There’s not many places in the world you can go sleep outside for two weeks with 60,000+ people, and feel more at home than wherever you actually call home.

That’s the easiest way to describe what happened over those magical 12 days in the forest. Each day was filled with new experiences, old experiences done better, and things that would happen that felt like “you had to be exactly at the right place at the right time.”

The people I met, the DJ’s and performers I saw, and the attitude of everyone throughout the entire experience was something I had never experienced. It seemed like half the weekend of each weekend rained on and off, which made everything wet and muddy.

Tent sites were destroyed, clothes, phones, and shoes ruined. Even Electric Forest didn’t escape the occasional bad apples rummaging through peoples stuff and cutting tents open to take what didn’t belong to them, and probably ruin someones weekend.

Regardless of any of the negatives, I never saw sad faces, I never heard constant negative attitude. Everyone was amazingly nice and caring to each other no matter how much of a stranger you were to them. It without a doubt felt like one big family. Everyone looked like they were the happiest they had ever been.

I cried everyday, including at Waka Flocka Flame. Only a place like the forest could have you in such awe that you would cry during Waka ( after just jumping through the mosh pit a few times ofcourse ).

I spent time with old friends who I grew closer with, along with new friends weekend 1, and made completely new friends weekend 2, who became just as much as family as anyone else.

Cops looked for actual trouble makers and watched out for peoples safety and were not there to go after and arrest drug users. Medics were quick to respond, and were prepared and knowledgeable in the types of mindsets that people would be in while under their care.

All the while looking around and wondering why the real world wasn’t like this, and also realizing it was our duty to take those good vibes with us for the rest of our lives and spread them to places other than festivals.

Its one of those places that reminds you everything happens for a reason, and life is such an amazing thing to live, if you make it amazing. Especially when Bassnectar drops a Bill Hicks speech in the middle of his set weekend 1,

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we … kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love.”

Its safe to say every person that attended was forever changed as a human being from that forest, and that’s something not every festival can say. Thank you Electric Forest.

( Bill Hicks Bassnectar vid Below )

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