INDIO >> Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

From way across Indio’s Empire Polo Fields, you can hear the Sahara Tent. In fact, you can feel it.

And you can see it, too, lit by bursts of countless colors to match the relentless beat.

At the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, it’s the jam-packed, bass-pounding, relentlessly in-motion palace of electronic dance music.

The tent, which has grown over the years to the size of an airplane hangar, attracts thousands of ebullient, sweaty attendees with boundless, Energizer-bunny-style stamina. Illuminating this sea of buregoning, beat-feuled vitality are whirling arrays of computer-synchronized light, intermittent bursts of shiny, cannon-fired confetti, glow-in-the-dark body paint, the occasional giant inflated critter and video screens lining stage and ceiling.

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“There’s a primal sense to it,” said Dylan Jacobs, a 24-year-old Phoenix resident who bobbed along with Sahara’s throngs on Saturday. “It may not be something you even understand about yourself, but the music brings it out of you.”

But Sahara isn’t the only place where EDM reigns supreme. It’s a gargantuan glowstick of a trend — Billboard declared EDM a $6.9 billion worldwide business last year — whose end appears nowhere in sight.

As this year’s Coachella fest invades Indio’s Empire Polo Club in Indio, the artist list boasts more than 50 EDM DJs and producers playing the six main stages, including Sunday night headliner Calvin Harris. Another dozen group-based electronica acts, such as Friday night headliner LCD Soundsystem, also bring out the dancing motion-fueled masses.

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Those numbers don’t include EDM artists at places around the venue such as the Heineken House and the DoLab, including guest spots from super producer Diplo and the Glitch Mob.

“They’ve always had electronic music as part of its core, they didn’t necessarily wear that on their sleeve,” Michael Tullberg, photographer and author of “Dancefloor Thunderstorm: Land of the Free, Home of the Rave.” He got his start writing and shooting photos for dance magazines in the early days of EDM. “It became an integral part of it over the years.”

Feuled by event such as Coachella and others around the planet, EDM has grown into an economic powerhouse:

• Indio’s event will draw 99,000 people this weekend and next, where Ice Cube and Guns N’ Roses were billed Saturday night alongside EDM acts Disclosure and Zedd. The global economic impact of Coachella and sister event the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, which runs April 29-May 1, is expected to resonated to the tune of $705 million.

• Nearby EDM-centric festivals such as Nocturnal Wonderland in San Bernardino and Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas, both produced by Insomniac, get bigger each year, Tullberg said. EDC, which Tullberg remembers wooing maybe 4,000 people in its second year in 1998, now draws more than 120,000 people to Las Vegas.

• The Electric Daisy Carnival released an economic impact report in 2015 saying that the festival brought in $1.3 billion to Clark County, Nevada over five years.

• And Insomniac’s events across 14 cities between 2010-2014 generated $3.17 billion, according to a report by Beacon Economics. And $440 million of that number went to San Bernardino.

• And the 2014 Hard Summer Festival generated $13 million in spending in Los Angeles County, according to Beacon Economics.

But EDM has grown in other ways, too. Once considered a niche genre populating undergound clubs and abandoned warehouses, EDM has become a pop-culture mainstay and a stalwart on the Billboard charts.

While they once played in unauthorized venues where they hoped the fire marshall or police didn’t storm in to shut them down, now EDM artists win Grammy Awards and fill major arenas, said Brett Ballou, founder of EDM promoter B3 Cande.

The immersive festival culture – particularly its all-in abandon and escapism – has helped fueled the rise of EDM, he said.

On Saturday afternoon, the Sahara Tent was a total assault on the senses. Various DJs took the stage in bass-heavy sets while massive steel cubes hanging from the ceiling flashed a fusion of blues, greens and yellows. Swaying girls were hoisted onto shoulders, fans threw their hands in the air and all forms of motion erupted.

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Travis Toal, a 19-year-old Oregon native wearing a latex horse mask, came dancing out of the tent after a set by Vanic, a Vancouver-based DJ.

As he wiped streams of sweat from his face, Toal explained that rock, rap, folk, electronica — “every sort of music has its place here.”

“This isn’t my only source of music,” Toal said. “I listen to lots of varieties and genres, but with EDM you can really get into the music, dance and have fun.”

Arizona EDM enthusiast Jacobs arrived at the Sahara Tent 10 minutes before one of his favorite DJs, Mr. Carmack, was scheduled to go on. He said people can be too critical of experimental acts and EDM artists.

“I think Coachella should be all-inclusive,” Jacobs said. “Diversity is always good.”

Like Toal, Jacobs’ must-see list comprised an eclectic array of performances.

Still, his favorites are “up-and-coming” EDM acts such as Mr. Carmack.

Why?

“They make you feel,” said Jacobs, “like you’re part of the music.”