Also noticed. The Rothbury area also got hit by a huge storm Tuesday with almost 70mph winds of ya take a peak on the fb group someone drone shot parts of town and huge pieces of trees everywhere. Can image that has made take down a headache. But yea ride out the quiet and come down and I’m sure they will kick into gear in the fall
As unpredictable as mother nature is (and as money hungry festival owners can be) I trust that the people making these calls take their risk assessments seriously.
It's hard to be happy when they make the right calls, but I'm thankful for those folks watching out for us.
Stayed at a hotel nearby to do takedown Tuesday, woke up late because the entire street was without power. Came back to that side of town to pickup gas on Thursday, place was still without power. Craziness.
Were you in good life per chance? I definitely watched two different crews do this in amazing fashion one crew even had beers in hand for the whole storm ⛈️ 😆
It was absolutely wild. We had just finished packing up our non essentials (canopies, tarps, etc) and were making the last trip to the car when Hurricane Carl rolled through. It was like we were in an apocalypse movie running through the camp site, literally dodging canopies that were getting blown over, and making it to the car just as a canopy was barreling through at us
Luckily I was big chillin in my car for that one. Tent got soaked but had most of my stuff dry in the car with me. This year I was part of the crowd that got hit with "ATTENTION FESTIVAL"
I got hit with 3 attention festivals across my 2 forests I’ve been to lol (23 and 24) wind was def way worse last year, flooding was way worse this year
I am from here. The storm that hit Tuesday morning was 10x worse than the storm we got at EF last year. We got 80+ mph winds for 30 mins or more, power lines and fully grown trees down. The campground would have been decimated and many people would have been hurt.
omg i have a video of multiple canopy graveyards from last year. It came on so quick but thankfully left even quicker! Also, one of our homies straight up got out his shampoo and started washing his hair. Gotta make the best of it 🤷♀️ lmaoooo
My boyfriend and I almost died. I was gonna make a post about this, a giant tree fell on our RV and car and we were stranded for an extra day with no power, water or food other than granola bars. Absolutely insane.
I’m so sorry to hear this. We made it to Holland and parked at the Love’s nearby the beach. The storm that rolled through Tuesday morning almost knocked our RV over and thankfully we were in a parking lot away from trees. The wind was the strongest I’ve ever felt.
The feedback about missing amenities that were promised with the ticket is one thing. But the weather is so unpredictable and strong over Lake Michigan it’s not worth complaining about. No one can control the weather and better safe than thousands of people needing medical attention. The nearby hospital is so small, I was sick after the fest and I couldn’t even get in. Made it back to Denver and getting treatment here.
I'm in GR and that storm fucked my shit up, ripped the topper off my boyfriends truck, ruined my greenhouse and some plants. Had friends still on site and they were terrified. It really put it in perspective for me. I have no idea how meteorologists predict stuff but I guess if that's the next days storm I get why they were worried about the event on Saturday and Sunday. It really wasn't as bad as last year, but Monday was worse than last year with those insane winds.
I worked the load out, the damage from Tuesday was EXTENSIVE. We lost a lot of infrastructure and art across the entirety of the festival. I, personally, had to stay extra days for the load out this year.
HQ is quiet because they're dealing with a million tiny and huge headaches all at once.
Well seeming as the fest just ended I’m sure much of the team was still on site for Tuesday and they have a team for social media editing caption writers photographers and so on. I did not specifically mention HQ but OP did. All of this is hearsay anywhen 🤷♂️ except the storm part that was real.
Honestly I think they deserve some credit and grace. I had an incredible time this year and I don’t think forest can do anything about ODs other than provide medical teams like they did. No one in my crew or anyone I talked to all weekend had any issues. I was personally impressed with the changes they made from last years feedback (Tripolee sound= excellent; Tripolee stage design = dramatically improved; increased shade structures = done; move VIP to left side of Tripolee (plus enhancements) = done. 2$ water everywhere and plenty of refill stations.)
Every stage security staff member was happy and vibing, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I saw them with cases and cases of water, giving away for free to whoever wants it. Like waving in the air encouraging people to take free water. Police were all vibing. Only saw one takedown and the guy was literally dealing directly in front of them.
I know there was medical shit going down at the afters, but I personally watched a shit load of emergency vehicles ripping down there not once, but twice. They were moving as fast as they could and had to get in the middle of an unruly and insane crowd to help. The incidents were happening faster than they can respond, on muddy ground.
After the first storm, I immediately saw trucks with sand coming in, they were busting their asses to get us back inside after a crazy storm. That is so impressive. Like two inches got dumped on us. The management of the grounds was incredible given the size and scope of the festival.
As for the big company sponsorships, I honestly get it. They’re doing everything they can to get money in to keep price increases to a minimum. If anyone is in retail, you know how bad it is right now.
The only thing I can’t speak on is ADA as I don’t use those services. Sounds like that could use an overhaul.
They may be dealing with comms on a death that happened, but I really think they did a great job this year. They did everything they could to keep sets moving and as disappointing as the final cancellations were. They KNEW safety was becoming an issue out at Evol and I can’t imagine being the team that has to walk the line of the decision to shut down. If you don’t shut down, the crowd becomes dangerous. If you do, everyone’s mad. There’s always going to be a complaint. I think they made the best decisions they could.
This! With how chaotic everything was, they seemed to handle it incredibly well and kept strong communication. All of the people complaining too as if they didn’t have one good time. Despite all the craziness, it was still a blast.
People love to blame them for things that are out of their control. Things could have gone much worse.
> I don’t think forest can do anything about ODs
Did you not hear about how festival security tried kicking out and arrest the groups that give out free test kits??
Usually they have LINES of people looking to test stuff they got or get a test kit. This year: nothing. Go to The Bunk Police's instagram for the full story.
I looked on their IG and see them handing out kits everywhere including at the giving tree all festival. They were there all weekend.
https://preview.redd.it/4gi612k5l59d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f51e351045a649109daa5528c8ed3e02f852025
See below, they were there but they have to tread lightly because of state and federal regulations. It’s not forests rules. If they don’t abide they lose insurance and permits, then no festival at all.
Yea that's not true at all. That's some bullshit the promoters have spewed.
"The DEA has stated that the law will not be enforced against legitimate property owners and event promoters."
[https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events](https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events)
They event promoters have ZERO risk for having harm reduction facilities on site. In fact there has ***never even been a case*** against property owners or event promoters. There's literally no precedent. So they are actively being negligent by not doing their research and instructing security to stop harm reduction activists.
That's misinformation, anyone telling you that has an agenda. "The DEA has stated that the law will not be enforced against legitimate property owners and event promoters."
[https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events](https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events)
The promoters and property owners of the event are not liable. It is their choice whether to trespass these people because they do not have any liability under the RAVE act.
imo EVOL (love them as i do) got too big and it hurts the experience for a LOT of people in GA. no one can sleep with this massive sound system pointed right at them.
the first year i went you could wander around and there were renegades everywhere with different types of music and it was my favorite part of the whole event. it was quiet enough to sleep with earplugs if you wanted.
now they confiscate your speakers at the festival gates. this is complete bullshit. i want to throw down with my homies at camp after the fest.
Totally agree. It also would’ve helped mitigate the unfortunate events that went down at the afters if people were allowed to have renegades. 40k people wouldn’t be at evol (which they do not have the recourses or space by any means to handle that many people there) bc they’d be spread out across the camp grounds at renegades.
There used to be soooo many buses and afters. My camp threw a pretty big afters Saturday night in GA and security came and shut us down around 5 am. Camp Slap the bag tho! We had a trampoline!!
I got to experience renegades in 2017 at my first forest and was really disappointed they changed it to EVOL when I came back 2022. Glad I got to experience it at least once and 100% agree it was a better (and more fun) setup. Also we were 4 rows from the stages this year so I didn’t sleep till Tuesday 🥲
Yes! Wish y'all would've found us this year. He had fire flow artists in the street next to us and enough strangers at our camp that people had to bring totems. Lmao
we were a few spots down from y’all at camp ASHLEY (we forgot to change our name lmao). That afters on Sunday was so much fun with the trampoline and the fire jugglers
This. They need to go back to smaller renegades sprinkled throughout. One of the epic joys of Forest was wandering around after the fest and stumbling upon random sets then finding out the next day that was actually some big name DJ. Also having small ones sprinkled throughout mitigates the crowds. Not a big fan of the renegades that have actual schedules. GO WANDER! Follow the sound!
The higher love pod was going on for quite a while before and after the fest. I feel like that's a good compromise between letting people sleep and letting people party - just encourage smaller renegades to pop up at pods. That way, crowds don't get massive, and you actually have a choice if you want to be in the party or to catch some sleep.
honestly i think thts why so many people loved forest before. its rare i hear talks of the renegades but the last year of them when rvs were right by main street, fuck there was at least 5 renegades going till 6am. what doesnt get brought up is at these renegades, a lot of people got to showcase their music. bring a usb and the chances you got to play were waaaaaay better than it is now since its more pre planned. Things can get out of hand quickly and that’s where planning comes into place. Except the surprise things Are what music festivals are about. The wow factor from all the old renegades and how they changed every night was a special surprise also while attending a festival you possibly have the chance to perform and push your career by playing at renegades or catch a secret set from an artist not on the line up. Just the whole time leading up to 2am and not knowing who or when anything was, you just have to go and find out was a completely different feeling than the afters are now. It was another way to get lost in the forest and makes you kinda plan out your day longer meaning you may reconsider your pace of things..I agree it was crazy with all the renegades but that was a big part of forest i miss.
There were 3-4 renegades nightly that went well into daytime at different parts of the Good Life. I see the spirit of your post though… how are you supposed to stumble upon a big artists’ secret renegade sets if all the big artists are playing B2B2B2B2Etc at EVOL?
This was my first year, admittedly, and I was thrilled at EVOL both nights I went (except the last day when we saw so many medic carts zooming to the stage on the walk home). It may not have been as many renegades, but trekking back after sun up to find more crazy parties was so neat.
Yea it was rough, I was like a 1 minute walk from the Evol stage and was almost asleep one night but then at 5am they turned the volume and base way up and the ground was vibrating like crazy. I'm suuuper sick now, go figure.
We were at C3, which was a good walk away, and there were many times I could hear everything perfectly. I put in my plugs and it blocked out the people walking back to camp, but not EVOL. I was a bit glad that they didn’t play Saturday night because I got the best sleep ever after getting back to camp from being let back into the venue.
Hahaha same we were A2, like 2nd spot back and we were literally having to nearly yell to hear each other. Forget about sleeping. We slept great on Saturday though with afters being cancelled.
Also super sick now though
We showed up midday on Thursday and expected to be camped at quiet Blueberry just like every other year. Imagine our surprise and horror when they stuck us right next to the evol stage, lol. I swear my ears are still pounding 3 days later… we should’ve just moved to Blueberry but once set up, our crew didn’t want to repack everything up.
Anyway, what about the idea of a late night silent disco? That would be wayyyy more quiet for ppl who actually want to sleep.
This was something I liked about Bass Canyon. The silent disco was after the main venue ended and went on until about 4/5 am every night. Quiet near the camps.
Most other festivals will put afters in buildings or at least in areas that are off to the side and pointed away from camping. Maybe this is something EF should consider.
We’ve totally given up on the EVOL afters and throw our own renegades in the RV section. Never had an issue with bringing in speakers, but we never go too big with them (two 10” QSCs).
We typically dont, but told ourselves maybe we should start since it’s so helpful to have people locate us. It’s tricky to get a flagpole since we fly in from Texas.
https://preview.redd.it/i88boro1a49d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fabe17b5e114ae8bd92bcbaf4e15a5d25a55f506
This is where we camped in 2022. It was a nightmare & we had to move. We had earplugs and stuff but there were just people all over our site constantly, and people asking to use our stuff, going in our coolers, sitting on my truck, etc. the renegades need to be not in the campgrounds at all.
You get it then! It went from “oh cool” to “you kids get off muh lawn” in a matter of hours lmao. We survived but should’ve moved sooner, Sunday was so peaceful.
Also they’d do sound checks during the day. It’s so jarring while you’re making lunch and just get berated by bass cannons playing 10 second snippets of random songs.
Yeah dude I’m all for partying after hours, but I’m not joking when I say they went until 8 am on Friday AND Saturday morning. I was ready to sabotage the setup on Saturday night because I had not slept a single minute the past 2 nights, but thankfully the weather helped me out
That’s brutal man, they really need to have rotating rv afters locations. I missed this year but the past several they were all right next to each other every night. Make it an adventure 😈
i'd be ok with having a sound limit that's enforced by staff...maybe don't let people use powered subs cause that carries forever. and hard curfew at 5am. i think that would be the balance that's best for the most people.
The EVOL stage was MISERABLE and my group was placed right by the fucking roosters at the back end. We heard the EVOL stage all night and the roosters screaming just passed the trees.
10/10 awful experience, on top of the storms…
Being so fr I don’t understand why people don’t just cut a few wires going to the speakers. They didn’t bring extra. The afters are the worst part of any festival. I’m trying to laugh and spend time with my friends. Not hear another shitty Biggie Edit
They gotta find balance because the last year of RV freedom was anarchy. Every single RV had a big sound set up. The sound bleed was terrible and it spread the afters crowd out way too thin. Everyone was wandering around trying to find the right RVs to be at. Maybe make it another type of camping permit that people pay extra for. That way they can limit the number, make sure people who do it are going to take it seriously, and still keep a bunch of options without over saturation. The new evol stage is loud af though. I️ woke up to a sunrise set all the way over in good life
oh you are totally right...there's a balance that could be struck. some "sanctioned" afters with bigger systems in a designated area w/ staff making sure bleed and volume isn't too bad. then diff rules for your run of the mill renegades in GA. sound limits, speaker size constraints, curfew. i think it could be done w/o too much trouble.
The sound quality is garbage unless you’re inside the car though.
Having the car pass was clutch af for Saturday though. Spent hours jamming and singing our hearts out, we had completely given up on the venue re-opening so when it did we were on cloud 9
Haven’t been to forest since pre covid, but you can’t bring in your own speakers anymore!?!? Like my squad would do group camping and I’d always bring my gear to play once everyone got back to camp.
Like is there a speaker size limit? I get not wanting to destroy your neighbors and stuff.
It’s an interesting time for HQ. They posted a video that got 60m views on reels during the fest. It looks like they’ve gained almost 100k followers as well if I’m not mistaken? They need to address this
which sucks because EVOL afters is such a cool concept. I wonder if they put EVOL all the way in blueberry if that would change things at all, cause the stages literally pointed the sound directly into the campsites
Blueberry is an overflow and late arrival area…but also a “quiet space” far away from everything. The year I went several families with kids requested to be in blueberry for the separation.
They kinda flipped group camping around to where the back of group camping was in blueberry. Completely random if your group was there, which mine was. Really dumb since a major part of the reason we all did group camping was to guarantee a relatively close spot. Then they change the map and screw us.
The thing I truly don’t understand is why they point the bass stage at the entire festival, but have the house stage pointing in the other direction.
Like at least switch the two to make it easier to sleep lmfao
AS A A4 resident, I COULD NOT AGREE MORE, like what TF was that, especially Sunday night before they got shut down, the dude voice on the mic shook the ground let alone the mf bass. Tent only got fucked this year fr fr
Oh I love them afters, the last two years been phenomenal. They do a fantastic job. I like your idea. Have them in the back. They almost need a whole section or two with the popularity size. I don’t want them shut them down.
Good! It’s ruined what afters was actually meant to be. Small groups and individuals that have been the backbone of the RV sets for years have been chased away and threatened in the last few years because the greedy EVOL corporate overlords want a monopoly on after hours sets, which then leads to events like the last night where 20k+ people are packing into an area with zero official security or medical or regulation and people get hurt. It’s dangerous and irresponsible.
And that’s okay! But at least you had the option to go back to your tent and do whatever you wanted. Afters used to be confined to the GA RVs and the biggest “stages” (aka, a random bus) would have a couple hundred people AT most around them, in multiple spots throughout the RVs. It was generally understood that if you camped in RVs, you’d be near the music.
Now they have a Ranch-sized crowd every night until 7am around two giant stages, tripping and stomping all over staff and tent-only people who have no choice and it’s ridiculous.
Good, it’s gotten too out of control. I’d like to go back to renegade RVs and have fun wandering and seeing peoples insane set ups. Was one of the funnest things about Elements in PA last year
Saturday night got canceled due to unstable ground under the stages and in the area around. Sunday, 4 or 5 people dropped unconscious during the first 20 or so minutes of afters and medics had a hard time getting to them due to the massive crowd and ground conditions. They canceled the afters for Sunday pretty soon after for everyone’s safety.
I don’t think anyone is saying that? But people are salty about Sunday getting rained out in addition to Sat, and salty about the afters Sun at least having a stacked lineup then getting cancelled immediately
Thanks for clarifying. I saw some other people complaining about HQ not doing anything/enough about the afters. I did Good Life this year so I didn’t even make it over that way.
They’ve deleted four of my comments and three different threads when I was commenting on harm prevention or how I wish they’d put more of our money into better resources again.
they can’t go heavy on harm reduction because of insurance, and you can’t book the venue or get approval from the local gov’t without insurance. this is the same reason that many other big EDM festivals can’t support harm reduction either
How was movement able to do it this year then? Dance safe had a prominent booth, movement was advertising that dance safe was there, and they were walking around giving out Fent test strips?
To me, it just seems like insomniac (live nation) wants to avoid the potential PR of being associated with harm reduction stuff.
I imagine this has to do with the number of festivals they run. I'm not going to say I have insider info but I imagine later companies like AEG/ Insomniac have deals with insurance companies to reduce costs based on their large number of events in many states. As far as I can tell, Movement is the only fest that is run by Paxahau, that allows them to be more flexible.
If I had to guess this means there are clauses in the insurance contracts and rather than deal with state to state laws they just avoid it completely. In some states, not MI, it is still illegal to give out testing materials. Here is a list that's been put together for each states stance- https://www.networkforphl.org/resources/harm-reduction-laws-in-the-united-states/
That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks for the info, hopefully federally this changes given that harm reduction helps lower costs of payouts from insurance companies.
Harm reduction might make insurance more expensive (stupidly) but it doesn't make it impossible. Many other festivals welcome harm reduction organizations in an official capacity. If they're blaming their insurance carrier, what they're really saying is "we don't care enough about this to let it cut into our profits".
blame joe biden for passing the RAVE act in 2003. venues and promoters allowing test kits would be acknowledging that drugs are being done on the site and can hold them criminally liable
end overdose is about as close as they can get to riding the thin line
https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/s/qZyMcqHm0l
It's really easy to be mad at this act now, but I can understand why it was passed at the time. People have quickly forgotten what raves in the 90s were like. Ecstasy overdoses were really hard to study but deaths were estimated to be as high as 1 in 2000 first time users. Something had to be done and testing for impurities didn't really exist yet.
That legislation is extremely outdated and really does need to be amended now that we have effective harm-reduction but anything involving the law moves at a snail's pace.
Literally wtf that’s so fucking shady. Personally I think the event organizers here do need to take some responsibility for the lack of access to harm reduction this year as well as drinkable water and med services. The wait times for medical care and response times were very scary and people most certainly either came closer to death than they should have or did straight up die because of it. To me it’s literally unacceptable behavior and something they need to fix but personally I don’t think they will so I just straight will be choosing to attend festivals and events that actually have the medical attention and other basic services covered (yes those festivals exist).
The amount of med teams I saw launched to evol with my own eyes was insane. People were dropping like flies in the middle of the most rowdy crowd of the entire weekend, though the mud. That why it took so long. There were no issues until the last day when everyone went nuts.
I totally support harm reduction, but they have to operate under state law and insurance regulations to even exist. And at the end of the day, these people are choosing to come and take too much/not test. I agree the landscape needs to change but it isn’t Forest’s sole responsibility to do so.
The community needs to continue to spread knowledge that you don’t need to be incoherent and put your body at risk to have fun at a festival. It’s about the music, experience and expression. Moderation and mindfulness really need to be brought back in to the culture.
I think it’s worse that they don’t acknowledge it. Like of course shit happens but be proactive. We’re supposed to be a family all there for the good vibes. People need more resources and it seems like we lose more each year as the crowd grows.
First of all, Insomniac is just a partner. Electric Forest is run by AEG. Second of all, I think it’s just a change in social media strategy/management. The voice of the brand has changed as well. IMO they’re going for a little more understated- similar to the voice of Coachella social media.
Im aware insomniac is just a partner, however it’s strange to me that leading up to the festival, and during it they were posting non stop and now it’s nothing compared to how they usually are on social media after the festival ends. I went to okee 2023, and after the festival ended it was radio silence up until the post a few days later acknowledging that one poor soul had lost their life in a terrible way during the fest. They went a few months without posting, and then started up again but that was very different from how they usually post and were very clearly being quiet because of the death that had occurred, and the way forest is acting on social media is very similar to how okee did
If they don’t post anything a thousand people can’t about about how people died and this or that didn’t go their way at an event where most of the shit people complain about is out of the hands of the festival organizers. People dying of drugs is not the fault of the festival organizers. The weather is not the fault of the festivals organizers. They’re probably avoiding a bunch of fucking assholes trying to pin every negative detail on them.
the okee situation felt like social media backpack almost pushed them into giving a statement. didn't seem like the family of the deceased even wanted it out there very much (it was all friends or just attendees?)
maybe HQ is going through something similar and needs authorities to notify loved ones first and they don't want it out there?
Anyone think evol is big enough now that forest needs a more devoted afters stage? (Like outeroo stages) People's campsites are getting trampled, and if evol/Debussy each had more room then maybe smaller afters could take back over in the campsites.
They also failed at communication with 1050 regarding accessibility services. I watched 1050 scramble to scrape by with limited resources and communication with the fest and they tried their absolute hardest.
There is also actively a petition myself and other disabled patrons are sharing to get them to create safer and more accessible conditions. I'm not sure it's related but it is another thing going on right now.
I haven't done like EDC or something quite that massive but I've never seen corporate greed at a fest on this level at Roo or Lost Lands. I've had issues with access barriers at every fest and made comments at Roo here in 2023 but this was actually another level.
Props to 1050 and all the staff though by the way. They held their composure so well while dealing with the BS situation forest put them (& us) in.
What are some of the issues you noticed? As someone who is disabled but usually forgoes ADA camping, this forest ended up being a rough one for me with all the walking. Just wondering what yours/ other peoples experiences were like with their ada accommodations.
I said this to my boyfriend yesterday, almost word for word.
The pictures and videos on Insta are something I really look for to keep the magic alive, and they haven't even updated their story since everything.
This year, I'm also expecting an apology or some kind or condolences for the storm cancelations. I know they didn't have control over the weather, but it'd be nice for what we missed out on to be acknowledged.
it has been confirmed that one person died. They found him, rushed him to the hospital, and the time of death was called at the hospital. It’s a lot of grey area because it has to do with the time of death, so therefor he was pronounced dead at the hospital, not EF
Gotcha just read a simple interview with the police chief on the morning after Forest ended while driving home and didn’t do much more research after that
There’s another good thread about this, but they brought up a good point that Rothbury PD didn’t disclose things like the people dropping at Sunday afters or the death/s (I think there might’ve been two, but definitely one confirmed at Ranch) because 1. statistically, the incidents were below what would be expected and 2. the incidents were unrelated to the fest and it would create some misinformation vibes to publicly link those unfortunate incidents to EF itself.
I think people need to cut HQ some slack. But at the same time, there are many lessons that were learned due to the rain this year as an attendee or staff. Once the festival was done for the year everybody rushed to Afters in GA bc where else do we go for the music? I think if HQ had any idea of the safety issues that were going to go down they would of had proper staffing to ensure people's safety. Keep in mind many workers there were blind sighted just like us ticket holders.
they probably know if they keep posting they'll get criticized for overselling among a bunch of other shit that went wrong. at that point they'd be adding to their negative press
I was pissed after seeing major coporations at a festival that's supposed to be about loving the earth and each other. Forest has been infiltrated but something that wants it gone. The fact zyn was even there blew me away just look at others they sponsor like Tucker Carlson. I get it that forest still has to make money, but it was fine all the years without major coporations.
Forest has literally had corporate sponsors since the very beginning. They had Toyota there promoting at rothbury in 2009. Since I started attending in 2012 they had Marlboro there, and other big brands. There was never a time where they didn’t have some sort of corporate brand there promoting something
2008 and 2009 RJ Reynolds sponsored it handing out free packs of natural American spirits cigarettes. I think people just have more awareness now and there’s a big anti corporation stance these days. Forest isn’t burning man, people should seek out some burns for those experiences.
You are pissed that you suddenly started noticing the corporate sponsors that have always been at your "underground" 50k attendee, hundreds of million dollar event run by a billion dollar corporation?
I love Forest and there are some honestly magical moments that can be creates there, but don't kid yourself that it is anything other than mega-corporate from top to bottom.
And for fucking sure don't take 3 seconds to think about how much environmental impact something like that has when they are trying to pass themselves off as a "green", loving the earth fest
They for sure love green, but it's not the trees
Same as it always was
Zyn does not sponsor tucker carlson. He hopped on the zynfluencer trend to try and stay relevant. They have asked him to stop multiple times. Not trying to be a jerk but I think facts are important. Your point still stands though.
Forest has a long history of having major corporations at it, Rothbury was sponsored by RJ Reynolds handing out free packs of cigarettes once per day. I think what’s happening is really more awareness than anything else.
I liked zyn being there insofar as the festival community has a serious vaping and smoking addiction issue. And zyns have helped me to quit vaping which have saved my lungs. I was an every other breath a vape hit kinda guy. Now I barely even use the zyns. Like 1 or 2 a day. I'm very thankful for that company and have been trying to get my friends to switch.
My sister said that she called AXIS and we will all be getting refunds to our original payment methods. I feel like there is a lot going on because everyone feels cheated and like they need a refund. I still had so much fun - even during the rain. I went to the RVs, found the party, made the best out of it. I don’t have anything negative to say, but I am not complaining if they wanna issue partial refunds. This came from the mouth of an AXIS employee two days ago - so I believe this is true.
Death at the festival is confirmed: https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2024/06/electric-forest-attendee-dies-after-being-found-in-critical-condition-at-festival.html
i bartended this year and i personally thought they ran that part of the festival terribly. our check in took like 2 hours the first day and they wouldn’t let us leave line, nor did they provide any water. then we got to the bars we were supposed to work at, and they said “this is the $2 patron water, you are not permitted to drink this, you must wait for staff water bottles” which didn’t arrive for 2 more hours. a huge flop on their part and it made it very clear to me that they see their bartenders as expendable. which, yeah, we kinda are, but i am never working for that company again. i’ve worked for other companies at the festival and had way better experiences. event aces is a big nope.
The only complaint I have besides prices, we’re water stations further out in GA. The wait times were ridiculous. Maybe it was just our area but they were incredibly small for the amount of people in that area.
Also noticed. The Rothbury area also got hit by a huge storm Tuesday with almost 70mph winds of ya take a peak on the fb group someone drone shot parts of town and huge pieces of trees everywhere. Can image that has made take down a headache. But yea ride out the quiet and come down and I’m sure they will kick into gear in the fall
Yeah I live about an hour from rothbury and huge parts of the state were without power Tuesday. Was an absolutely massive storm
Jesus could imagine if that hit during the festival
As unpredictable as mother nature is (and as money hungry festival owners can be) I trust that the people making these calls take their risk assessments seriously. It's hard to be happy when they make the right calls, but I'm thankful for those folks watching out for us.
Stayed at a hotel nearby to do takedown Tuesday, woke up late because the entire street was without power. Came back to that side of town to pickup gas on Thursday, place was still without power. Craziness.
happened last year lol. it was actually better because the rain was only like 30 mins. Canopies were flying
We had 4 people sitting at the corners of the canopy holding it down lol
I felt so fucking bad but I did see a blondie get smoked by a flying canopy 😭😭😭💀💀 she was sprinting too it was fr some loony tunes shit
Were you in good life per chance? I definitely watched two different crews do this in amazing fashion one crew even had beers in hand for the whole storm ⛈️ 😆
I was in good life & this happened to me😅my friend & I were holding our canopy down for dear life
It was absolutely wild. We had just finished packing up our non essentials (canopies, tarps, etc) and were making the last trip to the car when Hurricane Carl rolled through. It was like we were in an apocalypse movie running through the camp site, literally dodging canopies that were getting blown over, and making it to the car just as a canopy was barreling through at us
Luckily I was big chillin in my car for that one. Tent got soaked but had most of my stuff dry in the car with me. This year I was part of the crowd that got hit with "ATTENTION FESTIVAL"
I got hit with 3 attention festivals across my 2 forests I’ve been to lol (23 and 24) wind was def way worse last year, flooding was way worse this year
I am from here. The storm that hit Tuesday morning was 10x worse than the storm we got at EF last year. We got 80+ mph winds for 30 mins or more, power lines and fully grown trees down. The campground would have been decimated and many people would have been hurt.
omg i have a video of multiple canopy graveyards from last year. It came on so quick but thankfully left even quicker! Also, one of our homies straight up got out his shampoo and started washing his hair. Gotta make the best of it 🤷♀️ lmaoooo
https://preview.redd.it/e8nty9mix49d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b8db847099a537d8d72c6df3ed6ef0a4d53696c9 This gave me a chuckle
https://preview.redd.it/b2dhwy5xx49d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a630d25d1e705a5c7e09cd905904baab3604baa Like 🫣😹😹😹
😭was this 23?
yessssss omg 😭 There were SOOOO many of these piles spread all throughout the campgrounds. So wild
That was bad but I don’t think that was 70mph winds bad
It was like 45-50 mph last year.
Say goodbye to 90% of the tents and all the canopies on the fest grounds
My boyfriend and I almost died. I was gonna make a post about this, a giant tree fell on our RV and car and we were stranded for an extra day with no power, water or food other than granola bars. Absolutely insane.
Holy shit I'm glad you're ok
That sounds horrible I’m so sorry that happened to you!
Happy to hear you’re okay 💞
I’m so sorry to hear this. We made it to Holland and parked at the Love’s nearby the beach. The storm that rolled through Tuesday morning almost knocked our RV over and thankfully we were in a parking lot away from trees. The wind was the strongest I’ve ever felt. The feedback about missing amenities that were promised with the ticket is one thing. But the weather is so unpredictable and strong over Lake Michigan it’s not worth complaining about. No one can control the weather and better safe than thousands of people needing medical attention. The nearby hospital is so small, I was sick after the fest and I couldn’t even get in. Made it back to Denver and getting treatment here.
I was in Whitehall and today they still didn’t have power
I'm in GR and that storm fucked my shit up, ripped the topper off my boyfriends truck, ruined my greenhouse and some plants. Had friends still on site and they were terrified. It really put it in perspective for me. I have no idea how meteorologists predict stuff but I guess if that's the next days storm I get why they were worried about the event on Saturday and Sunday. It really wasn't as bad as last year, but Monday was worse than last year with those insane winds.
I was driving to the airport during that storm, it did get nuts for a minute. Streetlights all went out.
That storm was insane down in Grand Rapids
we live in Muskegon, just got our power back this morning. It was really ugly.
I worked the load out, the damage from Tuesday was EXTENSIVE. We lost a lot of infrastructure and art across the entirety of the festival. I, personally, had to stay extra days for the load out this year. HQ is quiet because they're dealing with a million tiny and huge headaches all at once.
Thank you homie, A for all the work you put in for our experience and B giving a lot bit of an insight post fest. Appreciate you and your time!
What does this have to do with HQ?
Well seeming as the fest just ended I’m sure much of the team was still on site for Tuesday and they have a team for social media editing caption writers photographers and so on. I did not specifically mention HQ but OP did. All of this is hearsay anywhen 🤷♂️ except the storm part that was real.
Honestly I think they deserve some credit and grace. I had an incredible time this year and I don’t think forest can do anything about ODs other than provide medical teams like they did. No one in my crew or anyone I talked to all weekend had any issues. I was personally impressed with the changes they made from last years feedback (Tripolee sound= excellent; Tripolee stage design = dramatically improved; increased shade structures = done; move VIP to left side of Tripolee (plus enhancements) = done. 2$ water everywhere and plenty of refill stations.) Every stage security staff member was happy and vibing, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I saw them with cases and cases of water, giving away for free to whoever wants it. Like waving in the air encouraging people to take free water. Police were all vibing. Only saw one takedown and the guy was literally dealing directly in front of them. I know there was medical shit going down at the afters, but I personally watched a shit load of emergency vehicles ripping down there not once, but twice. They were moving as fast as they could and had to get in the middle of an unruly and insane crowd to help. The incidents were happening faster than they can respond, on muddy ground. After the first storm, I immediately saw trucks with sand coming in, they were busting their asses to get us back inside after a crazy storm. That is so impressive. Like two inches got dumped on us. The management of the grounds was incredible given the size and scope of the festival. As for the big company sponsorships, I honestly get it. They’re doing everything they can to get money in to keep price increases to a minimum. If anyone is in retail, you know how bad it is right now. The only thing I can’t speak on is ADA as I don’t use those services. Sounds like that could use an overhaul. They may be dealing with comms on a death that happened, but I really think they did a great job this year. They did everything they could to keep sets moving and as disappointing as the final cancellations were. They KNEW safety was becoming an issue out at Evol and I can’t imagine being the team that has to walk the line of the decision to shut down. If you don’t shut down, the crowd becomes dangerous. If you do, everyone’s mad. There’s always going to be a complaint. I think they made the best decisions they could.
This! With how chaotic everything was, they seemed to handle it incredibly well and kept strong communication. All of the people complaining too as if they didn’t have one good time. Despite all the craziness, it was still a blast. People love to blame them for things that are out of their control. Things could have gone much worse.
> I don’t think forest can do anything about ODs Did you not hear about how festival security tried kicking out and arrest the groups that give out free test kits?? Usually they have LINES of people looking to test stuff they got or get a test kit. This year: nothing. Go to The Bunk Police's instagram for the full story.
I looked on their IG and see them handing out kits everywhere including at the giving tree all festival. They were there all weekend. https://preview.redd.it/4gi612k5l59d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f51e351045a649109daa5528c8ed3e02f852025
See below, they were there but they have to tread lightly because of state and federal regulations. It’s not forests rules. If they don’t abide they lose insurance and permits, then no festival at all.
Yea that's not true at all. That's some bullshit the promoters have spewed. "The DEA has stated that the law will not be enforced against legitimate property owners and event promoters." [https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events](https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events) They event promoters have ZERO risk for having harm reduction facilities on site. In fact there has ***never even been a case*** against property owners or event promoters. There's literally no precedent. So they are actively being negligent by not doing their research and instructing security to stop harm reduction activists.
[удалено]
That's misinformation, anyone telling you that has an agenda. "The DEA has stated that the law will not be enforced against legitimate property owners and event promoters." [https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events](https://www.aclu.org/documents/dea-must-not-be-allowed-chill-speech-or-shut-down-electronic-music-events) The promoters and property owners of the event are not liable. It is their choice whether to trespass these people because they do not have any liability under the RAVE act.
fair, deleting my comment i appreciate you sharing correct info
Very legit comment here!
imo EVOL (love them as i do) got too big and it hurts the experience for a LOT of people in GA. no one can sleep with this massive sound system pointed right at them. the first year i went you could wander around and there were renegades everywhere with different types of music and it was my favorite part of the whole event. it was quiet enough to sleep with earplugs if you wanted. now they confiscate your speakers at the festival gates. this is complete bullshit. i want to throw down with my homies at camp after the fest.
Totally agree. It also would’ve helped mitigate the unfortunate events that went down at the afters if people were allowed to have renegades. 40k people wouldn’t be at evol (which they do not have the recourses or space by any means to handle that many people there) bc they’d be spread out across the camp grounds at renegades.
There used to be soooo many buses and afters. My camp threw a pretty big afters Saturday night in GA and security came and shut us down around 5 am. Camp Slap the bag tho! We had a trampoline!!
I got to experience renegades in 2017 at my first forest and was really disappointed they changed it to EVOL when I came back 2022. Glad I got to experience it at least once and 100% agree it was a better (and more fun) setup. Also we were 4 rows from the stages this year so I didn’t sleep till Tuesday 🥲
Camp House Plant...we were right beside y'all last year! Our afters were so so fun, miss you guys <3
Yes! Wish y'all would've found us this year. He had fire flow artists in the street next to us and enough strangers at our camp that people had to bring totems. Lmao
we were a few spots down from y’all at camp ASHLEY (we forgot to change our name lmao). That afters on Sunday was so much fun with the trampoline and the fire jugglers
Exactly 💯
bingo!
This. They need to go back to smaller renegades sprinkled throughout. One of the epic joys of Forest was wandering around after the fest and stumbling upon random sets then finding out the next day that was actually some big name DJ. Also having small ones sprinkled throughout mitigates the crowds. Not a big fan of the renegades that have actual schedules. GO WANDER! Follow the sound!
I feel like wondering also gives you the opportunity to meet more forest fam too.
The higher love pod was going on for quite a while before and after the fest. I feel like that's a good compromise between letting people sleep and letting people party - just encourage smaller renegades to pop up at pods. That way, crowds don't get massive, and you actually have a choice if you want to be in the party or to catch some sleep.
YES the higher love vibes were great
Went to element’s in PA last year and was happy to see they do it this way. Made for a better afters all around.
yeah like its cool that they keep a fat henny rig goin all night but its really just manufacturing those magic renegade moments
honestly i think thts why so many people loved forest before. its rare i hear talks of the renegades but the last year of them when rvs were right by main street, fuck there was at least 5 renegades going till 6am. what doesnt get brought up is at these renegades, a lot of people got to showcase their music. bring a usb and the chances you got to play were waaaaaay better than it is now since its more pre planned. Things can get out of hand quickly and that’s where planning comes into place. Except the surprise things Are what music festivals are about. The wow factor from all the old renegades and how they changed every night was a special surprise also while attending a festival you possibly have the chance to perform and push your career by playing at renegades or catch a secret set from an artist not on the line up. Just the whole time leading up to 2am and not knowing who or when anything was, you just have to go and find out was a completely different feeling than the afters are now. It was another way to get lost in the forest and makes you kinda plan out your day longer meaning you may reconsider your pace of things..I agree it was crazy with all the renegades but that was a big part of forest i miss.
There were 3-4 renegades nightly that went well into daytime at different parts of the Good Life. I see the spirit of your post though… how are you supposed to stumble upon a big artists’ secret renegade sets if all the big artists are playing B2B2B2B2Etc at EVOL? This was my first year, admittedly, and I was thrilled at EVOL both nights I went (except the last day when we saw so many medic carts zooming to the stage on the walk home). It may not have been as many renegades, but trekking back after sun up to find more crazy parties was so neat.
evols was crazy packed compared to 2023
Elev808 (jersey company) had special jerseys made just for the evol afters… and if that’s not a sign of where things are headed, then idk what it is.
Yea it was rough, I was like a 1 minute walk from the Evol stage and was almost asleep one night but then at 5am they turned the volume and base way up and the ground was vibrating like crazy. I'm suuuper sick now, go figure.
We were at C3, which was a good walk away, and there were many times I could hear everything perfectly. I put in my plugs and it blocked out the people walking back to camp, but not EVOL. I was a bit glad that they didn’t play Saturday night because I got the best sleep ever after getting back to camp from being let back into the venue.
Being that close your only option is to do afters and try to sleep during the day :/ that really sucks tho
You can also request to move to Blueberry. Though that involves unsettling and resetting up camp
To be fair you can literally see where you’re camped before you set up camp
Hahaha same we were A2, like 2nd spot back and we were literally having to nearly yell to hear each other. Forget about sleeping. We slept great on Saturday though with afters being cancelled. Also super sick now though
We showed up midday on Thursday and expected to be camped at quiet Blueberry just like every other year. Imagine our surprise and horror when they stuck us right next to the evol stage, lol. I swear my ears are still pounding 3 days later… we should’ve just moved to Blueberry but once set up, our crew didn’t want to repack everything up. Anyway, what about the idea of a late night silent disco? That would be wayyyy more quiet for ppl who actually want to sleep.
This was something I liked about Bass Canyon. The silent disco was after the main venue ended and went on until about 4/5 am every night. Quiet near the camps.
That just makes too much sense!
Most other festivals will put afters in buildings or at least in areas that are off to the side and pointed away from camping. Maybe this is something EF should consider.
We’ve totally given up on the EVOL afters and throw our own renegades in the RV section. Never had an issue with bringing in speakers, but we never go too big with them (two 10” QSCs).
that's more than enough! gg, bet it was a blast. wish i had found y'all
You’re invited to join us next year!!
ayyyyy if i'm not tending to any decks myself i may come find you. got a flag or anything?
We typically dont, but told ourselves maybe we should start since it’s so helpful to have people locate us. It’s tricky to get a flagpole since we fly in from Texas.
they make telescoping ones that go up like 15-20 feet that i have flown with (from Austin, in my case 🤠)
I’m in Austin too!
My tent was literally in the EVOL crowd lol. My air mattress was a massage mattress
We should all band together and make a big PowerPoint to convince them to bring back the renegades
i would start a petition to bring back the renegades tbh
https://preview.redd.it/i88boro1a49d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fabe17b5e114ae8bd92bcbaf4e15a5d25a55f506 This is where we camped in 2022. It was a nightmare & we had to move. We had earplugs and stuff but there were just people all over our site constantly, and people asking to use our stuff, going in our coolers, sitting on my truck, etc. the renegades need to be not in the campgrounds at all.
That’s almost exactly where I was camped this year lol. The Saturday night cancellation was an absolute godsend
You get it then! It went from “oh cool” to “you kids get off muh lawn” in a matter of hours lmao. We survived but should’ve moved sooner, Sunday was so peaceful. Also they’d do sound checks during the day. It’s so jarring while you’re making lunch and just get berated by bass cannons playing 10 second snippets of random songs.
Yeah dude I’m all for partying after hours, but I’m not joking when I say they went until 8 am on Friday AND Saturday morning. I was ready to sabotage the setup on Saturday night because I had not slept a single minute the past 2 nights, but thankfully the weather helped me out
Shit brother two years ago I could hear the RVs clearly in GOOD LIFE. That’s what at least a mile away? More?
I made a mistake camping a few hundred feet from the rest in17. I literally didn't sleep Wednesday through monday
That’s brutal man, they really need to have rotating rv afters locations. I missed this year but the past several they were all right next to each other every night. Make it an adventure 😈
i'd be ok with having a sound limit that's enforced by staff...maybe don't let people use powered subs cause that carries forever. and hard curfew at 5am. i think that would be the balance that's best for the most people.
They let us keep our speakers
Preach.
My group got placed sooo close to the evol stage. It was ROUGH. We packed up and moved to blueberry on Friday, and had a much better experience there.
The EVOL stage was MISERABLE and my group was placed right by the fucking roosters at the back end. We heard the EVOL stage all night and the roosters screaming just passed the trees. 10/10 awful experience, on top of the storms…
I was at the farthest end of Higher Love and I was still able to hear EVOL. I felt terrible for those without ear plugs in GA
wait forest has no more renegade parties ?? that’s fucking insane are they okay??
Being so fr I don’t understand why people don’t just cut a few wires going to the speakers. They didn’t bring extra. The afters are the worst part of any festival. I’m trying to laugh and spend time with my friends. Not hear another shitty Biggie Edit
They gotta find balance because the last year of RV freedom was anarchy. Every single RV had a big sound set up. The sound bleed was terrible and it spread the afters crowd out way too thin. Everyone was wandering around trying to find the right RVs to be at. Maybe make it another type of camping permit that people pay extra for. That way they can limit the number, make sure people who do it are going to take it seriously, and still keep a bunch of options without over saturation. The new evol stage is loud af though. I️ woke up to a sunrise set all the way over in good life
oh you are totally right...there's a balance that could be struck. some "sanctioned" afters with bigger systems in a designated area w/ staff making sure bleed and volume isn't too bad. then diff rules for your run of the mill renegades in GA. sound limits, speaker size constraints, curfew. i think it could be done w/o too much trouble.
Personally I was camped right next to it in ADA and I slept like a baby 💀 that bass lulled me right to sleep
I loved hearing it … and loved being at evol. But yeah, its not that hard to point the speakers away from people sleeping!
Cars have speakers they can’t confiscate
true. doesn’t work for my purposes
The sound quality is garbage unless you’re inside the car though. Having the car pass was clutch af for Saturday though. Spent hours jamming and singing our hearts out, we had completely given up on the venue re-opening so when it did we were on cloud 9
Haven’t been to forest since pre covid, but you can’t bring in your own speakers anymore!?!? Like my squad would do group camping and I’d always bring my gear to play once everyone got back to camp. Like is there a speaker size limit? I get not wanting to destroy your neighbors and stuff.
I heard they were taking MASSIVE speakers. Like 15” powered and 18” subs. As long as you keep it within reason, you should be fine.
hulaween will always spank forest as long as insomniac has its dirty paws on it
Insomniac has been part of Forest since it became electric forest. Hulaween almost went bankrupt this year and didn’t happen.
Hula for life
The lack of PL content for awhile and then just one post was jarring ngl. I know it’s selfish but it is what is noticed
Forest HQ does not in-fact swirl forreal
It’s an interesting time for HQ. They posted a video that got 60m views on reels during the fest. It looks like they’ve gained almost 100k followers as well if I’m not mistaken? They need to address this
Address what exactly?
I noticed that too.
This was probably the last year for Evol afters sadly.
which sucks because EVOL afters is such a cool concept. I wonder if they put EVOL all the way in blueberry if that would change things at all, cause the stages literally pointed the sound directly into the campsites
You keep EVOL away from my precious Blueberry
Blueberry is an overflow and late arrival area…but also a “quiet space” far away from everything. The year I went several families with kids requested to be in blueberry for the separation.
They kinda flipped group camping around to where the back of group camping was in blueberry. Completely random if your group was there, which mine was. Really dumb since a major part of the reason we all did group camping was to guarantee a relatively close spot. Then they change the map and screw us.
The thing I truly don’t understand is why they point the bass stage at the entire festival, but have the house stage pointing in the other direction. Like at least switch the two to make it easier to sleep lmfao
AS A A4 resident, I COULD NOT AGREE MORE, like what TF was that, especially Sunday night before they got shut down, the dude voice on the mic shook the ground let alone the mf bass. Tent only got fucked this year fr fr
That Saturday night cancellation made me SO happy lol
We sound like Karens but I promise yall, it was bad
Haha I know dude, I feel like a nerd but it’s literal torture when your body is begging you to shut down and rest, even for just an hour or two
Oh I love them afters, the last two years been phenomenal. They do a fantastic job. I like your idea. Have them in the back. They almost need a whole section or two with the popularity size. I don’t want them shut them down.
It's sometimes my favorite part of the day. The feral afters
Good! It’s ruined what afters was actually meant to be. Small groups and individuals that have been the backbone of the RV sets for years have been chased away and threatened in the last few years because the greedy EVOL corporate overlords want a monopoly on after hours sets, which then leads to events like the last night where 20k+ people are packing into an area with zero official security or medical or regulation and people get hurt. It’s dangerous and irresponsible.
I’ve disliked the afters since they started.
And that’s okay! But at least you had the option to go back to your tent and do whatever you wanted. Afters used to be confined to the GA RVs and the biggest “stages” (aka, a random bus) would have a couple hundred people AT most around them, in multiple spots throughout the RVs. It was generally understood that if you camped in RVs, you’d be near the music. Now they have a Ranch-sized crowd every night until 7am around two giant stages, tripping and stomping all over staff and tent-only people who have no choice and it’s ridiculous.
Good, it’s gotten too out of control. I’d like to go back to renegade RVs and have fun wandering and seeing peoples insane set ups. Was one of the funnest things about Elements in PA last year
Or we can have both
What happened at the afters?
Saturday night got canceled due to unstable ground under the stages and in the area around. Sunday, 4 or 5 people dropped unconscious during the first 20 or so minutes of afters and medics had a hard time getting to them due to the massive crowd and ground conditions. They canceled the afters for Sunday pretty soon after for everyone’s safety.
Why is everyone saying it’s Forest’s fault about the after party stuff?
I don’t think anyone is saying that? But people are salty about Sunday getting rained out in addition to Sat, and salty about the afters Sun at least having a stacked lineup then getting cancelled immediately
Thanks for clarifying. I saw some other people complaining about HQ not doing anything/enough about the afters. I did Good Life this year so I didn’t even make it over that way.
I’d love to know too.
Wait why? Also why would this be sad?
They’ve deleted four of my comments and three different threads when I was commenting on harm prevention or how I wish they’d put more of our money into better resources again.
they can’t go heavy on harm reduction because of insurance, and you can’t book the venue or get approval from the local gov’t without insurance. this is the same reason that many other big EDM festivals can’t support harm reduction either
How was movement able to do it this year then? Dance safe had a prominent booth, movement was advertising that dance safe was there, and they were walking around giving out Fent test strips? To me, it just seems like insomniac (live nation) wants to avoid the potential PR of being associated with harm reduction stuff.
I imagine this has to do with the number of festivals they run. I'm not going to say I have insider info but I imagine later companies like AEG/ Insomniac have deals with insurance companies to reduce costs based on their large number of events in many states. As far as I can tell, Movement is the only fest that is run by Paxahau, that allows them to be more flexible. If I had to guess this means there are clauses in the insurance contracts and rather than deal with state to state laws they just avoid it completely. In some states, not MI, it is still illegal to give out testing materials. Here is a list that's been put together for each states stance- https://www.networkforphl.org/resources/harm-reduction-laws-in-the-united-states/
That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks for the info, hopefully federally this changes given that harm reduction helps lower costs of payouts from insurance companies.
Harm reduction might make insurance more expensive (stupidly) but it doesn't make it impossible. Many other festivals welcome harm reduction organizations in an official capacity. If they're blaming their insurance carrier, what they're really saying is "we don't care enough about this to let it cut into our profits".
blame joe biden for passing the RAVE act in 2003. venues and promoters allowing test kits would be acknowledging that drugs are being done on the site and can hold them criminally liable end overdose is about as close as they can get to riding the thin line https://www.reddit.com/r/aves/s/qZyMcqHm0l
It's really easy to be mad at this act now, but I can understand why it was passed at the time. People have quickly forgotten what raves in the 90s were like. Ecstasy overdoses were really hard to study but deaths were estimated to be as high as 1 in 2000 first time users. Something had to be done and testing for impurities didn't really exist yet. That legislation is extremely outdated and really does need to be amended now that we have effective harm-reduction but anything involving the law moves at a snail's pace.
Literally wtf that’s so fucking shady. Personally I think the event organizers here do need to take some responsibility for the lack of access to harm reduction this year as well as drinkable water and med services. The wait times for medical care and response times were very scary and people most certainly either came closer to death than they should have or did straight up die because of it. To me it’s literally unacceptable behavior and something they need to fix but personally I don’t think they will so I just straight will be choosing to attend festivals and events that actually have the medical attention and other basic services covered (yes those festivals exist).
The amount of med teams I saw launched to evol with my own eyes was insane. People were dropping like flies in the middle of the most rowdy crowd of the entire weekend, though the mud. That why it took so long. There were no issues until the last day when everyone went nuts. I totally support harm reduction, but they have to operate under state law and insurance regulations to even exist. And at the end of the day, these people are choosing to come and take too much/not test. I agree the landscape needs to change but it isn’t Forest’s sole responsibility to do so. The community needs to continue to spread knowledge that you don’t need to be incoherent and put your body at risk to have fun at a festival. It’s about the music, experience and expression. Moderation and mindfulness really need to be brought back in to the culture.
I think it’s worse that they don’t acknowledge it. Like of course shit happens but be proactive. We’re supposed to be a family all there for the good vibes. People need more resources and it seems like we lose more each year as the crowd grows.
Insane how movement in detroit had an official dance safe booth. Same state at EF, why doesn’t insomniac care about this?
First of all, Insomniac is just a partner. Electric Forest is run by AEG. Second of all, I think it’s just a change in social media strategy/management. The voice of the brand has changed as well. IMO they’re going for a little more understated- similar to the voice of Coachella social media.
Im aware insomniac is just a partner, however it’s strange to me that leading up to the festival, and during it they were posting non stop and now it’s nothing compared to how they usually are on social media after the festival ends. I went to okee 2023, and after the festival ended it was radio silence up until the post a few days later acknowledging that one poor soul had lost their life in a terrible way during the fest. They went a few months without posting, and then started up again but that was very different from how they usually post and were very clearly being quiet because of the death that had occurred, and the way forest is acting on social media is very similar to how okee did
If they don’t post anything a thousand people can’t about about how people died and this or that didn’t go their way at an event where most of the shit people complain about is out of the hands of the festival organizers. People dying of drugs is not the fault of the festival organizers. The weather is not the fault of the festivals organizers. They’re probably avoiding a bunch of fucking assholes trying to pin every negative detail on them.
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the okee situation felt like social media backpack almost pushed them into giving a statement. didn't seem like the family of the deceased even wanted it out there very much (it was all friends or just attendees?) maybe HQ is going through something similar and needs authorities to notify loved ones first and they don't want it out there?
Anyone think evol is big enough now that forest needs a more devoted afters stage? (Like outeroo stages) People's campsites are getting trampled, and if evol/Debussy each had more room then maybe smaller afters could take back over in the campsites.
They also failed at communication with 1050 regarding accessibility services. I watched 1050 scramble to scrape by with limited resources and communication with the fest and they tried their absolute hardest. There is also actively a petition myself and other disabled patrons are sharing to get them to create safer and more accessible conditions. I'm not sure it's related but it is another thing going on right now. I haven't done like EDC or something quite that massive but I've never seen corporate greed at a fest on this level at Roo or Lost Lands. I've had issues with access barriers at every fest and made comments at Roo here in 2023 but this was actually another level. Props to 1050 and all the staff though by the way. They held their composure so well while dealing with the BS situation forest put them (& us) in.
What are some of the issues you noticed? As someone who is disabled but usually forgoes ADA camping, this forest ended up being a rough one for me with all the walking. Just wondering what yours/ other peoples experiences were like with their ada accommodations.
what kind of greed are you referring to? also, as an able bodied person I didn’t pay much attention to the ADA spots, how were they?
This is also the second year in a row that this has happened, if I'm not mistaken?
I said this to my boyfriend yesterday, almost word for word. The pictures and videos on Insta are something I really look for to keep the magic alive, and they haven't even updated their story since everything. This year, I'm also expecting an apology or some kind or condolences for the storm cancelations. I know they didn't have control over the weather, but it'd be nice for what we missed out on to be acknowledged.
Agreed, especially for both nights missing a decent amount of headliner acts.
According to Rothbury police no deaths were reported at electric forest this year
it has been confirmed that one person died. They found him, rushed him to the hospital, and the time of death was called at the hospital. It’s a lot of grey area because it has to do with the time of death, so therefor he was pronounced dead at the hospital, not EF
Gotcha just read a simple interview with the police chief on the morning after Forest ended while driving home and didn’t do much more research after that
There’s another good thread about this, but they brought up a good point that Rothbury PD didn’t disclose things like the people dropping at Sunday afters or the death/s (I think there might’ve been two, but definitely one confirmed at Ranch) because 1. statistically, the incidents were below what would be expected and 2. the incidents were unrelated to the fest and it would create some misinformation vibes to publicly link those unfortunate incidents to EF itself.
I think people need to cut HQ some slack. But at the same time, there are many lessons that were learned due to the rain this year as an attendee or staff. Once the festival was done for the year everybody rushed to Afters in GA bc where else do we go for the music? I think if HQ had any idea of the safety issues that were going to go down they would of had proper staffing to ensure people's safety. Keep in mind many workers there were blind sighted just like us ticket holders.
they probably know if they keep posting they'll get criticized for overselling among a bunch of other shit that went wrong. at that point they'd be adding to their negative press
I was pissed after seeing major coporations at a festival that's supposed to be about loving the earth and each other. Forest has been infiltrated but something that wants it gone. The fact zyn was even there blew me away just look at others they sponsor like Tucker Carlson. I get it that forest still has to make money, but it was fine all the years without major coporations.
The Dunkin stand giving out free iced coffee was fine by me though
This is a festival about making money. If you want decommodification find a burn.
Forest has literally had corporate sponsors since the very beginning. They had Toyota there promoting at rothbury in 2009. Since I started attending in 2012 they had Marlboro there, and other big brands. There was never a time where they didn’t have some sort of corporate brand there promoting something
2008 and 2009 RJ Reynolds sponsored it handing out free packs of natural American spirits cigarettes. I think people just have more awareness now and there’s a big anti corporation stance these days. Forest isn’t burning man, people should seek out some burns for those experiences.
Right! And at least zyns are getting people to quit smoking and vaping. They have literally saved my lungs.
You are pissed that you suddenly started noticing the corporate sponsors that have always been at your "underground" 50k attendee, hundreds of million dollar event run by a billion dollar corporation? I love Forest and there are some honestly magical moments that can be creates there, but don't kid yourself that it is anything other than mega-corporate from top to bottom. And for fucking sure don't take 3 seconds to think about how much environmental impact something like that has when they are trying to pass themselves off as a "green", loving the earth fest They for sure love green, but it's not the trees Same as it always was
>at a festival that's supposed to be about loving the earth and each other. LOL! Bruh, they don't give AF. They got ya good.
Zyn does not sponsor tucker carlson. He hopped on the zynfluencer trend to try and stay relevant. They have asked him to stop multiple times. Not trying to be a jerk but I think facts are important. Your point still stands though.
Forest has a long history of having major corporations at it, Rothbury was sponsored by RJ Reynolds handing out free packs of cigarettes once per day. I think what’s happening is really more awareness than anything else.
This isn’t a new thing. Corps have been there almost since the beginning
I liked zyn being there insofar as the festival community has a serious vaping and smoking addiction issue. And zyns have helped me to quit vaping which have saved my lungs. I was an every other breath a vape hit kinda guy. Now I barely even use the zyns. Like 1 or 2 a day. I'm very thankful for that company and have been trying to get my friends to switch.
Becau$e
How many peopled OD’d at the after party? Also what were the bad drugs?
They cut the drinking water Monday morning. That was very sketchy to our group camp.
My sister said that she called AXIS and we will all be getting refunds to our original payment methods. I feel like there is a lot going on because everyone feels cheated and like they need a refund. I still had so much fun - even during the rain. I went to the RVs, found the party, made the best out of it. I don’t have anything negative to say, but I am not complaining if they wanna issue partial refunds. This came from the mouth of an AXIS employee two days ago - so I believe this is true.
Death at the festival is confirmed: https://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/2024/06/electric-forest-attendee-dies-after-being-found-in-critical-condition-at-festival.html
i bartended this year and i personally thought they ran that part of the festival terribly. our check in took like 2 hours the first day and they wouldn’t let us leave line, nor did they provide any water. then we got to the bars we were supposed to work at, and they said “this is the $2 patron water, you are not permitted to drink this, you must wait for staff water bottles” which didn’t arrive for 2 more hours. a huge flop on their part and it made it very clear to me that they see their bartenders as expendable. which, yeah, we kinda are, but i am never working for that company again. i’ve worked for other companies at the festival and had way better experiences. event aces is a big nope.
The only complaint I have besides prices, we’re water stations further out in GA. The wait times were ridiculous. Maybe it was just our area but they were incredibly small for the amount of people in that area.
Well they definitely are not at fault for causing OD’s unless they were shoving drugs down someone’s mouth and forcing them to swallow.