{"id":95435,"date":"2024-08-08T12:05:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/08\/08\/how-electric-forest-keeps-shining-in-a-packed-festival-market-its-kind-of-a-choose-your-own-adventure\/"},"modified":"2024-08-08T12:05:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T16:05:56","slug":"how-electric-forest-keeps-shining-in-a-packed-festival-market-its-kind-of-a-choose-your-own-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/08\/08\/how-electric-forest-keeps-shining-in-a-packed-festival-market-its-kind-of-a-choose-your-own-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"How Electric Forest Keeps Shining in a Packed Festival Market: \u2018It\u2019s Kind of a Choose Your Own Adventure\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tSamantha liked that attending Electric Forest took some planning \u2013 that it wasn\u2019t one of those festivals that a person just attended on a whim.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t just buy tickets the night before and decide you\u2019re going the next day \u2013 it\u2019s more complicated than that. There\u2019s camping, there\u2019s travel, there\u2019s making sure all of the LED lights on your outfit have the right batteries and are still working from last year,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the 12-month span between Electric Forest 2023 and 2024, which ran June 20-23, Samantha (not her real name) left a \u201ctoxic\u201d relationship and was involved in a serious car accident that required intensive physical therapy making it very difficult to walk or stand for long periods of time.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKnowing that I had to heal my body in order to attend my tenth Electric Forest is what got me through my physical therapy,\u201d she told Billboard<\/em>. \u201cAfter the year I had, there was no f***ing way I was going to miss the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u2018This Is the Most Special Thing That\u2019s Ever Happened to Me\u2019: Watch an Exclusive Mini-Doc in Queer\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tSamantha was one of more than 50,000 fans who attended this year\u2019s sold-out Electric Forest festival in Rothbury, Mich. Produced by AEG and Insomniac on the grounds of the Double JJ Ranch, the 13-year-old event has remained the largest camping festival in the jam and electronic music scene, an impressive feat in a market saturated with smaller, low-cost options targeted at casual fans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur success begins and ends with the community of fans and supports that make Electric Forest a regular part of their lives,\u201d says Alicia Karlin<\/strong>, vp of global touring and talent at AEG Presents, who serves as the talent buyer for the festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s impressive considering how much the festival has moved away from the Electric Forest model. A decade ago, festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo were compelled to offer camping because attendees needed a place to stay for three days. But the shift toward urban centers, and the increasing costs of providing tens of thousands of fans with bathrooms, showers, trash collection and access to medical care has made camping costs prohibitive for many event organizers.<\/p>\n

\n\tElectric Forest, on the other hand, is 99 percent camping and located in a fairly remote part of the state \u2013 the city of Rothbury, which hosts the festival, has a population of less than 450 residents. Attendees bring everything they need for the festival \u2013 from camping gear to food and luggage, undergoing rigorous security checks and driving as much as 500 miles in each direction.<\/p>\n

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Electric Forest 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n\tAnd while most festivals rely on their headlining artists to move tickets, this year\u2019s festival featured Pretty Lights, Subtronics, Excision, The Disco Biscuits, Umphrey\u2019s McGee and two sets from String Cheese Incident. Moreover, Electric Forest sells out the bulk of its annual tickets before the lineup is announced.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have 10 stages and a huge creative team and cast,\u201d Karlin tells Billboard<\/em>. \u201cThe agents and managers we work with trust us to put their artists in the best light and we\u2019ve gotten to a point where many artists black out the entire weekend to play the festival and then attend the show the rest of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo of Electric Forest\u2019s biggest draws are the Sherwood Forest and Dream Emporium, each enhanced with actors and volunteers and hundreds of set pieces and custom art displays that change from year to year.<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch of the art pieces featured at Electric Forest are commissioned by the festival, explains Brad Lyman<\/strong>, Electric Forest production manager and creative director, who said the event receives more than 60 commission requests per year and accepts about 5 new pieces including a new Ocular organ delivered for 2024.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tOur Billboard Dance Editor\u2019s Mom Reviews Electric Forest 2022, Her First-Ever\u2026\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tThe Sherwood Forest separates the festivals main stages and camping areas with dozens of different areas and hidden pockets waiting to be discovered, from a field filled with hammocks to a small chapel where weddings are performed and walkways decorated by hundreds of Thai parasols.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival\u2019s complex lightning and laser design is handled by Felix Lighting of Los Angeles while the festival\u2019s walk-through experience \u2013 the Dream Emporium, is managed onsite by a team of creative professionals led by Suzanne Down<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a choose your own adventure,\u201d explains Down, who welcomes visitors to the Dream Emporium into a small lounge set up for UFO karaoke into a mirrored infinity tunnel designed to look like a 1970s car wash. Visitors wander the maze-like complex and stumble upon a skating rink wither roller skates available for rental, an indoor lake with a yacht and a punk dive bar that doubles as a wrestling ring.<\/p>\n

\n\tMany artists get their start at Electric Forest playing one of the outdoor activations, Karlin explained, or even playing one of the late-night parties within the campground that often draw thousands of fans.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is always something to discover wherever you go, and fans tell us they really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to discover something new each year,\u201d Karlin explains. \u201cThat\u2019s what motivates us as well. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of time and resources that goes into Electric Forest but hearing these positive stories from fans year after year really puts it all into perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samantha liked that attending Electric Forest took some planning \u2013 that it wasn\u2019t one of those festivals that a person just attended on a whim. \u201cYou can\u2019t just buy tickets the night before and decide you\u2019re going the next day \u2013 it\u2019s more complicated than that. There\u2019s camping, there\u2019s travel, there\u2019s making sure all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}