Electric Forest 2015 lights up and winds down: The final volley (Photo gallery)

On the fourth day in the woods of Rothbury, 45,000 gleeful, radiant and tired hippie-hued music fans continued to celebrate with the likes of Yonder Mountain String Band, The Accidentals, String Cheese Incident and Gramatik before packing up.

 

The mammoth musical marathon in the woods is over.

After four days with more than 100 bands playing a slew of stages scattered through the fields and forests of Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Electric Forest finally shut down its soundboards in the wee hours of Monday morning with the contrasting sounds of Break Science on the festival’s new Jubilee Stage and Preservation Hall Jazz Band on The Hangar stage.

The fifth year of this festival focused primarily on electronic dance music and jam bands drew more than 40,000 concertgoers from across the country for big names such as Skrillex and String Cheese Incident but also for lesser-known, up-and-coming Michigan acts such as The Accidentals and The Ragbirds.

Check out more coverage/photos of Day 1 and Day 2 in these Local Spins posts:

DAY 1 COVERAGE

DAY 2 COVERAGE

Here are a few observations of Electric Forest 2015, followed by a wrap-up photo gallery:

• NEW STAGES: The new Electric Forest stages — Jubilee and The Hangar — may quickly have become the most popular of all of them. Both are protected from the elements, feature innovative artwork/lighting and The Hangar even serves as an indoor disco of sorts with tables and a bar. Now, how about some seating in these groovy venues next year?

• NEW LAYOUT: The new layout for camping seemed to spawn more confusion in terms of folks be able to find their sites and it certainly made the walk to venues even longer for many campers. There were also much longer lines getting into the campground and just as long queues to enter venues each day, not to mention more problems with wifi and Internet connections. It might be a sign of the festival’s growth with an estimated 45,000 fans on site, and most festival-goers took it all in stride…literally.

• NEW TREND: Are fanny packs back? Yes, Tito’s Handmade Vodka was even giving away fanny packs backstage in the artist area and many a 20-something could be seen sporting various versions of the little, once-geeky belt packs around Electric Forest. Of course, hula hoops, animal headgear and even wings were still a familiar fixture of festival fashion.

• NOT SO NEW: Michigan State Police reported that medical tents were “overrun” the first couple of days, with many attendees treated for illness, intoxication and drug overdoses. Although police also acknowledged “some arrests” were made, they said Monday that specific numbers and a complete report on the festival wouldn’t be available until next week. Overall, thing went very smoothly, said Lt. Kevin Sweeney, commander of the Lakeview post, though authorities were still dealing with traffic and backups on Monday due to festival departures. JULY 1 UPDATE: State Police report a number of arrests in a follow-up report published at MLive.com.

• NAPPING AND HOOPING: Any multi-day, sprawling music festival is partly about survival and pacing. So, on Day 4, the long-distance festival runners stood out at Rothbury — the concertgoers that on Sunday afternoon were still dancing, spinning, hooping and frolicking to the bluegrass licks of Yonder Mountain String Band on the Ranch Arena stage and the bass-heavy thumping of Tokimonsta at Tripolee. Meanwhile, a much larger contingent sat quietly on blankets or dozed soundly, completely oblivious to the activity around them. Indeed, jam-packed hammock areas in Sherwood Forest could have put up the “No Vacancy” sign. Perhaps the longer walk to venues for some campers finally took their toll. But you’d never guess that judging by the still-energetic response from crowds to final Sunday night volleys by String Cheese Incident and Gramatik.

ELECTRIC FOREST 2015: Photo gallery by Anna Sink and John Sinkevics

Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC