Editorial: 8 Festivals. 1 Summer.

For me, festivals are about more than just having a good time or taking a vacation from my problems. With every festival, I grow a little bit more; I find another piece of myself. This summer, I found quite a few pieces — eight to be exact.

    From small events close to home to large events states away, here are the eight midwest festivals where these new pieces were located.

Revival
May 24-27, Harmony Park, Geneva, MN

The festival season started with a solid group of friends and just and hour away from my hometown, Mankato, MN. Decked out in my Tom onesie and rainbow pashmina, it was time for the summer’s shenanigans to begin. Aside from a bit of rain on Friday, clear skies allowed me and a friend to carry around a twin sized mattress, turning any stage into a lounging area.

    Cory Wong, Twiddle, and Phil Lesh were added to my list of artists I’ve seen perform live. Each act was an appropriate compliment to the festival. Phil brought the jam, Twiddle brought the reggae, and Cory brought the funk.

Earth Rhythms

June 7-10, Pure Bliss Ranch, Waubun, MN

    Less than two weeks later, I headed to native land known as White Earth Reservation. Many small wooded trails cut through the festival, leading to six different stages scattered about. The variety of art defined Earth Rhythms. Alongside the musical artists were painters, spray painters, flow artists, and visual artists projecting images to compliment the music.

    An exceptional amount of versatility among music genres was present for such a small festival. Bluegrass and jam rock ruled the Horizon and Barn stages, with a hint of metal, reggae, and acoustic. The rest focused on a wide variety of EDM. Genres ranging from deep dubstep to glitch hop played all throughout the night.

    If it weren’t for an intense rain storm right before Space Monster’s set, images and footage of me and my friend dancing and battling on stage in blow up dinosaur suits would probably exist.

Next time.

Project Earth

June 14-16, Harmony Park, Geneva, MN

    Project Earth was my very first festival I ever attended back in 2011, and I had yet to return. Consequently, I made an intense effort to experience as much of this year’s as possible despite a busy weekend otherwise. As I was unable to make it to most of the music at Project, my attendance was entirely friend oriented.

    Adventure, conversation, and bonfire jam sessions are usually not the most defining moments of a festival for me, but the relaxing change of pace was welcomed under the circumstances. My next adventure would be far from relaxed.

 No photos were taken to document this experience. 

Electric Forest: Weekend One

June 21-24, Double JJ Resort, Rothbury, MI

    This year was my first time ever in the forest. It was a long time coming and perfect timing. Friends and friends of friends all collaborated to make camp “Yas Queen” come to life. On Friday we all dressed up as Disney characters.

    Aside from a generally wonderful time with my favorite people, here are some of the highlights.

I’ve seen CloZee before, but seeing her in the forest blew my mind.

 

I saw Griz and Bassnectar for the first time.

A small group of us snuck backstage and met CloZee and Space Jesus. We even got a picture with CloZee.

We raged until dawn at the Panky Rang Renegade camp and the other RV stages every night, right up until we were hours away from leaving.

Electric Forest is an incredible place.

 

Geneva Lake Jam

July 6, Harmony Park, Geneva, MN

    Lake Jam was a very small one day event I attended by myself. But as things tend to go at Harmony Park, I managed to find some festival friends, and we let the night run its course.

    Northern Medicine, Space Monkey Mafia, and Momentary Lapse of Floyd were the only musical acts of the night. Upon their exit, a stranger and I found a bike graveyard and proceeded to ride broken bikes around a near empty Harmony Park. I finished out the night chatting with a friend and making tin foil armor for a tiny plastic dog until sunrise.

    There was definitely no shortage of shenanigans even at such a small event.

 

Infrasound

July 19-22, Highbridge Hills Sports Complex, Highbridge, WI

    Mud, bass, and sunrise sets. Even though I had never heard of about 80 percent of the artists on the almost exclusively electronic lineup, Infrasound was all about the music. Among the endless dancing with my best friends, Jade Cicada’s set was made especially memorable by perfect nighttime weather, beautiful melodies, and glitchy drops.

    After raging to the last day’s sunrise set, I roamed with a friend as she handed out a box full of beef sticks to strangers. That isn’t code for anything and is literally what happened.

 

Galactic Get Down

August 2-4, Outback Ranch, Houston, MN

    Galactic Get Down switched up the sound entirely with an almost exclusively non electronic line up. Being surrounded by so many familiar festival friends made it feel somewhat similar to Harmony Park.

    The entire Perfect Harmony team assembled as press. We each had an interview with artists performing that weekend, mine being the bassist from one of the “Silent Jamz” performances, New Elements.

    And I would never forget to mention the iconic rearranging of “Get Down” into “Wet Dong.”

 

Shangri-La
August 30-September 2, Harmony Park, Geneva, MN

    I found myself at Harmony Park for the fourth time this year for Shangri-La, and I wouldn’t wish to have ended my festival season any other way. This year was Wookiefoot’s 20th anniversary, and that’s just one of the counts on which this Shang was more memorable than most.

    I witnessed Polish Ambassador’s live band project, The Diplomatic Scandal for the first time. Afterwards, Alycia and I went backstage and met him. We also gave him a Perfect Harmony sticker. The absolute highlight of my weekend, however, was my thirty minute interview with Max Graham.

    When I was younger, the end of a festival used to feel so heavy and disappointing. Now when those times come, I feel more complete, and I look towards the future knowing that I am now better equipped to mold it however I please. Besides, there are always more pieces to find.

 

Peace. ✌