Cut short by a Sunday storm — after the venue also was cleared on Saturday — Electric Forest nevertheless enticed fans with music and much more. Recap, highlights, photos, video at Local Spins.

Before the Rains Came: The spectacle continued until late Sunday evening. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
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A late-night evacuation of stages and performance venues due to a Sunday thunderstorm brought an abrupt halt to this year’s Electric Forest festival in Rothbury, though attendees still soaked in plenty of musical highlights and immersive experiences during the four-day spectacle.
The Sunday evacuation followed yet another clearing of the festival site due to heavy rain on Saturday evening, though stages later reopened later that night for sets that continued into the wee morning hours.
While the weather put a big damper on Saturday and Sunday night sets — especially for those wanting to see Charlotte de Witte, Sara Landry and a second set from String Cheese Incident — most festival revelers made the most of the experience by exploring areas they might typically overlook.

Ludacris: On the Ranch Arena stage Friday. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
During the long weekend, those sticking to interior stages reveled in the b2b of Le Youth and Sultan + Shepard on Friday night at the Honeycomb Stage — an intense, milestone set. There was no room on stage for managers, wingmen or bad attitudes, just the artists and their music intimately surrounded by enthusiastic (and respectful) fans.
Nashville’s It’s Murph found a new home at Electric Forest, as his Sunday afternoon sun-drenched set at Tripoli was exactly what festival attendees needed to rinse off from the previous evening’s storms.
Sunday’s big surprise was the 6-in-the-Forest set from Louis the Child at the Carousel Club, who was joined by saxophonist Dominic Lalli from Big Gigantic. It reflects one of the most amazing parts of the Electric Forest experience: artist pop-ups and collaborations all over the place that often don’t make it onto an official schedule.

Rain Gear: It was a necessity. (Photo/Anna Sink)
On the flip side musically, other highlights included:
• Dirtwire’s opening late-afternoon set at Ranch Arena kicked off the final day with a mind-blowing array of instruments and a fan-energizing romp from the California band that included jaw harps and every known percussion instrument in the universe;
• The Grand Artique stage’s debut of Muskegon’s own funk-meister Flexadecibel drew an overflow crowd of happy fans on Sunday afternoon who danced, twirled and shook their booties to the group’s infectious strains;
• Prog-rock, jam-band faves Umphrey’s McGee made the most of the Midwest band’s return to Electric Forest on Sunday (following Dirtwire’s set) with its familiar, instrumentally adroit wizardry;

Flexadecibel: Pumped up a big crowd at Grand Artique. (Photo/Anna Sink)
• Ludacris’ Friday night set at Ranch Arena drew a young horde of fans who pantomimed his raps — a set that included a cover of Nirvana.
Of course, the art installations, games, unusual exploratory features, relaxing Sherwood Forest hammocks, psychedelic lighting, shopping experiences and global camaraderie helped cushion the blow of missing sets and drenched campgrounds caused by the inclement weather.
Soggy, muddy and windy conditions aside, this year’s collective Electric Forest experiences will likely once again be long remembered by many of the 50,000 or so festivalgoers, newcomers as well as veterans. – By John Sinkevics, Todd Ernst and Anna Sink
View more Electric Forest coverage at Local Spins here.
PHOTO GALLERY: Electric Forest Days 2-4
Photos by Eric Stoike
Photos by Anna Sink
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker, Anna Sink, John Sinkevics