WHITEHALL, MI - As the popular Electric Forest music festival expands into uncharted territory, many participants are anxiously awaiting the first-ever second weekend.

Several of the festivalgoers have been spotted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Muskegon County. For some, they are in the area in between Electric Forest's two weekends with plans to attend both. For others, they plan to attend the festival's second weekend and came to the area early.

Many businesses, including gas stations, super markets and laundromats, drew in these Electric Forest attendees. Some also found lodging in the area.

Round Two of Electric Forest 2017 is scheduled for Thursday, June 29 through Sunday, July 2 at Double JJ Resort in Rothbury, Michigan. The first four-day weekend of the popular music and camping festival concluded Sunday.

Ashley L'Meill, 23, has stayed in an AirBnb in Montague for the past few days, exploring the area as she awaited the second weekend of the event.

This is her fourth time attending Electric Forest and for her, the event never gets old.

"It's just everything, everyone that I encountered is nice," L'Meill said. "The venue is amazing compared to others. They always change something small and you have to look around to find it."

L'Meill said she was caught off guard by the second week of the festival, but that didn't stop her from wanting to experience it.

"The two weekends surprised me," she said. "I felt like I had to do both (weeks) because I wanted to see everyone. It just made me have to find things to do in between."

The extra weekend also was a surprise to L'Meill's bank account, tickets cost hundreds of dollars for each four-day weekend, but that also didn't keep her from taking in another week of the festival.

"You have to factor in a whole other festival, but it was well worth it, I hope," she said.

Sam LeBrun and Laura Lowe from Seattle, arrived in Muskegon Tuesday morning after taking a road trip from their hometown. The couple walked around downtown and visited Heritage Landing as well as Unruly Brewery while they awaited the festival.

The couple took an entire month off for the road trip and will be visiting the festival for the first time.

"We've had it on our bucket list for a while and it sounded really cool," LeBrun said. "One of my friends has been to it a like seven times and is a local here, and has been talking it up.

"We've always wanted to try it and we were taking a road trip anyway and happened to be in the greater area, so we thought we'd give it a try."

Lowe, who works in a brewery back in Seattle, said her and LeBrun have been working all winter to make this trip happen.

"We worked so hard to make this trip happen," she said. "Taking an entire month off of work is not easy feat. I'm just trying to make the most of every moment."

Participants were all over Whitehall Wednesday afternoon. They were seen packing their cars, RVs and trucks with water, food and other supplies to get themselves ready for the event.

Some of the visitors have traveled quite far for the extravaganza.

"I don't even know what I'm getting myself into right now," said Dennys Gaona, 21, who traveled from Athens, Georgia. "It's going to be a good time, especially with a good group of friends."

Gaona is like many participants who have traveled from across the country and even the world to visit one of the biggest festivals in Michigan.

He and 25 others will take in the music and other events the festival has to offer.

Elisabeth Jensen works at the Wesco gas station in Whitehall and said the amount of traffic the second week of the festival has boosted business for the gas station.

"Our business has probably quadrupled," Jensen said.

A great deal of the visitors who come into the Wesco purchases water and cigarettes, among other supplies, Jensen said.

The festival brings in people from as far as Russia, Australia and Lebanon. Inside the Wesco hangs a map with stars indicating the different locations of where visitors are from.

Jensen said seeing the different people in the area is always exciting during this time of year.

"I always ask them where they're from because I like to know," she said. "It's huge and people are from all over. We're amazed when people come in and say they're from the UK and South Africa."

Danny Neils, 23, of Wisconsin is also experiencing the festival for the first time. He and a group of 15 friends made the trip from Fondulac and arrived in Whitehall early Wednesday afternoon.

Although Neils wasn't at the festival for the first week, he said the key to preparing for the event is simple.

"You have to sleep to prepare yourself," he said.

Marc Murr, co-manager of the Nook Book Java Shop in Montague sees dozens of people from the festival hanging out in the shop.

The participants usually come by in the morning to get coffee and the evenings when they're searching for dinner, Murr said.

"Some of them have brought a lot of color to the area of White Lake and we appreciate it," Murr said.

"It's a great bit of diversity for our community, which we all appreciate," he added.