Travel Adventures: Electric Forest Volume 1

I promise to try to be as detailed and descriptive as I can. It is hard for me as I was experiencing all these amazing things I knew in the back of my mind these blog post would be hard. This music festival was beyond words. I went with people that tried to explain it to me and now I get why they could not put the experience into words. I will try to do Electric Forest as much justice as it deserves.

Volume 1 will be focused on the music.

Thursday June 23rd-
The Drunken Hearts: Forest Stage 5-6PM
This band was great. Mellow but super indie jams. We wandered into their set after getting a bit lost in the forest. The played and it echoed off of all the trees.

Paper Diamond: Ranch Arena 6:15-7:30PM

Ranch Arena

This guy brings the energy. His set was more EDM (electric dance music) based but had great flow between his songs. He had all the people dancing and grooving.

The Polish Ambassador: Sherwood Court 8:30-9:45PM
Another EDM DJ that mixed a lot of genres into his set. I liked the chill vibe of the songs.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: The Hanger 10-11:30PM
WINNER of set of the day!
Man, I watched a documentary on them one day and I was like this is a must see. Just some middle aged and old dudes jamming out. I mean really jamming they make AMAZING jazz music. The best I have ever heard. The rhyme and bass was on point and had me dancing all over the place. I was sad when I had to run to the bathroom because I knew I would miss 5 minutes of them playing. I cannot stress enough how fantastic they are and how if you go to New Orleans stop in to see a show.

Apashe: Forest Stage11-12AM
Caught the tail end of this set. I like the EDM mix of middle eastern beats.

Major Lazer: Ranch Arena 11:45PM-1AM
I was actually excited to see this set but it was meh. It is EDM and his transitions were weak at best. When you are dancing you do not want to have to stop because their is like dead air between songs. We did not stay for the whole set.

 Friday June 24th-
Dumpstaphunk: Ranch Arena 3:30-4:45PM
Funky to the max. It was a mix of dance music and funk. I actually really enjoyed it. I had never heard of them before. Ryan enjoyed a nap during their set.

Nahko and The Medicine For the People: Ranch Arena 5:30-7PM
Do not let the long name scare you away. Some really good music came from this band. A good band to listen to in the afternoon.

The String Cheese Incident: Ranch Arena 7:45-11:15PM
 WINNER of set of the day!
They play two sets with an intermission. We caught most of the first set as we knew we wanted to watch the second set on Saturday. I will tell you why later. Their first set was jam music. Their sound is so interesting. Funk mixed with a dance feel. I highly recommend you look them up. Kyle who plays the keys actually put on our cruise we went on earlier this year so I already knew the show would rock after listening to him. They get you really dancing and grooving.

STS9: Ranch Arena 12-2AM
I am unsure why but they are more chill than I remember. I liked them but I preferred their acoustic set later in the week. This was more geared toward a mellow rock/dance feel.

Paper Diamond: Jubliee 1:30-3AM
Roamed into this set when we were in the forest. Danced away for a bit before moving on. I still love his set.

Adventure Club: Tripolee 1:45-3:15AM
Caught the tail end of their set. They have some really fun EDM music. Fell asleep in my tent to them. 

Saturday June 25th-
Dixon's Violin: The Oberservatory 1:45-2:45PM
How relaxing! Ryan almost feel asleep sitting up. This guy has mad violin skills. He uses a looping technique to create his music. For some reason the sound of the violin in the trees was pure magic.

Jubliee

Broccoli Samurai: Jubliee 3:15-4:15PM
Yes, yes and yes. I love this festival I was exposed to so many great acts by roaming into their sets. This band was amazing and I will continue to listen to them.  They have a ton of great up beat music to dance to.

The Bright Light Social Hour: Jubliee 4:45-6PM
Another great new band. We hung around for a bit before moving onto STS9. I love their groovy feel they really got a ton of people pulled into dancing around. Think indie rock.

STS9 (Axe the Cables): Ranch Arena 6:15-7:30PM
I actually prefer them acoustic. They have a cool indie vibe this way that had me swaying along through the whole set.

Delhi 2 Dublin: The Hanger 8-9:15PM
I was so happy. I danced the hardest at this set. Which I regretted later in the night due to some bad back pain. I still did not care though because these guys rocked face. The percussion and mixing was perfection.

Ranch Arena

The String Cheese Incident: Ranch Arena 8:15-11:45PM
 WINNER of set of the day!
WINNER of set of the festival!
HOLY CATS. This set  was mind blowing. It literally was the most epic thing I have ever experienced.
In this picture you will see some David Bowie Pegasus's (inflatables), Giant ( I mean like 5-10 feet tall) gold and silver balls (inflatables) bouncing around, Clouds (inflatables) aerialists, AND fireworks.

Everything was a sensory overload. It was pure magic and I felt like I was five again at a giant amusement park. I mean where does one buy a 10 plus foot David Bowie Pegasus?

This was just the stuff going on while they rocked the heck out of some David Bowie and Prince songs. They also played some of my favorite songs by them (originals). I was dancing my heart out hard!

Porter Robinson: Sherwood Court 11:15-12:30AM
Watched some of this. His EDM set has really cool visuals. It was like watching a movie. I rather enjoyed the parts I watched.

Bassnecter: Ranch Arena 12:30-2AM
I feel like everyone at the festival was at this set. It was so overwhelming packed we did not stay long. The bass drops were cool minus the throwing of large amounts of glow sticks the tended to hit you in the face. The visuals matched the beat of the music and were really cool to see.

Flosstradamus: Tripolee 2-3:15AM
I cannot speak to this visual of the set as I listened to them in my sleeping bag in my tent. I could not sleep so I was chilling and listening.  I liked the beat of their set it was really robotic sounding if that makes sense.

Sunday June 26th-
Carly Bins: The Observatory 2-2:45PM
Sweet. She is only 16 and has a cool indie feel to her songs. I liked her a lot she reminded me of a young Taylor Swift before she got all pop music.

Imagined Herbal Flows: Forest Stage 2:45-3:45PM
It was chill EDM. Perfect for the burnt out people to slow jam dance to. We loved it. Rocked back and forth to the music for a little while.

The Observatory

Miner: The Observatory 4:45-5:45PM
WINNER of set of the day!
The moment I stumbled across them on my Spotify list I knew I was going to love them. I have a natural soft spot for bluegrass/indie bands in general but hot damn they are good. I kept thinking that the smell of the woods mixed with the music was heaven. I love that woody musty smell mixed with the banjo. They are a family band with the lead singers being married which was adorable because some of the songs are about each other. I hope they make it big some day they deserve it.

Greensky Bluegrass: Ranch Arena 6:30-7:45PM
Hardcore bluegrass music. They were good though I liked them. It was really hot at this point in the day and they kept jamming out in the extreme heat. Someone should have delivered them some beers.

Manic Focus: Sherwood Court 8:45PM-10PM
I did not know that this was more rap based music but they were cool. I liked the beat of their set easy to chill too.

Sherwood Court

The Floozies: Sherwood Court 10:30-11:45PM
I will be honest I was exhausted and slept through part of their set. I did like the parts I was awake for. Super funky music with a killer lazer show.





 Griz: Sherwood Court 12:15-1:45AM
EDM with saxophone yes please. The lazers were the bomb reflecting off the trees. Overall it was the best of the EDM sets I saw over the weekend.

Sherwood Court

Dixon's Violin: The Observatory 12:45-1:45PM
At some point in Griz's set we decided to roam through the forest one more time before we called it an early night. Man, the sound of violin late at night in a forest was an amazing experience. It is the perfect music when you are roaming in the dark in the woods.

The Forest at night

 I hope you enjoyed reading about all the great music we saw. More volumes to come stay tuned!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily