Author: Maddie McCafferty

Rothbury, MI’s iconic four-day music festival Electric Forest brought 50,000 people together in celebration of music, art, and life. From June 22 to June 25, 2023 individuals embraced the secrets of the forest and ran around the 400-acre secluded land. The marriage of all flavors of music from electronic music to jam and adjacent bands leaves a little something for everyone to enjoy. 

Electric Forest is a music festival with its own demographic. Yes, there are stages to enjoy both your favorite artists and new alike, but there are also hidden gems found all around. For starters, most of the seven stages are located inside the forest, meaning oftentimes, these can be harder to locate. It is nearly impossible to experience everything this music festival has to offer. From beatbox battles to intention-setting workshops to art installations to games, to the dream emporium, it has it all. One central theme though found throughout this weekend getaway is the sense of community and love. People are eager to bond with one another and strike up conversations. No one is ever truly alone in the forest. 

DAY 1 – ODESZA DAY

Gearing up for the first day of the festival had a lot of people up early and exploring the market vendors before entering the festival at 3 p.m. Early in the day, the Brainery Center held active workshops for various groups of people to come together and unite with their niche. Some people set intentions for their festival experience while others got together for the Reddit lover meet-up. 

You could feel all the love and positive energy when entering the festival on the first day. People are eager to delve into the numerous events taking place throughout. This day was a chill more laid-back day for music. Artists like Dixon’s Violin and Eazybaked kicked off the first live shows inside the festival grounds. And for others who wanted to create art spent time “spirit painting.”

Many people found themselves seeing the new features the 2023 forest had to offer. This included new entrance statues and the enclosed Dream Emporium which took influence from the immersive Meow Wolf museum. 

As nighttime began to set in the forest house music dominated the scene. Satin Jackets, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, and Sofi Tukker all geared up the crowd for the first headliner of the festival who nobody planned on missing out on ODESZA. 

The electronic duo ODESZA is known for their extravagant live shows, to say the least. Through their insane drum line, pyro, introspective visuals, and fireworks this electronic group creates a euphoric experience that can’t be compared. This show has been referred to as a cinematic experience. Regardless of your taste in music, this show the crew puts on can attract fans from all genres. 

They pay homage to the human experience in terms of individuality and as a collective whole. Their latest analyzes the version of each person that gets to be expressed in this lifetime. One thing Electric Forest and ODESZA bring out of crowds is love. The hyper analyzation of self-expression and the rarity to experience this life at the same time as each other reminds everyone of the gratitude we need to constantly look towards. Their set left no one disappointed and as the next days of Electric Forest continued no one could stop talking about this performance.  

DAY 2 – GET YOUR BASS FACE ON

One element that was consistent throughout Day 2 was the heat. The weather was hot and sticky but that just meant more water for more time to dance. Early wakers started their days with sound baths, guided meditation, and yoga. Those who are more competitive attended the beatbox competition, dance battle, or bingo at the Carousel Club. 

Bass lovers though spent their entire day at the Tripolee stage because that lineup was stacked from dusk til dawn. Kicking us off early was Tape B who may have a smaller following but whose fans are more dedicated than most. He brought the heat to an already hot day and even dropped a new mix that he made on the drive over to Michigan. 

Following the young DJ was rapidly growing artist Zingara who has really started gaining an immense amount of traction on TikTok. She blends her love of spirituality and astrology into her music. Popular songs like, “WWYB3” and “Mind & Body” were obvious fan favorites that do just that. Her music is able to deeply connect with fans while simultaneously keeping the high intensity that bass lovers enjoy. 

The night at Tripolee just kept getting better and better. Artists that left zero crumbs on that stage included Champagne Drip, Jantsen, Rusko b2b Dirt Monkey, PEEKABOO, and DIESEL. DIESEL (aka Shaq) brings not only intense energy to his set but also laughter. The number of times DIESEL says “mosh pit” into the mic can’t be counted. He constantly is looking to liven the crowd up. And when he’s not yelling at the pit to open up he is shooting basketballs into a plastic net a fan is holding. 

Some people ventured deeper into the forest to watch EDM legend Illenium perform. This timeless Denver native wooed the crowd as easily as ever with his astounding production quality and catchy tunes.   

The bass stage was full of excitement that day all leading up to headliner Ganga White Night. Someone once described Ganja as the Taylor Swift of the EDM community and nothing has more accurately depicted their presence in the scene. The Belgian bass duo have created their own universe and developed characters that people even buy plush toys of. The Easter eggs they hide in music videos, posts, and more make fans so heavily invested. They change the way artists release their music and make being a part of their fandom an adventure that extends beyond any set one watches.

Each set that Ganja White Night performs can be viewed as scenes from a movie. Their visuals take influence from anime cartoons as they also warp in new characters from other EDM artists they collaborate with. This includes Boogie T, Subtronics, and plenty more. As they took over the stage screams were heard throughout as they asked everyone, “Who is ready to wobble?” Those that couldn’t get enough of Ganja headed over to afters in the campgrounds where PEEKABOO and Ganja had a b2b set. 

DAY 3 – ALL GROOVES AND MOVES 

The heat continued to strike down on the forest family all of Day 3. As people did their best to find shade or take it easy in their chillbos, others chose to utilize another one of the forest’s perks: the waterpark. With only a short bus ride to an indoor waterpark, it gave a nice break from the intense weather conditions. 

As silly and fun as this music festival can get it also opens up a serious room for inclusion. There are sober groups that have meetups in order to maintain sobriety during an occasion that often includes a lot of partying. Other special events held include an area of remembrance where individuals can honor loved ones lost and there’s also a chapel where actual wedding ceremonies were held. 

Another element of the forest that makes it so special is the various genres that exist across all the stages. If you aren’t feeling a certain set it’s so easy to find yourself somewhere new that brings completely different vibes. Saturday was the perfect day to experience numerous genres of music. 

House icon Dr. Fresh took over Tripolee while trance artist ford. had soothing melodies filling the castle-like stage The Observatory. Headbangers moved over to Sheerwood as Kai Wachi filled the air with heavy bass. For anyone trying to find new artists to groove to could attend the silent disco where DJs were constantly rotating. One set that no one wanted to miss was The String Cheese Incident who had their annual “Shebang” as the honor festival holders. 

Later into the night, popular DJs across an array of genres took over leaving many people running around the forest to catch a bit of each of their performances. A heavy-hitting production from VOYD stood out especially due to his often rare appearance as his SVDDEN DEATH’s side alias. The VOYD project is significantly darker and more metal-influenced. His stage presence is definitely not for the easily scared but those who can get past the uneasiness of him wearing a deer skull mask on stage are in for a treat. His set at Electric Forest showed just that with minimal words spoken to the audience, jarring visuals, and constant red lasers. A VOYD set may seem questionable to some but one thing stands true: his sets are an experience intended to evoke specific emotions out of people. He does this effortlessly and gives his audience a true show. 

Finishing up Day 3 included deep house producers Zeds Dead and jam band group STS9. STS9 brought many new fans to their stage with their mix of heavy instrumental rock matched with colorful visuals. The real closer of the night was popular British DJ Chris Lake. He is most known for his range from progressive house to vocal-driven EDM making him the perfect artist for new EDM listeners to branch into. His set included many new ID tracks that fans are hungry for to be released. However, he of course played his popular hits including “I Want You,” and “In The Yuma.”

DAY 4 – NO MONSOON WILL RUIN THESE TUNES 

Despite the intense heat from the first few days the last one proved to be an exception. Grey skies covered the campgrounds in the morning. And what most people had celebrated as a break from the hotness had others packing their cars early to leave. 

In the afternoon Rothbury was under a severe thunderstorm watch that saw winds approaching 60 mph. Those that went into the festival early found themselves told to evacuate the venue and seek protective shelter as an intense rain storm took over. Canopies were seen flying across the fields, tents were flooded with water, and many had to wait it out in their cars. 

This unfortunately disrupted many artists’ set times as everyone wasn’t allowed to enter until hours later. Despite this slight disruption, it didn’t prevent anyone from turning the vibes back on once word was announced that people could re-enter the forest.  

For the first time of the weekend, the line to get into the festival was the longest to date stretching down the entire row of vendors due to the anticipation. Now that stage times were slightly mixed up it caused many people to catch sets of artists they normally wouldn’t attend. A slight blessing to the rise of the storm. Many even found themselves at the Pride Party being celebrated inside the magical trees of Michigan. 

Up and coming east coast jam band Dogs in a Pile helped kick off this last day with their captivating guitar riffs and lively tunes. Electro-soul and hip-hop producer Daily Bread also had a stellar performance with catchy new remixes and hilarious visuals from Futurama. 

Additionally, alternative band flipturn gave an energetic performance at the Carousal Club. It’s nearly impossible for this group to give a bad show. Even their slower indie songs they rock out to by adding eccentric drum solos and knowing how to be one with the crowd.

Madeon also completely blew the crowd away. His visual performance is unmatched. He brought out a massive podium that he utilized to create trippy graphics that had jaws dropped. Lovers of everything jam got to the Ranch Arena stage early for Goose. This indie-groove band has brought something new to the jam band scene. They have perfectly balanced their love for numerous genres to create a sound unique to them and one people can’t seem to stray away from. 

The final headliner for Electric Forest couldn’t have finished this festival in a more perfect way. Mid-tempo bass techno artist Rezz had a top performance for the weekend. This producer heavily focuses on her live shows as ways to take listeners on a trip through her discography. She wears hypnotic spinning goggles throughout the set and utilizes graphics to evoke emotion. She takes the extra steps to make her performance that much more impactful by use of fireworks and a spiderweb that got placed on top of everyone at the barricade as it got spread all the way to the back. What made Rezz’s set that much more unforgettable was the rain shower that occurred. The rain only added to the visual experience as it made her infinite number of lasers sparkly. 

After, people filed inside the forest to take it in one last time for the year 2023. The only music that could be heard was from a smaller DJ Kloud Forest who was playing on the Honey Comb stage. He was throwing down heavy beats blended with popular rap artists. This 360 stage allowed everyone to gather on this brilliant artist and dance together one last time.

As all the music lovers walked out of the magical forest for another year it became eerily quiet. Some hugged each other, others were crying, and many were yelling,” Where’s Carl?” as an age-old tradition. One thing stands true though, this place in seemingly the middle of nowhere brings people together. For the love of music and love of genuine connection, Electric Forest is home to so many. A home that many already can’t wait to return to. And until then forest family, see you in 2024!