More than 40,000 festival-goers packed Double JJ Resort in Rothbury for the opening salvo of the hippie-driven, four-day affair. Story, photo gallery, video.
Lighting Up the Forest: Savoy played the Sherwood Court stage on Friday night at Electric Forest. (Photo/Ricky Olmos)
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As one festivalgoer put it, Electric Forest is “just people experiencing” life, music and freedom of expression.
Festival Fashion: Anything, and everything, goes at Electric Forest. (Photo/Local Spins)
Electric Forest 2016 rolled out of the starting gates on Thursday afternoon in Rothbury with plenty of the above, courtesy of the booming bass of EDM stars, a few stray rock bands, ideal weather and a horde of 40,000-plus, dazzlingly garbed fans.
Throngs Descend: Festivalgoers arriving at the Ranch Arena stage on Thursday. (Photo/Anna Sink)
They started lining up early in the week — hippie buses and vans and cars and campers and RVs of every shape and size filled with Electric Forest devotees, some of whom had traveled thousands of miles across the continent to revel and romp in the Michigan woods.
And devoted they are, indeed, to this powerfully upbeat and artistically unique four-day music festival north of Muskegon that started as Rothbury in 2008 before reinventing itself as Electric Forest in 2011. (Interestingly, several bands that played the original Rothbury back are on the 2016 Electric Forest bill, including Kalamazoo’s Greensky Bluegrass — which plays one of the headlining slots on Sunday night — Disco Biscuits, EOTO and Flosstradamus.)
So devoted are these fans that festival tickets sold out earlier this year before any bands were even announced.
In the Forest: White Buffalo performed an afternoon set on the Observatory Stage. (Photo/Anna Sink)
That’s because these enthusiastic attendees are addicted to the groovy “peace, love, music and party” vibe that oozes from stages, campgrounds and every corner of these hundreds of acres that’s otherwise known as Double JJ Resort.
“It’s freaking awesome,” gushed fan Sydney Waynick, of Warren, who was attending her third Electric Forest. “Tripolee Stage is where it’s at for us because we really like EDM and house music.”
Other festival disciples came from places as far away as Virginia, Alabama, South Dakota, California and beyond to be part of the Electric Forest experience, including the artistically adorned and lighted Sherwood Forest.
‘PEOPLE ARE ALL JUST RELAXED’ AND COLORFUL
Starting Thursday, it was simply “Forest” to most folks who trumpeted their own unique twist on life in signs, on T-shirts and on the colorful totems they carried and waved as the thumping bass of EDM and jam-band stars resonated through the fields and woods.
Fashion Statement: Those statement came in many colors and styles. (Photo/Anna Sink)
“It’s people just experiencing,” said one third-time attendee from Birmingham, Ala., who insisted he’s disowned his last name and just goes by Lee. “They’re so free just walking around. It’s so special the way people are all just relaxed.”
In many ways, Electric Forest is the ultimate communal experience that at the same time encourages festivalgoers to exhibit the ultimate in individuality, bedecked in resplendent, bizarre and downright funny costumes — or, in some cases, dressed in nothing at all.
On Thursday, they carried giant roses and daisies, pandas, disco balls, llamas, aliens, horse heads, dinosaurs, pizza slices, cartoon characters, the Taco Bell chihuahua and mammoth faces of everyone from the Muppets to Bernie Sanders to Rush Limbaugh to Hillary Clinton (“Skrillary 2016”) to Donald Trump (“Make America Rave Again”).
Party Animals: Major Lazer fired up a late-night crowd. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Their mottos for the long weekend, some alluding to the imbibing of various substances?
“Kiss someone.” “ ‘High’ five.” “I’m glad you’re here.” “Forest lives matter.” “We’re home!” “High on Pennsylvania bluegrass.” “Free hugs.” “Peace among worlds.” “Have a nice trip.”
And, of course, “Let’s get weird.”
While things got started in mid-afternoon amid sunny skies and scorching hot weather, clouds moved in later in the day to provide perfect meteorological conditions for the partying hordes, with crowds growing precipitously in front of stages as evening fell. And when evening falls at Electric Forest, things get even more weird, more psychedelic, more mysterious and more other-wordly.
Totem Power: Colorful and amusing totems were matched only by colorful costumes. (Photo/Local Spins)
The sprawling area in front of the gargantuan Ranch Arena stage turned into a humongous outdoor disco for sets by English DJ Duke Dumont and Thursday night headliner Major Lazer, a dancehall/electrohouse outfit that unleashed heavy beats well after midnight.
Meanwhile, in the various nooks and crannies of the festival grounds — from stages embedded in Sherwood Forest to newer installations such as The Hangar and Jubilee — lesser-known but rousing non-EDM acts held court. Jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington and his band delivered chest-poundingly funky and psychedelic strains that retained powerful, mind-bending jazz underpinnings on the Jubilee stage, Philly soul singer-guitarist Son Little regaled a small-but-lively bunch on Sherwood Forest’s Observatory Stage, and the nattily dressed Preservation Hall Jazz Band returned to the festival this year to uncork more New Orleans horn magic in The Hangar.
All of it creates an almost-mystical musical milieu at every turn.
As one fan gushed, “This is forest.”
Ricky Olmos contributed to this report.
PHOTO GALLERY: Electric Forest 2016, Day One
Photos by Anna Sink, Ricky Olmos and John Sinkevics
Friday’s lineup features sets by Nahko & Medicine for the People, Papadosio, STS9 and the first of three straight nights of The String Cheese Incident.
Copyright 2016, Spins on Music LLC
