Bouncing around from set to set can be a little overwhelming when everything is on a tight schedule. At Electric Forest, making the trek from Tripolee to Shorewood Court on time was a seemingly impossible task when the completely sold out festival filled up with all of the people and forest creatures after sunset. And how could you not get lured into the Forest by all of its temptations like the hidden silent disco run by HUSHconcerts, or the beautiful Daniel Popper art installations showcased directly in the forest pathway? Not to mention the entertaining Frick Frack Blackjack where you can bet your birthday, or anything for that matter except for cash.
This weekend at EF was a reminder that we’re always right where we need to be. Most importantly to be present wherever you’re at, otherwise you’ll miss out on that serendipitous Forest magic. There were so many full circle moments that happened over the weekend; from randomly running into old friends, the whole crew miraculously showing up at the same place at the same time totally unplanned, finding a lost artifact after losing it in the dark, and seeing a sign right after talking about the thing (whatever it referred to).
But the one most jaw-dropping “is this real” moment was when our small quad squad bumped into one very interesting man at the first set our whole Festisia crew caught together on Saturday, which was String Cheese’s Saturday “whole shebang” set. During the set break, these two dudes got into a very heated arm wrestling match right in front of where we were sitting. It got intense for a minute and then LSP did a brave thing and shoved the interview microphone — currently named, Iben, right up to the guys’ faces and started interviewing them. It was almost too comical to be real, but it luckily diffused the intense situation and everyone was able to relax again and enjoy the beautiful surrounding.
Fast forward 9 hours later, we found ourselves a nice little spot on a whimsical wooden structure to rest our very tired bones in the Forest. We started to notice a stream of fairies and elves prancing out of the structure, and then all of a sudden the man that we saw in the arm wrestling match from earlier appears out of nowhere… stumbling into our semi circle. We got to know him after he joined our circle and turns out he actually built the wooden elf structure we were sitting on! He introduced a heartwarming game to us where we went around and shared what we were most grateful for of the day. Before parting ways, we asked him what his name was and he said he went by “Compost”. So Compost, if you so happen to see this one day just know that we appreciate you and the delightful full circle forest moment you shared with us.
-Lina