it.
