After a long COVID hiatus, the electrifying, electronic music-driven extravaganza in the West Michigan woods launched Thursday with splendid weather, big crowds and an upbeat vibe. Column and photos.
The Forest Family is Back: Crowds celebrating the return of the Rothbury festival, with Earthgang on the Ranch Arena stage on Thursday. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
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The return of Electric Forest is triumphant. It’s also a glimmering beacon of hope for music festivals and live shows across the country.
On Day 1 of the West Michigan spectacle in Rothbury on Thursday, that glimmer could be seen in the dazzling lights that danced across the treetops and in the gleaming eyes of everyone from attendees to security guards. There’s hope in people’s eyes again. Hope for a future of live music we weren’t sure would ever return.
This is my fourth year covering Electric Forest as a music journalist. And at this very moment while I sit alone in the media tent in the mid-morning hours of Day 2, I am overwhelmed with emotion.
It’s 9:23 a.m. on Friday and I’m way past my deadline. The sun is arching its back across mostly empty fields and for the first time in I’m not sure how long, I’m struggling to put words on a page. How do I even begin to encapsulate the gravity of this moment in time?
Lighting Up Sherwood Court: Disco Biscuits on Thursday night. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
My joyful tears are interrupted by a call from Local Spins photographer Derek Ketchum. I answer, at first fighting back against my emotions, but then I simply let it happen. I let the tears come; I allow the overwhelming sense of hope to wash over me like a cool Lake Michigan wave.
Derek feels it too. He tells me in a gravelly voice over the phone that “people are simply happy to see people again.”
I’m reminded that’s why any of us are in this industry. The term “music industry” is dead to me: It was killed three years ago. This is an industry of human connection.
So I wipe my eyes and refocus on recounting my first day at Forest. Of course there’s a lot to see here: excellent music, dazzling lights, vibey vendors and nourishing food for miles.
And sure, it was cool to stand side stage for Disco Biscuits. Those were all incredible experiences.
But I’m more interested in people and their stories. That’s the reason I became a journalist to begin with. So let me tell you about the individuals I encountered in the first 24 hours of Electric Forest.
AMAZING PEOPLE, AMAZING STORIES AMID THE MICHIGAN WOODS
More than 45,000 people from every corner of the country and the globe are expected at Electric Forest 2022, with literally hundreds of performances on a wide assortment of stages across the sprawling woods and meadows of the Double JJ Resort.
Among them was the amazing pianist who I stumbled upon in Sherwood Forest playing beautifully composed symphonies on the keys. She also had an equally beautiful outfit.
There was the vendor who showed me some of the most beautiful wooden chalices I’ve ever seen.
Happy People Everywhere: Part of the ‘Forest Family.’ (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
There was Annie, one of the many Forest bus drivers who kicks ass and works around the clock to assure people get where they need to go. She’s the reason I even found the media tent this morning.
There’s Easton, who’s from Nashville, and shuttled me around on his golf cart. There’s Martha, who taxied me to the media tent in a smooth riding minivan. She’s from Chicago.
Lauren, who I met on Annie’s bus and wore a pair of magnificent earrings. A security guard who let me borrow a lighter and told me where I could find a cup of coffee.
There’s Cameron, who I met while I was going back in for a second cup of coffee. He’s working at the artist vendor booth this weekend. After Forest, he’s going on tour to work for Motley Crue.
And there are SO many more humans I’ll have the privilege to interact with today. So I’m going to wrap this up and shut my laptop and go meet them and hear their stories.
I’ll end with a lyrical passage from Sylvan Esso, who plays at 11 p.m. this evening (Friday) on the Sherwood Court stage:
“Know it’s simple, this loving thing
And in the darkness, you hear it ring
And when it freezes, it thaws again
Just like a record spinning round
Oh, can’t you hear it, that loving sound?
It’s playing now, it’s playing now”
PHOTO GALLERY: Electric Forest (Day 1) in Rothbury
Photos by Derek Ketchum
Copyright 2022, Spins on Music LLC
