On the dates June 23-26, Electric Forest took over the small town of Rothbury, Michigan. For many, it was a weekend of self-discovery and connecting with others. A place to put yourself out there and let others accept you with loving arms.
Electric Forest is a place for everyone. It is where the freaks come out and you feel alive. Gone are your worries and it doesn't matter where you come from or where you have been — all that matters is you are there.
Electric Forest attendees come from various backgrounds. Everyone has a different reason for being there. The Forest manages to make everyone feel loved and connected to something bigger.
We arrived Thursday, as early in the morning as possible. The line of cars waiting to get in was long, but I didn’t care. I was just happy to finally be there.
Settling into the living situation can be a bit of a feat, with acclimating to the campsite and realizing you have to use a port-a-potty all weekend. By Thursday afternoon, you are loving every minute of it enough to not care about the logistics of it.
Electric Forest offers an escape from the outside world. The things that have stressed us out for too long no longer matter.
The creators put so much thought, time and energy into making it a memorable experience. Electric Forest is truly a place of the imagination. Each way you look, there is something else breathtaking to rest your eyes on. At night, Sherwood Forest comes alive. The art installations and trees take on a new form when lit up. It is unlike anything else.
They made improvements from the year before, including the installation of flushable toilets inside Sherwood Forest and managing the crowds better. There was a higher amount of tickets sold, but it somehow felt like less people than last year.
With the popularity in music festivals, there are inevitably some put on mainly for the profit. Electric Forest is not one of those festivals. It offers so much more than a lot of other festivals. There is Sherwood Forest to explore and strangers to befriend. With at least eight stages, there is a wide variety of musical acts to attend, whichever to your liking. The ticket pays for itself.
Electric Forest is aware of the environmental impact a music festival has on an area. The Electricology program focused on educating festival-goers of their environmental impact, and push for a “green” mindset. Throughout Sherwood Forest, there were signs posted on trees reminding us of our relation to earth and how we need to give back to it. Signs like, “May the forest be with you” and “Mother Earth is forever giving, lets give back,” as well as facts about how much plastic is thrown away every day in front of the garbage cans.
Electricology wanted its attendees to understand how important the natural space is, and to help preserve it by loving it, rather than leaving trash everywhere. Electricology Ecozones were stationed throughout the festival where you could learn more. They offered incentives, like free tickets for next year. With the use of contests and prizes, people were encouraged to be conscientious and leave no trace.
The sun soaked my skin during the day, but once the sun dropped it cooled down considerably. A layer of dirt built up each day, enough that as soon as I took a shower, I realized I did not get as tan as I thought.
Going for my second year, I knew my experience would be different from
last year. For one, I went with different people, including my boyfriend
who was not able to attend the year before. The lineup provided me with
the opportunity to hear a lot of music I never got the chance to listen
to live before, plus some of my favorites whom I had yet to see in the
Forest.
I did not make it to everything, but what I did see was amazing. Some of my favorite acts were What So Not, Skratch Bastid B2B Jazzy Jeff, Nahko and Medicine for the People, String Cheese Incident, Caspa B2B Rusko, STS9, a secret set with Mija, 12th Planet, Brillz and more, Russ Liquid B2B Freddy Todd, Bassnectar, Shooka B2B GRiZ, The Floozies, Manic Focus, GRiZ and Beats Antique.
Aside from those, my favorite moment inside of the Forest was when GRiZ appeared out of nowhere with his sax. My boyfriend and I happened to be sitting down a few feet away from where he started playing. He played “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and some others. What only lasted a few minutes easily became one of my fondest memories.
The weekend was over too quickly. By the end of it, there were broken canopies scattered about from a harsh storm that hit Sunday Morning and blissed out foresters. Although the storm pushed some to leave early, most were not ready to go back to the real world.
This year’s Electric Forest was as great as any year in the past, and I can only hope to return next year.
