On a Monday morning, some 10,000 cars inched their way out of the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Mich. Among the line of cars leaving the ranch’s campsite were license plates from Maryland, New Jersey, Colorado, Mississippi, Texas and even California. The cars, VW vans and pickups were stocked with haphazardly packed camping gear, nearly empty coolers and passengers in various states of disarray. The Monday was July 2, and the passengers were Electric Forest attendees.
The second year of the jam band/electronic camping music festival brought festival lifers and first-timers, hippies and ravers and East Coast kids and Southern youth all to the same neon fairy tale forest. Both Steve Aoki and The Infamous Stringdusters played during the four nights of music, and festival-goers had as much enthusiasm for headliners The String Cheese Incident as Bassnectar, if not more. As potentially perplexing as a lineup featuring both strings and sequencers sounds, the fest’s sold-out status and overall positive vibe show that it works.
While festival-goers had the option of shelling out their pennies to stay in one of the many cabins or suites on site, most of the 20,000+ attendees opted to camp, suddenly creating a three field-wide tent city with roughly the population of Fitchburg. Wandering through the campsite, one could see every conceivable way to car camp, from those who eschewed tents altogether to those who looked as if they had dedicated their entire lives to building the perfect festival setup. Once inside the forest, however, the dedicated festie became almost indistinguishable from the casual day-tripper.
Inside the festival grounds, bikini- and bracelet-bearing electro fans mingled with tie-dyed and dreaded jam band enthusiasts. Every degree of dress, personality and musical taste in between was also spotted, from the Hollister-wearing high school girl who was discussing cheer camp in line to the 20-something gentleman wearing a long plaid skirt and elf shoes that was whistling to himself from behind his face bandana. Whether those two individuals came more for The Travelin’ McCourys or for Zed’s Dead was anyone’s guess.
Though the music fit firmly in either the jam band or electronic camp, the variety within those genres was on par with the variety found in the crowd. Though both defined as jam bands, STS9’s psychedelic electro-rock performance was worlds away from The String Cheese Incident’s insistent fiddle. While both in the electronic arena, Colorado-based Big Gigantic’s saxophone-infused set stood in stark contrast to 12th Planet’s hip-hop-heavy bass lines. Bassnectar’s set was a surprising blend of both worlds, with many staple ragers missing and mellowed out psych/ambient tracks in their place, but in a way it represented the attitude of the festival as a whole: When in the forest …
A description of the festival would be woefully incomplete without mentioning its namesake forest, but trying to describe it in words winds up being woefully incomplete. When making the journey from the grassy Ranch Arena to the sensational Forest Stage, only flashes of light and a stray laser or two indicated what lay ahead. When the Sherwood Forest was finally reached, the challenge was deciding which dizzying lights to follow first.
In one direction could be found a circle of gongs that surrounded and chimed at those looking for zen, in another direction was a hammock colony and along the edge of the forest was a building dubbed the “Salun,” a small shack with couches built up into the wall, revelers dancing on tables and live DJs overlooking the madness. Various art installations were also scattered about, glimpsed only when the lighting was right or you dared leave your current dazzling perch to explore the rest of the forest. An illuminated clock tower that seemed to do everything but tell time guided wanders back to the center of the forest.
While the Forest Stage was just one of five stages within the festival, some festival attendees camped out among the trees from the moment the gates opened each day until they were kicked out at night, and they just may have been just as satisfied as those that diligently trekked from stage to stage. Unlike Lollapalooza or even fellow camping fest Wakarusa, the setting more so than the music was what made the experience.
With just under a hundred performers, dozens of unique vendors, four days of music and one all-encompassing sensory forest, Electric Forest proved once again it was a festival not to be missed. Whether you want to fist pump to four-on-the-floor beats, amble about to improvised guitar riffs or just soak up a forest you truly have to see to believe, this festival is one you’ll never forget. Come 2013, we’ll see you in the forest.
