Day Three – Electric Forest

It seems as if everyone and their mother went a little too hard on Friday night because everything seemed to run a bit slower come Saturday afternoon. Of course that is to be expected when Steve Aoki and DIM MAK play into the early hours of the morning and its a little difficult to avoid the “WOOP WOOP” when you’re staying in general camping. Yet come 5:30 p.m. on Saturday when Santigold took the stage, the party (including myself) seemed to regain that second wind. Santigold was a must see on my schedule for the weekend though she seemed a bit reserved, flowing lightly across the stage and making hand gestures only for the sake of providing the crowd with some sort of dance. Unfortunately I missed the part where she had a costume change and brought a crew on stage to party with her.

Come dusk, String Cheese was killing their second set with body painted dancers, masked monsters in leotards, and women in inflatable balloons being tossed throughout the sea of fans. Their theatrics combined with the fireworks and flames on stage were definitely a step up from last years inflatable Nascar racer. There was a bit of confusion when 12th Planets’ travel plans got delayed and I was surprised to see Dada Life with their eatable bananas, the fans dressed in banana suits, and banana rage sticks. The electro house duo really stirred up the crowd with a liveliness only found in high testosterone men.

Sound Tribe put on another phenomenal show, with alluring lights and people covering every inch of the field in front of the stage. My favorite music from Saturday was the “TBA” set scheduled for the Forest stage; sure enough Big Gigantic played a DJ set for over two hours in the woods. A lot of people did not discover the set tucked back into the forest until after SCI but plenty of people were there to rage. The forest was electric; filled with lounging bodies swaying in hammocks and illuminated poi and hoops around every corner.

Later in the night, the guys from Human Avatar came into the middle of the forest pathway, just in front of the clock tower. Christopher Breedlove began to project the faces of strangers onto his own face and people instantly attracted to him. I always find it so fascinating to see how people accept or decline such a conceptual work of art. Most viewers were taken aback, confused by their own perception of reality and wondering what kind of statement the Human Avatar was trying to make. Others hesitantly passed by, trying to get a glimpse of the man behind the faces through the corner of their eye. The Human Avatar booth will continue to take customers throughout the rest of Sunday and with only one day left, it’s time to go out with a bang!

IMG_7670