Headstash

Sherwood Forest - Photo Credit: Jordan August

The gates of Electric Forest festival opened early Thursday morning on a beautifully sunny summer day. The weather was perfect as cars flowed in and people began setting up campsites. Music didn’t begin until 6:15 p.m., which allowed ample time for people to get comfortable in their campsites.

The warm weather held strong but dark storm clouds loomed in the distance and the festival would quickly become the Electric Rainforest.

The Emmitt-Nershi Band - Photo Credit: Jordan August

The rain started just as music began and the Emmitt-Nershi Band took the Ranch Arena stage and continued as fellow String Cheese Incident member Kyle Hollingsworth played in Sherwood Court – the farthest stage from the festival gates that takes you through the magical Sherwood Forest and on a journey through an adult playground of glowing objects.

The festival upped its forest swag since the last Rothbury (rumored over $2 million spent on lights) to include a number of laser shows, psychedelically designed glowing orbs, glowing paths, entirely lit up tress that you can walk in and explore and other interactive activities including a glowing music box that creates beats as you hit it. At night, the forest truly comes alive.

Despite the growing rain shower, Hollingsworth got the entire crowd moving as he jammed through hits like “Let’s Go Outside” in addition to some Cheese favorites like “Scat.”

Midway through Hollingsworth’s set Toubab Krewe began back at the Ranch Arena. Toubab played with so much energy as if to attempt to scare off the rain. However, it was to no avail and by the end, it was a full on thunder and lightning storm.

The grounds cleared as people took cover in their campsites to watch the next best thing to the lights in Sherwood Forest, the incredible lightning storm that ensued for the next couple hours on the festival grounds.

Photo Credit: Jordan August

Every ten seconds huge bolts of lightning would flash across the sky, causing shouts of “whoa” to echo across the campgrounds. The storm got so bad that Greensky Bluegrass was forced to cut their set short.

However, Karl D helped the band out by letting them play with him for the first half of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe’s set.

After the storm, the intense electro-bass-dub sound of Excision took control of the Ranch Arena stage. The forest was echoing with the screams of the womp that seemed to follow you through the forest.

Kaskade brought the Ranch Arena back down lightly as they pumped dance-happy jams that kept everyone on their feet until the end.

At the same time, Lotus brought the night to a close back on the Sherwood Court with a solid, high-energy set. It appeared as if there were some technical difficulties at the beginning as the band went on twenty minutes late and the tech crew scrambled around the stage to set up rain protection.

Lotus - Photo Credit: Jordan August

If anyone minded the delay, Lotus certainly made up for it when they opened up with a jammed out “Jump Off,” a song that the band usually saves for the end of a set.

They never let up during the set, constantly building the energy. The band really seems to be coming into their own as a four piece with their stage set-up featuring drummer Mike Greenfield closer to the crowd and a larger guitar, keyboard, synthesizer station for Luke Miller.

Highlights included “Golden Ghost” and “Flower Sermon.” At around 1:30 a.m., a good 15 minutes before their scheduled set time ended, during the peak of a long “Spiritualize” the band’s sound suddenly cut out, utterly confusing the crowd.

Photo Credit: Jordan August

Lotus continued playing to the end of the song as if nothing had happened and those close up could hear the raw drumming and soft guitar and bass. Unfortunately, the set had to end abruptly, but it was a still a super strong late-night bust-out nonetheless.

Thursday’s crowd was definitely a rowdy one but quite small for the site. With the bad weather and no Cheese sets, perhaps all of the Electric Foresters haven’t yet emerged and are probably storing up for six sets of The String Cheese Incident.

--

A note from the photographer:

Sherwood Forest - Photo Credit: Jordan August

You can put a man in Rothbury but you cant put the Rothbury in a man. With all the prestigious and outrageous stories and memories that were created here, Electric Forest is something far different. You can feel the tension in the air, a positive tension, the kind of tension that you wish you could bottle up in mason jar and take it everywhere with you. The magic of Sherwood Forest is well documented, and people are waiting with bated breath to experience it firsthand.

The day started off strong for me with an inspiring performance by one of the many String Cheese Incident side-projects, The Emmitt-Nershi Band on the Ranch Area Stage. The good ole’ fashioned sound of bluegrass and the dreary skies above helped to counteract each other.

Emmitt-Nershi Band - Photo Credit: Jordan August

It helped turn the “blah” into beautiful. The band brought out the Dobro player from Greensky Bluegrass to jam a few songs with them. What a treat that was to see them feed off of each other.

I decided to stay in my spot with some friends and wait for Toubab Krewe to take the stage. It felt like it was just yesterday I saw them on that very same stage at Rothbury 2009.

Unfortunately, their set was cut short due to incredible rain that led into lighting that later led to hail. Not the best way to start a festival. Being a photographer and having a lot of expensive equipment on me, I returned to camp to attempt to stay dry. The rain didn’t let up for more than a few minutes for a long while.

Luckily, I emerged to catch most of Excision’s set and it was face melting. Such loud, crystal-clear music presented in a way that was scary yet impassioned.

I kept asking myself, "What do the workers think right now?"

Excision - Photo Credit: Jordan August

These weren’t the usual hippies swaying and smiling to Grateful Dead-esque music, this was a new generation of mutants slithering and griming through the crowd, loving every second of it all.

After the rain delays subsided and bands started to play, Lotus was finally able to get there spot and set up. As soon as the first few notes rang out, people rushed to the field, bouncing to the rhythm.

So as I sit in my truck and type out what was really a miserable night for me as a photographer and loved of clear weather, I can’t help but smile and laugh. Because once the clouds part and sunshine prevails, it’s abundantly clear to me that this place is going to be electric. 

- Jordan August

--

Friday’s slate features The New Deal, Stephen Marley, Galactic, Break Science, Tiësto and the first of three two-set performances by String Cheese Incident. 

Stay tuned for more coverage from Electric Forest