Discovering an Electric Forest

They say you find yourself at Electric Forest. I don’t know if that’s true for everyone but, it seems that most people that go find something. The forest promises festival goers with the potential to discover and stumble upon some magical things.

It is set up so that you can follow the walkways from stage to clearing to stage, or venture off the beaten path and discover a wide range of art pieces, installations, people and creatures, for completely unique and new experiences.

The early arrival pass provides festival goers with the opportunity to enter the campgrounds a day early, setting up camp and getting settled in before the crowds arrive. Although there were no shows this year (other than the Electric Forest radio station playing only music from the performing artists) or scheduled activities (other than exploring the vendor stalls at the marketplace), the extra day proved to be vital to the festival experience as attendees were able to wake up in the campgrounds Thursday, set and ready to go for the four-day weekend.

Walking into the festival grounds, it was difficult to continue past the first stage. The Tripolee stage had a stellar lineup that had beats bopping across the grounds throughout the day with heavy hitters like Bonobo, Adventure Club and Flosstradamus taking over at night – and then it played host to yoga every day at noon.

One of the most beautiful things I saw at Electric Forest wasn’t the forest lit up at night in a multitude of colours, or all the people swinging in hammocks that were set up between the trees, but the precision with which the rows of trees had symmetrically grown.

This natural beauty surrounding the forest allowed festival organizers to set up a magical atmosphere. They used the trees to their full advantage when they developed an immersive experience for attendees.

Cartoonish clouds dangling from above led festival goers to a piano that was set up in a small clearing, allowing them to take turns playing a few notes or a few songs. A silent disco was set up beneath the shade of the towering trees, where the sun peaks playfully through as it sets for the day, with a lone monarch butterfly fluttering from dancer to dancer, carrying with it the magic of the woods. A VW bus was parked in the woods with a garden flowering inside as hippies passed around doobies to share, relishing in the beauty of the surrounding grounds.

This only begins to touch on the beauty of Electric Forest.

While there were multiple stages set up in clearings, it was the few within the forest that were the most glorious for me. These stages took a bit of wandering around to find, but once discovered, they held some of the best sets of the weekend. With Gilligan Moss playing an impossible to leave, acid house set at The Observatory, and many days spent jamming under the trees at the Forest Stage as regal, French Quarter characters slowly infiltrated the grounds, it was difficult to tell reality from imagination.

The fantastical is the norm at Electric Forest. From a zebra walking on stilts following the rest of his zoo friends through the woods, to other stilt-walking performers spreading their legs wide to make an archway for attendees to walk under, every day in the forest held new surprises and new discoveries.

The Hangar, for instance, was one place where festival goers could go for a tasty margarita or delicious IPA before grabbing a seat at a table that was set up in front of the stage. Pin-up girls walked around offering candy to attendees, transporting every one back to the 1920s. And if you had the patience to wait, you could get a free massage from a girl dressed in head-to-toe purple satin, using a car buffer to buff out the knots in your back and legs. Or if you were feeling a little hairy, you could head over to the barber shop in The Hangar for a shave.

The lineup for this year’s forest was stacked, with performances by jam bands and DJs crossing a variety of electronic genres. The String Cheese Incident graced attendees with three lengthy jam sessions, finishing their performances with an epic fireworks show. The Disco Biscuits also took the stage along with a midday performance by Nahko and The Medicine People that treated listeners to beautiful lyrics accentuated by the insanely unique voice of Nahko.

Mija was scheduled three times including her B2B with Anna Lunoe, and somehow incorporated Tame Impala into her opening set for her B2B at Tripolee on Saturday night. DirtyBird legend Justin Martin was welcomed to the Forest Stage for AC Slater’s curated Night Bass event that also saw an epic surprise set by Gorgon City. And if you were lucky enough to be at the right spot at the right time you might have had the opportunity to see fan favourite and festival vet GRiZ leading a parade into the forest with his saxophone before closing out Sherwood Court on Sunday night. He also took part in the surprise set at The Observatory on Saturday night that left the whole crowd singing along to Roses by Outkast.

Other than a few mishaps, including an equipment malfunction that saw the stage right speakers at Neon Indian’s set soundless, all the artists brought their A-game to the forest. The speaker blow out during Neon Indian’s set was quite unfortunate though as the group was performing a cool set that used lived instrumentals, electronic synthesizers and a wicked light show to complement the sounds.

However, the thought process behind providing festival goers with a wonderful musical experience was apparent. The stages in Sherwood Forest were set up very close to one another yet sound bleeding between stages was not noticeable.

I’m amazed I made it to any of the shows though. It was so easy to get lost in the forest, the fantastical installations and performers easily distracting me on my walks between the stages. But that distraction always led to an adventure that became just as much a part of the Electric Forest experience as the music, and added to the beauty of the journey into self-discovery.