Enjoying the after(day)glow of Lightning in a Bottle
When I last wrote about the Lightning in a Bottle festival, I said that the best way to describe it was “not as a festival but as a destination.”
That was back in 2019 when the then-16-year-old event was making its debut at the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area. The event was a huge success and proved that a lot of the hand-wringing leading up to the festival be- ing at that new location was ultimately unnecessary. Lightning in a Bottle that year was a colorful, affirming, engaging experience that was set to hit its stride.
But, when the state of California shut down due to the COVID pandemic, Do LaB, the architects behind the LiB festival, canceled the 2020 event, electing to go the safer, virtual route instead.
Ticket holders were promised an upgrade when the festival resumed in-person again.
Keeping those tickets was a good call, considering that VIP passes went for $775 and GA passes went for $455 (no daily passes were available), both being a pretty significant markup from 2019 prices.
And while those numbers could inspire some real sticker-shock, it’s a bit easier to accept when it’s put into the proper context. This festival is an experience that rewards the commitment of plugging into its day-glo, hypnagogic irreality for a few days, especially if you plan on camping there.
My wife, Alisa, and I attended on Friday (the entire event lasted from last Wednesday to Sunday) and not much had changed from the last event in terms of the main layout. The two main stages, cheekily named Lightning and Thunder, housed the majority of the live music acts and headliners, which incorporated various electronic/dance music influence with various styles, like the new age/EDM fusion band Big Wild, which performed at the Thunder stage that evening.
“Electro-soul trio” Moodlite performed twice that day, once on the massive Lightning stage in the afternoon (filling in for the band Moontricks) and later at the Grand Artique stage, illuminating the area’s rustic Old-West-meets-Mexican-villa feel with a moody purple-lit vibe.
But as my wife pointed out, the festival’s main appeal wasn’t just the music that was happening pretty much nonstop throughout the event; it was “the stuff happening in between the stages. There’s art everywhere, even the people.”
For five days, the recreational area was transformed into a massive, colorful temporary city, adorned with functional art structures of all sizes that illuminated after dark, transforming the festival into a kind of cross between New Orleans, Paris and Wonderland.
Some of the side attractions included artists creating live art in real time; stations for yoga and meditation; learning work
shops about all manner of esoteric and practical subjects; a functional, outdoor disco roller rink; a groovy, retro beauty salon/barbershop that also functioned as a pseudo game show; a mini-movie theater located inside a faux video store (named “VHS” of course with its own “adult” section) where the employees wore “P. Charles” name tags (no idea) and folks could watch “Jackie Brown” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that night. There were even spots to sing karaoke and play board games.
Some people basked in the funky, pastoral, Middle-earthy vibe of The Stacks or the berserk, vibrant Woogie stage that partied in a way I could only describe as relentless.
Others opted to tune out from the frenzied oontzoontz-oontz beats and simply enjoyed luxuriating on the shoreline or in a tree to watch the sun go down over the horizon, illuminating the lake with a royal, gold hue. Some people took to taking a dip in the the lake to cool off from the valley heat.
There was a spot designated “Lightning Without a Bottle” that provided meetings and solidarity for festivalgoers with their sobriety. Day care was available for children 5 and older and all manner of performers, food and vendors lined the length of the campgrounds.
All of it, from the music to the art to the activities to the commerce, was designed to promote interaction and immersion. It’s easy to forget just how massive this event is and how far-reaching. This is a global-level event with people coming from all over to visit our corner of the world.
That melting pot also fosters a profound sense of inclusion. People were being themselves and unafraid to do so. I even had a person randomly ask me for a game of rock paper scissors as I was sitting at a bench (I lost).
People were dressed no differently than if they were at a beach — the thong being a particularly popular choice of dress for many — and that sense of strong self-expression and freedom represents one of the festival’s greatest strengths.
If there was any experience that I could say best represents the naturally bold, vital energy of being in one’s early to mid-20s (the latter was the average age of the attendees I saw this year), it would be this festival. A particular lightning that Do LaB has apparently managed to bottle successfully.
This is an event that thrives in looking forward, even when looking at its own 20th anniversary happening next year.
Is this event for you? Well, imagine being dipped into a vat filled with fluorescent paint. At first, you might be a bit apprehensive about it, unsure of it, maybe a bit self-conscious, but after a while, you start to get used to it. You barely think about how you look and more about how comfortable you feel being around other people who are wearing day-glo paint of their own. The paint on you starts to fade the farther you get from the festival until it’s completely worn off. You manage to see however, that the paint rubbed off on the world around you; transforming it, making it brighter and more colorful.
If that sounds fun to you, get your tickets sooner than later for next year. You can even pay for them in installments for what is essentially an investment on a world-class experience in traveling without moving. Well, not far, at least.