My First Festival was Lost Lands
Getting ready for Lost Lands was something that I felt I could never really be fully prepared for. It was three days of 500,000 watts of bass and the Paradox Stage — my first festival experience was going to be an intense one. I had bought all my groceries, taken cash out of the ATM , set up meeting times with my “bass buddies” and was all set to head out on a very long car ride.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was forgetting something. Once Thursday morning came, and it was time to depart, none of those feelings mattered anymore. The only thing I knew that morning was I was headed towards a very fun and much needed “bass-cation”.
Lost Lands Music Festival 2017 was bass artist, Excision’s, inaugural event. The festival took place September 29 through October 1 at Legend Valley in Thornville, Ohio.
Although I had never attended a festival, I had some idea of what a festival would be like for two reasons: my fellow bass-mates had told me about their experiences at Electric Forest many times and Excision’s extensive social media presence and interaction on his fan page . Throughout the event, he stayed active on the page reading headbangers comments and keeping them in the loop on happenings. Jeff Able, Excison, even went as far to fire security members after many attendees posted about the ill and rough treatment.
In terms of the music, I had been to two other Excision shows before.. I knew the music, but I had no idea what the stages would look like, or how much bass there really would be.
Getting to Lost Lands was an adventure in and of itself. Going from Minnesota to Ohio is not an easy task. It did, however, give me quite a bit of time to calm my nerves. But when we made the turn to get in line for camping, all those nerves came right back. I had underestimated the amount of people that would be attending the festival, and seeing all the cars lined up for security checks with dogs was enough to get my stomach churning. Any feelings I had of being tired from traveling through the night went right out the window.
After setting up and replenishing a couple much-needed hours of rest, it came time to head into the festival grounds. I imagined it would be like walking into a typical fairgrounds, with food and merchandise vendors and a lot of people. It was almost exactly what I’d imagined — just add in loud bass music constantly playing and every other person repping the ‘X’ (Excisions signature sign).
I later found out the grounds had hosted other events such as All Good Festival, Lollapalooza, Gathering of the Juggalos then names such as AC/DC, Journey, The Allman Brothers, The Grateful Dead, and Def Leppard.
Once we made it down the long, winding road to the festival grounds and through security check, the real fun could begin.
The first thing we saw was a pair of dinosaurs head-butting with a sign above them that said “Welcome Headbangers..” Things only got better as we saw a full-size T-rex right as we got through the security gates. There were dinosaurs all over the place walking into the festival. Big dinosaurs, small dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs and even dinosaurs that moved robotically. Excision lived up to the expectations. I couldn’t stop smiling from ear to ear.
The main stage blew me away. The DJ stood with two fossils next to him, two more full-size T-rexes outside of there, and two huge volcanoes to cap it off. As if that wasn’t enough, a gigantic brachiosaurus stood at the edge of the area, symbolically watching over everything. The rumor was, something like $3 Million was spent on the giant creatures.
Of course, what would any bass festival be without music? There are three ways I can describe the sets at lost lands: mindblowing, face-melting, and neck breaking. Sets ranged from heavy-metal inspired dubstep to slow, melodic chillstep, and everything in between. Names on the line up included Excision, Zeds Dead, 12th Planet, Liquid Stranger, Destroid, Cookie Monsta, Rezz, Illenium, Kill the Noise, Slander, Snail, Yheti, Space Jesus, Sullivan King, and the list goes on. The visuals were insane, the bass could be felt throughout every part of my body, and the crowds were always into everything – there were kids bobbing along to chillstep one minute and hardcore head-banging to Destroid the next.
One of my favorite quotes from the weekend from myself was, “I can’t really say that any of the sets we’ve gone to weren’t good.”
I didn’t dislike anything about anyone we saw. I enjoyed getting my face-melted by the hardcore rage of Sullivan King. I loved singing along with the feels-good vibes that Illenium gave off. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite set, I would say it was Excision b2b Datsik. Seeing them together was a dream come true.
Lost Lands was one of the best weekends I have experienced in my life. Every person I talked to at the festival was friendly, whether it was chilling at our campsite or raging in a mosh pit. It didn’t matter. We were all there to enjoy music that we loved, and the vibes could not have been better. At the end of the weekend, I was very sad to leave. I didn’t want to leave all the friends I had made, the music I had enjoyed, and the people who stuck with me through everything. I would’ve never attended Lost Lands if it weren’t for the friends who introduced me to every show that I’ve gone to, every grimey track I’ve ever heard, and now every festival I’ve gone to. I will miss Lost Lands tremendously, and I look forward to going again in 2018.
In the meantime, as long as I’m with my headbanger friends, I’ll get by.
Editorial By: David Schuyler
(Center in photo.)
