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I knew I wanted to hit one more festival or event in 2021, and I just wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to be. I wanted it to be around my birthday at the end of September, which would give me plenty of time to recover from the Tipper Red Rocks trip. Infrasound had been talked up by several of the homies as a top notch festival and some peoples favorite festival period. Prior lineups all looked fire and there was lots of good things being said. Unfortunately the lineup had not yet dropped and tickets were about to go up to final price tier. I ended up snagging tickets right before they dropped the lineup and prices went up. Out of all the headliners Charles was the only one I was hyped for, but that didn’t matter because the rest of the card was stacked with many of my top picks.

Me and my brother headed out for the fest Wed evening and drove north through the night to get to Minnesota from Missouri. We got into a Walmart parking lot in the wee hours of the morning where we would be meeting up with some of the homies before heading into the festival grounds. I tried to grab a few hours of sleep but wasn’t very successful as the sun began to rise. Once everyone had arrived and gotten a chance to grab last minutes supplies we headed off to drive the last 15 minutes or so to get to Harmony Park. The line to gain entry wasn’t too horrible, and I think we got through it in an hour maybe 2 by the time we were parked and unloading.

We had to haul all our gear into the park to set up camp from the lot where vehicles were parked. I brought a collapsible wagon to help, but those things aren’t really meant for heavy duty lifting, and plenty of them met their demise that day. We got separated from our friends when walking in with gear, and didn’t want to waste any time, so we decided on a campsite that was suitable for just the 2 of us. We ended up being right around the corner from main stage along the back path by the lake so it worked out well. After getting camp set up we walked around to get acquainted with the area and were able to locate where our friends had camped before too long.

There were 3 stages total, main stage on one end of the park, the pyramid stage on the other end, and the portal stage on the side towards where car camping and parking was inside of a hanger, then walk in camping was all in the middle of the stages. The portal stage design was familiar immediately to me as the same stage used in the Coalesce New Years Eve event, and they would be projection mapping not only that but the entire inside roof of the hanger. Both main stage and portal had Funktion One sound and the pyramid was powered by Void, we were definitely in for an audio and visual treat. The walk from one side of the park to the other was about 10 min maybe less if you hurried so it was pretty easy to navigate between stages for different artists.

Thursday nights lineup was probably the worst conflict for me. Ivy Lab, Lusid, and Mystic Grizzly all overlapped each other for the last set of the night, before silent disco took over for late night in the portal. I caught Chief Kaya, Vibe Emissions, and Dalek One on Pyramid, before heading to catch some Bricksquash on portal, then ultimately chose to catch some of The Widdler and Ivy Lab at main stage. The first night they were allowing us to roam a little bit with the headphones for silent disco, just asking us to stay right around the hanger and not to leave the area. Unfortunately following nights would be much more strict requiring users to be inside the gated off hanger with the headphones.

Music at the campsite unfortunately was not allowed after hours, and I was forced to even turn off a small bluetooth speaker I had with me. We also had an issue with security asking us to put out a fire we had built, after we just purchased wood from the main stage area. We had a fire ring and clear over head, but security told us fires were not allowed except for car camping and RV area. After pouring water on the fire to put it out and going back and forth with security they did finally allow us to have the fire, and we of course agreed to keep it small and safe.

Friday I was really looking forward to seeing Navigatorz and Ultrasloth for the first time live, both of which played at portal stage that evening, neither one of them disappointed. I also caught Duffrey and Black Carl! on portal. Some other highlights of the night on pyramid stage were DRTY HBTZ and Zen Selekta playing early, then EazyBaked and Veil B2B Notlo Later in the evening.

Saturdays lineup was a killer and one of the best parts was a surprise set that one of my favorite artists, Yheti, was playing main stage replacing an artist that couldn’t make it due to visa issues. We caught some Grill Smith to start the day off then headed to portal and caught a killer Deerskin set. After that headed over to the pyramid stage for Merkury > Lost > DMVU > Pushloop which was a killer ride. We then headed to main stage where we got treated with Ternion Sound into KllBill, which was the second time I’ve had the pleasure to catch Kll Smth and Mr Bill’s collab project. After that we got blessed with the secret Yheti set into Opiuo, then Charlesthefirst into Gjones closing out for main stage. After hours went and chilled outside portal and watched the fire spinners and breathers put on a great show.

Overall I enjoyed my Infrasound experience, the lineup was stellar and the vibes from attendees were on point. I will say the venue is not my favorite with the sound curfew, especially with how hard they enforced it, chasing down anyone playing a speaker anywhere after hours. The people running this festival definitely know how to throw a party, and I will say the projections on the hanger roof at portal stage was some of the craziest dopest visuals set up I have seen. Until next time!

I initially debated whether or not I wanted to attend Red Rocks for Tipper. I knew the weekend would not be cheap and tickets would for sure be sold out. I usually lean towards camping events which I believe really create more of an atmosphere since most people are there for the long haul. Once some friends began to chatter about it excitement built and I decided to try and secure tickets.

I was luckily able to purchase tickets for both nights when they went on sale by waiting with both my laptop and mobile device ready. I am glad I did because my mobile device ended up getting through much quicker than my laptop even though I started with the laptop. Once we had tickets secured friends began looking at accommodations and quickly realized most air bnb had been booked and there wasn’t much available and all pretty costly. Most decided to book a hotel room and we ended up split between a few different hotels between the group.

I arrived in Denver late Thursday night. I had decided not to rent a car since others had transportation, but I needed to get out to the hotel closer to where Red Rocks is, and was trying not to pay for an Uber. Unfortunately my phone was dying and I was having a hard time getting ahold of friends who were at the Cervantes show. I was able to pull up directions before my phone died, and I headed off walking in what I thought was the correct direction. After walking for awhile, someone one one of those rental scooters offered me to hop on and he would get me to a bar where I could use a phone. I ended up by the Cheba Hut off Colfax, which was pretty much on the opposite side of Denver from where I had been trying to go. One of the bouncers of a bar was nice enough to let me use his charge pack to charge my phone, so I could get an Uber to just get to the hotel and get off my feet, I no longer cared about trying to save the money. Even getting an Uber at that time ended up being difficult, bars were closing and one Uber ended up cancelling on me, so I had to wait on another one to show up. The bouncer was nice enough to offer me a ride home if another Uber driver bailed on me since they were closing shop, but luckily this one showed up and I got to the hotel and into the room without any further issues.

Friday morning I ended up walking to the closest dispo which was a few miles away. Luckily I was able to grab a lime scooter for most of the ride back to the hotel. We had to switch hotels as I just booked one night for Thurs, and planned on crashing on my friends couch in their room at another hotel the rest of the weekend. Once we got checked into the new hotel we got ready and took off to hit a few shops and sights in Denver, including grabbing lunch at the Cheba Hut I had been right by the night before. We headed to Red Rocks for the show mid afternoon, hanging out pre gaming in the lot for awhile, before going to stand in line for to be admitted. We hung out in line talking to everyone building excitement as the show time grew nearer until the line finally began to move. We had quite a few friends from STL in for the show and we were able to snag some spots around the center of row 25. I thought it was a good distance to look down on the giant screen they had on stage for visuals and still be close enough to really feel the bass of the Function One Vero rig.

Friday nights show started off great with Bwoy De Bhajan who I had seen at tipper and friends in 2019. Then continued with EVAC, into the always great Distinct Motive, before the man himself tipper came out and blew our minds. I love how these events the sets just mold right into one another without stopping the music. The music and visuals were great and the atmosphere overall was awesome. Seeing the city of Denver in the background behind the visuals with beautiful red rock formations towering all around is a really cool experience like no other venue offers. I will say I’m not a fan of when people were trying to crowd into the row, and standing in front of others, and overall just not respecting the space of other attendees, but most of them were kind enough to continue on their way if you asked. Just something that is unique to the amphitheater since its not as open as a stage at a festival. We didn’t end up doin much after the show headed back to our hotel and just kicked it for awhile before passing out for the night.

Saturday we hit a few more shops and then headed up to the lots a little earlier than we had the day before for pre gaming. Lots of celebrating with plenty of art, balloons, lot merch, drinking, smoking, and chillin. The line ended up being a little bit of a longer wait on Saturday but again we were lucky to have some homies snag some space on right side of row 22, which got us a little bit closer to the function rig. I had been trying to snag a poster for the weekend but unfortunately both nights I stood in line just for them to sell out before I was able to grab one. I was just happy to be there with all the likeminded spunions enjoying the show. Saturday again the show started with a bang with Frequent, and didn’t let up as it continued with Resonant Language, then Mickman, and then Tipper blew our minds again as the smoke from distant wild fires gave a little more of a spooky vibe. We ended up heading over to another friends hotel for some after hours action and kicked it.

Sunday ended up just being a chill day and we grabbed some more Cheba Hut and just kicked it around the hotel veggin out, watchin TV, and listening to music. Had an early flight home on Monday morning which I pre scheduled an Uber for, and got home without any issues. The weekend overall was a blast, another successful journey with the festifam.

I purchased my ticket to Rekinection when it was originally scheduled for fall of 2020. The event had one of my favorite artists, Clozee, headlining and I was really trying to squeeze at least one event into 2020. Rekinection was also right in my backyard at one of my favorite venues I have been to multiple times, Astral Valley. I had hoped the smaller fest would be able to proceed despite ongoing covid concerns, but it was postponed to 2021 like many other events. There were some lineup changes due to the event being rescheduled, but I think it came out even better in the end. Of the Trees was added as a headliner and many more great artists were added to the undercard.

I just returned from my trip out to California for Untz festival which was the weekend before Rekinection. I had just enough time to get caught up with work before heading off for the next adventure. I was really looking forward to Rekinection since it would be my first time taking my RV to a festival and both of my brothers and many friends would be there with me.

We arrived to the festival on Thursday mid day, and entry was a breeze. We checked in and got our wristbands then proceeded to the area for RV parking without power. I found out quickly with the temperature in the 90s, that the generator wouldn’t power the AC and we would be without it for the weekend. Not a large issue since I didn’t plan on staying in the RV except to possibly lay down at the end of the night. I set up camp and then walked around the festival grounds to check everything out. I would say this festival might have been the largest one I have been to at astral valley, with quite a few vendors and a variety of food trucks to purchase from. We had quite a few good artists play Thursday night including Mlotik, Molokai, and Rafeeki. it was a great kickoff to an awesome weekend. We laid down at the stargazer stage on a blow up couch until we were ready to call it a night around 4 AM or so and headed to the RV to get a few hours of sleep.

My other brother and other friends arrived through through the day Friday. We didn’t have much service so its always a shit show trying to meet up and camp together but everything worked out pretty smoothly and everyone was able to find our camp. We had around 12 people or so total in a group so pretty decent squad for the weekend. We pretty much spent every day at the watering hole as it was really hot all weekend, it is one of the best features of Astral Valley and kept us nice and cool. Friday night the homie DonVon had his set so the squad went and showed love and support and he threw down a killer set. After that we went up to stargazer for the after hours action until the sun started to come up.

Saturday was by far the night I was looking forward to the most, Of the Trees and Clozee both threw the fuck down and killed it on the main stage, then Meso got the party started up at stargazer stage. We hung out vibing all night until the sun began to rise to bring an end to our festival experience. After packing things up around camp we got to walk around one last time and check out the vendors again and grab some merch. Glad I was able to give some feedback on our experience to one of the ladies who ran the festival when checking out merch. My only regret was that I hadn’t checked out any of the workshops that they put on through the weekend. It was a really beautiful event ran by wonderful people and I hope they continue to return to Astral Valley and curate wonderful experiences such as this.

After Sonic Bloom made the announcement to postpone until 2022, I was really bummed and worried about other events continuing to cancel through the summer. I made the decision to buy my ticket to Untz the day it was announced that they were moving forward and had Covid plans in place. I just needed reassurance that I wouldn’t be paying for yet another ticket for an event that wouldn’t happen. I had liked prior lineups for Untz, but was always hesitant to make the trip to Cali for a camping festival all the way from Missouri. I figured 2021 was the year to make it happen.

I flew out from STL to Sacramento solo on Thursday prior to the festival. I flew Southwest so I was able to check 2 items and have a carry on. My tent was checked as one bag, all my gear and bedding was checked in another bag, with all of my clothes in my carry on. I had dinner with some people from work and ended up having a few drinks. Maybe one or two too many, as I would end up regretting the slight hangover the next day. I had opted not to rent a vehicle and instead used Uber to get from the airport to restaurant, then from restaurant to my hotel in Yuba City. Uber was not so easy to get the next morning, and I ended up taking about a 5 mile walk to the closest dispensary, to secure some green for the weekend. A few hours later it was time to head to the gates, luckily, I was able to secure an Uber from Yuba to Sycamore Ranch.

I got dropped off right at the gates around noon and walked up with my luggage and showed them my ticket and vaccination card. It was a hot one, Friday ended up reaching over 100 degrees. Luckily they offered to give me a ride via golf cart to the area where GA camping was setting up on the Sycamore Ranch side of the creek. I was able to get camp set up pretty quickly thanks to my pop up tent, and stored the rest of my gear and luggage inside of it. I wanted to get out and walk around the grounds to get my bearings before all the evening festivities began. Sound checks were under way on both of the stages as they put on finishing touches, and I was able to get a great preview of the function one systems that would be the heartbeat of the festival all weekend long. Once music began there would be no rest, as it continued until sunrise and started back up at noon each day.

Friday night kicked off with Saka into Potions at main stage. They both threw down and got the vibes flowing. Cheethos was a crazy barrage of my senses and it continued non stop through kLL Bill. Yheti the man closed out main stage with a killer set sending us all buzzing to wormhole stage for more. Chee continued to deliver at the after hours stage, then Yheti and Of the Trees did a B2B of some DNB and 140+. By this time I was winding down and laid down on the grass on a blanket to get what little rest I could. Mr Bill led us into an amazing chLL Smith sunrise set as the sun began to light the sky.

Saturday started off with a couple yoga classes, after running by camp to get changed and washed up a bit. After yoga I was able to catch a little bit of the harm reduction workshop but wanted to see who the guest spots were at main stage. Music began at noon and I was happy to catch most of Honeybee as the 2nd secret guest spot. It was another hot day and I tried my best to keep out of the sun and stay cool. Finally by the time Pathwey took main stage the heat started dying down and things started turning up. Some more of my favorite artists took main stage as we were treated to a hawk. set, Supertask, Of The Trees, and finally closing out main stage was CharlestheFirst. Wormhole stage didnt let the energy stop there, as Digital Ethos, VEIL, and Black Carl drifted into a beautiful Ghost Approach sunrise set.

Sunday again started off with some yoga to get stretched and loose, I was able to catch an acro yoga session where we learned some cool moves to do with a partner and spotter. After yoga I went to take a dip in the Yuba river to clean up a bit. The ice cold water was refreshing as the sun climbed further into the sky for another hot day. I tried my best to stay cool and conserve energy as Spicy Bois and DDD crew would be throwing down that night at main stage. Yheti ended up throwing a surprise guest set and played some more of his unreleased and experimental songs Sunday afternoon much to everyone’s delight. After that I caught a little bit of the cannabis and painting workshops before things got started for the evening.

Spicy Bois crew threw down Sunday evening rising the vibes for our final night at the festival. They finished off with a B2B2B2B of the whole crew and seemed like they had a blast. After Spicy Bois I pretty much stage hopped back and forth between Deep Dark and Dangerous at main stage and Lost Dogs and Bass Waffles takeover at wormhole stage. I planned ahead this time and was able to get a hammock set up for the after hours sets. Ternion Sound finished off the festival with their first ever sunrise set which they slayed. Unfortunately my time in Cali had just about come to an end. I still wasn’t sure exactly how I’d be getting to the airport in just a few hours, and needed to begin packing up camp.

After making my way to camp I was able to get a hold of a taxi service from the closest town to get me to the airport in time for my flight. I packed up my things, gave out my last few party favors, and dragged everything back to the front of the festival grounds to meet my ride. I was lucky to have called him when I did as several others were also now calling attempting to get rides from the festival grounds. I met a lot of awesome people out in Cali and definitely could feel the love on the west coast. The Untz was a total west coast homie fest and everyone was full of love and light. There are a few things I hope they account for better for the future. More porter potties, seemed the amount they had always ended up filling up by end of the night and would be really gross by late night. Also, I heard several complaints about the medic crew not being available or not taking things seriously which is majorly disappointing. Another major issue was several people ended up having catalytic converters stolen off of their cars, which were parked in the festival parking area. I hope in the future they secure the attendees vehicles much better if they aren’t going to allow you to car camp. All in all I cant wait to make a return in the future and see what else Untz has in store. Until then west coast.

So it has been awhile since I have posted any updates. Most events were cancelled in 2020 including Rekinection, which I was hoping would slide by unscathed with its small footprint. Early 2021 brought hope with multiple vaccines being rolled out to combat the Covid crisis. Sonic Bloom and Electric Forest ultimately decided things were not yet clear enough to move forward with a festival in 2021 due to lack of time for planning. My tickets to both events will be rolled over, again, to 2022.

However with 2021 summer right around the corner, things are beginning to look up. Vaccination rates are steadily increasing and events are beginning to move forward. Lineups have been dropping in recent months and excitement is building. Hype train is in full gear. I decided once Sonic Bloom postponed to YOLO solo to a festival I have been eyeing for the last few years, UNTZ! With the festival being located in California on first weekend of June, I will need to fly in with my camping gear. A new experience for me for sure! I know plenty of people have done this for festivals though and am confident it will all be worth it in the end. Untz lineup has some of my favorite artists headlining, including Yheti, Charlesthefirst, Supertask, and Of The Trees. The lineup doesn’t stop there, it is by far one of the deepest and best lineups out there and I have ever attended for the bass scene. With multiple stages playing music through the night, culminating in sunrise sets each morning, and the limited ticket sales, this is sure to be a family affair.

My Rekinection ticket purchase was rolled over to the second weekend of June 2021. This is another event I am really looking forward to being located right in my backyard at Astral Valley, by far one of my favorite venues. This lineup offers some real bangers along with some easy listening. Headlined by Clozee, another artist I love and have seen multiple times. Other headliners include Of the Trees, Yaima, & Mike Love, with support from Russ Liquid, Dub Sutra, Meso, Flintwick, and more! Another reason I am excited to attend this festival close to home is it will be my first time taking my RV I purchased in late 2019 to a festival. Bringing the comforts of home to church is going to take this experience to another level. I plan on being with a nice sized crew with a homie actually playing a set on a supporting stage which will be awesome!

I haven’t decided on any further festival for 2021 as I am still holding out some hope for a Wakaanfest in early October at Mulberry mountain in Arkansas. There have been a few real nice lineups dropped with Sound Haven in Tennessee and Kosmic Kingdom in Iowa. I am going to hold out though until later this year to make any decisions on end of summer/fall fests. I will have limited time off work and I don’t want to jump the gun on anything at this point.

I will definitely post updates over the next few weeks detailing my experience at Untz as well as Rekinection the following weekend!

With the continuing crisis and pandemic facing the globe, most events in 2020 have been cancelled or postponed until 2021. I have decided to carry my tickets over for both Sonic Bloom and Electric Forest to 2021. I still have hopes that we will be able to gather and celebrate sometime in 2020 but at the moment not much can be said for certain. I am hoping to be able to make a small local festival in August called Rekinection, and will be sure to post about it in the event we are able to attend.

So about the only thing I know for sure I would not miss in 2020 is a Tipper return to astral valley outside of STL. This has been hinted at several times and the venue is right in my backyard! I love the valley and the people and the atmosphere, in my opinion its the best venue I have ever attended a show at; from Astral Valley page “Astral Valley is an interactive art park & event center nestled on over 230 acres in the Missouri Ozarks. Located only 45 minutes South of St. Louis, it is the perfect convenient getaway to host all your outdoor gatherings: family functions, corporate retreats, spiritual outings, weddings, reunions, group campouts, educational workshops, charity events, fund raisers, live concerts, and much much more. “

I would love to be able to get to an international festival next year, so Boom, Shambhala, Global Eclipse… they are all on my radar just have to see what pans out in the next few months. Either way I can not wait to see you lovelies next time and another spectacular gathering!

From the get go I knew this would be one of my favorite events of the year. The lineup was absolutely stacked with artists I love and the venue was familiar being as Backwoods was also held at mulberry mountain. We arrived at a decent time and took a little over an hour or so to get through the security line to get in the venue. Searches varied drastically from them tearing everything out of your vehicle, to simply looking in your cooler to make sure you didn’t have glass.

Music was pretty much playing constantly with only a few hours between the sets ending early in the AM at the side stages and the sets starting back up on main stage mid day. The only complaint I have is that we were not allowed to go down to the waterfall, they had someone guarding the fence line the whole weekend and would not allow re entry. Seeing as the waterfall was one of my favorite aspects of mulberry mountain it really put a damper on my day.

On Sat evening during the main stage sets a summer storm that mulberry is so well known for came rolling over the hills. While there was some concern at first that music would be stopped, the storm stayed in the distance and just added to the visuals with lightning and sparkling drops falling from the sky as the storm moved past. Ended the fest with one of the best sets I have ever witnessed by the man Yheti at sunrise. Until next time fam!

I knew this year I wanted to make it to a festival in Colorado, and ended up deciding on Arise. I chose Arise as it seemed more community focused and there are many workshops, yoga classes, and other events to get involved with. I arrived in Colorado Friday morning and made it to the festival grounds outside Loveland in the afternoon. The line to get checked in wasn’t horrible, ended up taking around an hour to get through and parked. I did the walk in camping as I don’t see the benefit of paying an extra hundred dollars to camp with your car. I was able to get most my gear in in just a couple trips with a wagon I brought from home. I set up camp in the grass between a walking path and the outside back fence of the venue, then walked around a little bit to get acquainted with my home for the next few days.

Friday night blew my mind as Tipper melted and swirled our consciousness together like only he can. After the music ended I had to go lay down to get my wits about me but after a while I was ready for an adventure. You never know what you will find at 4 AM wandering the grounds of a festival. To my delight there was a bubble wizard poised at a perfect place on the trail blowing ginormous bubbles, you know the kind that can swallow you whole. He was encouraging others to join and he had a whole set up so that anyone so inclined could make their own huge reality distorting bubbles,… only rule was keep the stick out of the dirt! There was another nice gentleman playing some acoustic tunes and I just sat and watched as many others came and enjoyed the magic of bubbles like we were children again.

When Saturday came I could tell I was already a little drained, and needed a refresher. I participated in one of the yoga classes being offered that morning to loosen up, and of course was not dissapointed, there were so many great instructors over the weekend. Luckily the shower oasis they had set up was just what I needed after the good morning stretch. The company uses green practices to be sure water and resources are not wasted, I loved the idea. After cleaning up and feeling better I began to browse the shops and stopped by a couple of the workshops. Mid day they had a wonderful parade with all of the children around the venue. This was by far the most family oriented fest I have ever been to and would love to return one day with my young ones. You could see the wonder and delight in the children’s eyes as they paraded around as if in a fairy tale.

I spent some time Saturday going around and looking at the live art and getting a feel for the different vendor shops, which there were plenty of shops and art installations to choose from. Arise did a pretty good job making sure there was always some sort of activity you could be at or get involved in.

Saturday night Tipper was def a different vibe but wonderful as always. He blew our minds with the set just melding minds with our bodies through the vibrations of the earth and crowd. Clozee came on after and threw down which the whole crowd seemed to love, I have seen her like 6 times now and she never fails to kill it. The rest of the night was just spent wandering around making short visits to different stages, but ultimately ended up in bed before too late.

Sunday was much more of a chill day relaxing. Many jam bands and not alot of extracurricular activities besides getting closer looks at the art and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Aaron Kamm and the one drops killed it Sunday evening and I realized then there were a lot more people there from STL area than I realized. We all agreed on one thing, cant believe Aaron Kamm hasn’t blown up with his great performances and killer energy he puts into all his shows. After Aaron Kamm rocked the place we were blessed with some of the grimey dirty wubs I love O so dearly with Goopsteppa. He came in and dropped some bombs and even though that tent stage was a sauna he had everyone moving and grooving

By Monday morning I was ready to head home. Everyone I talked to was extremely welcoming but I hadn’t connected with as many people as I hoped, mainly due to my introverted self always over thinking things, but I am working on it 🙂 . I was ready to come home to my beautiful wife and children. Festivals are a great way to reset but its always nice to get back to the # 1, those who love you unconditionally and depend on you. Much love and until the next glimpse of paradise

Backwoods put on a good show this year and while the unfortunate events on Sunday evening put a little bit of a damper on the weekend I still had an amazing time. Me and my wife got in Friday afternoon without any issue and hardly any line for check in. We were directed to parking for our vehicle and told where the woods camping was located. We walked with our gear a half mile or so to find a spot which was a little difficult as much of the groomed woods area was already claimed. We ended up finding a spot tucked behind the art installations a little off the beaten path in the woods and set up camp. Once we got everything set up we walked around and got familiar with the layout of the grounds. Security at the main stage wasn’t too bad and did not usually have much of a wait. Music was great starting off with EOTO and ending in the AM with a Yheti sunrise set.

There was a nice selection of merchandise and food vendors, and we spent most of the day Saturday perusing the variety of goods available. Saturday evening was headlined by Space Jesus and Rezz and continued late into the night. Sunday we decided to make the trek to the waterfall down the mountain, the walk down wasn’t too bad and took around 30 minutes to get to the stream at the bottom of the path. We followed upstream for another 10 minutes or so to get to the falls where there was a good size 10 ft waterfall and many smaller falls. After relaxing for a few hours we decided to head back to grab some food before music started. The hike back to camp was definitely a challenge and took around an hour to make it back up the mountain. The juice was for sure worth the squeeze and I recommend all who attend an event at Mulberry Mountain experience it.

Sunday evening kicked off with Minnesota and he was dropping some heat but some pop up thunderstorms caused the stage to be shut down and all were advised to head back to camp and take cover for the storm coming through. After the storm passed through I started walking around to assess the situation. Many vendors had their booths damaged or destroyed from the winds and rain. A beautiful rainbow shone bright as the sun set behind the mountains in the distance.

Everything calmed down and we tried to head back to the Aqua Station stage, noticing that there was a lot of activity with police and ambulances arriving. We were told the stage was closed and all further music would be at the main stage. We headed to the main stage looking to get the evening reignited. Unfortunately once we got into the main stage area and the artists on stage finished, we noticed that no one else was coming on stage. Our fears were confirmed a little while later with an announcement that all music was on hold until further notice, without much of any explanation. At this time I was just thinking the storm had caused damage to the equipment and they were trying to get things going again. Eventually once I had gone to bed for the night they made an announcement that there had been an accident involving the helicopter that had been giving sight seeing tours on the grounds. We found out later that 3 beautiful souls had lost their lives with 1 additional person in critical condition fighting for his life.

“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain