Electric Forest has come and gone, and once again the festival showed why it is a standout event. “Forest Magic” is a common theme, and 2024 was another magical year. The festival has a reputation of outstanding musical options and surprises, crazy performance art and experiences, and an absolutely beautiful grounds. While not without its challenges, 2024 lived up to the expectations set from previous years.
Musically, Electric Forest had a pretty solid and diverse lineup. While I certainly skew towards the various jam and funk bands, the festival also included an expansive amount of house, drum and bass, dubstep, indie, and other dance and electric genres. For me, Thursday kicked off with one of the best runs of the weekend, a funk and jam sandwich consisting of Dumpstaphunk, Eggy, and Lettuce. Dumpstaphunk kicked things off with a contender for the best set of the weekend. They had tons of energy, were extremely expressive with their playing, and laid down a variety of styles. They have a mix of instrumentals and songs with vocals, and their female singer was able to absolutely tear the house down. Eggy was a nice chill interlude between funk bands. There seems to be a style in jam bands nowadays where guitarists are moving towards some more smooth atmospheric playing vs. riff heavy playing and soloing, and Eggy fits in with that modern style. I made it back to Lettuce just in time to catch their start. Lettuce is one of the most proficient and exciting bands to watch live, and this show was no different. Adam Deitch on drums is always a highlight, but the entire band is simply top-notch. Lots of smooth funk and jams, closing out with an absolute highlight in Mt. Crushmore.
The second half of the evening was interesting, starting with early 00’s pop singer Nelly Furtado. I was very impressed by her range, her performance, and her band. I pretty much only knew her early hits such as “Like a Bird” and “Turn Off the Lights,” and she played those extremely well. But she really excelled when she went into a more modern dance/club sound. Her live band laid down some really great grooves for her to work over, and she moved between impressive vocal work and more modern pop/dance style. One of the more fun surprises of the weekend. We ended the night musically at The Disco Biscuits. While I’ve never been into the band enough to really follow them I always enjoy the environment they bring to Electric Forest, and they’re a great choice for a nighttime electro-jam band.
Thursday was the most music-heavy day of the entire weekend for my group, but there was plenty of great stuff for the rest of the weekend. Friday included Boogie T.rio, who absolutely packed the Honeycomb stage. I didn’t get there early enough to really see the band but they had a great rock feel mixed with some dance vibes. High energy and a nice addition. The Friday highlight was the String Cheese Incident’s 2-hour evening set. The band borrowed from all areas of their catalog for this one, mixing the newer songs like “Lend Me A Hand” and “Eventually” with classics like “Dessert Dawn” and “Sirens.” A mid set “Rivertrance” was a huge highlight, and the set closing “Live and Let Die” was a great cover. The band also brought out their good friend Dominic Lalli to guest on their run of “Sunflower”->”Impressions”->”Let’s Go Outside.” Lalli has guested with Cheese numerous times and it’s always great to see him. I ended up choosing to do other Forest activities Friday night, meaning I missed out on what I heard was a pretty epic Pretty Lights set. I’ve been lucky enough to see Pretty Lights a few times s I was OK missing this one, but it was great to hear that the set was excellent.
Saturday included big plans that unfortunately didn’t end up happing. The weather necessitated the cancellation of the middle part of the evening, meaning that the massive 2-set String Cheese Incident Shebang ended up cancelled. This was the biggest disappointment of the weekend, as Cheese is still one of my favorite bands and their Saturday night Shebang sets are legendary at Electric Forest. Unfortunately it didn’t happen this year, but I completely understand that safety is the first priority. I did enjoy Polyrhythmics early in the day, and they’re definitely a band to keep an eye on. Luckily the festival did open up again on Saturday night, leading to some impressive sets including a great Subtronics set at the Ranch and a collaborative set between Clozee and LSDREAM.
Sunday closed out the weekend with a pair of sets that I was extremely excited for. Dirtwire and Umphrey’s McGee on the Ranch stage were both excellent. Dirtwire has a really great trippy/EDM sound augmented by very traditional instruments like the banjo and jaw harp. The way the trio blends musical genres makes for an excellent party. Umphrey’s Mcgee hasn’t been to Electric Forest since 2014, but they made the most of their set this year. Like SCI, Umphrey’s mixed a variety of old and new tunes for an expansive set. An early “Wappy Sprayberry” was a standout cut, and always one of my favorite tunes from the band. Jake led the band through an impressive “40’s Theme” and the band included a great segue run including “Plunger”->”Into the Kitchen.” The band closed their set with their “Come As Your Kids” mashup.
Unfortunately that mostly ended the music for me, as another storm shut things down right about 11:00 that night and the venue didn’t re-open. I caught a bit of Gigantic NGHTMRE, the Big Gigantic/NGHTMRE collaborative set. I’ve always appreciated what Big Gigantic brought to the table and I had a lot of fun at the set when I stopped by. I also caught the final few songs from Coupe Dvlle, and I’d like to try and see them again.
Of course, the music is just one aspect of this immersive artistic masterpiece of a festival. It would be impossible to cover every experience and elements, since there simply isn’t enough time to experience it all. The centerpiece of the festival is always Sherwood Forest. This wooded area contains at least 5 stages, a Trading Post where you can trade items such as pins, jewelry, and other unique or limited edition pieces, a library, a game area with cornhole and an oversized fooseball table, the Art Bar where you could make crafts, and more installations than I could count. A giant carved face stood at the center of the Forest, and projections on the sculpture turned it into a living monument at night. The Reincarnation area was re-imagined in 2024, with a new falling water piece and multiple areas to relax and reflect. I climbed towers to change my perspective, walked through art galleries, found fairy doors, danced with wandering shrubs, and met so many wonderful forest dwellers. The magic of Electric Forest stems from Sherwood, and exploring the Forest is a reason to always head into the venue early in the day.
Sherwood wasn’t the only experience, and it wasn’t the most immersive experience either. That belonged, once again, to the Dream Emporium. A massive structure in the back field, the Dream Emporium was a multi-room immersive psychedelic experience. It was so outside of any box of normal sanity that just trying to describe it makes me sound insane. A child’s room with bunk beds where you can climb into the clouds. A room where you can kayak the bayou. A cat room with human cats and a cat lady that speaks only in rhyme. A professional wrestling ring where the Queen of the Forest battles the Bad Vibes Crew, followed by a punk rock show. And the hidden Speakeasy, where those who completed the 6 quests of the Time Travel Agency and received their key can relax with a drink and even more music and artistic performances. I can’t adequately describe everything going on in the Dream Emporium, I can only say that it was an experience that would take hours to completely explore.
Beyond the amazing artistic experiences, Electric Forest does a great job with the standard logistics as well. The different stages have different personalities, from the bass-heavy Tripolee to the lights and lasers of the ranch Arena to the intimate in-the-round feel of the Honeycomb. The sound was mostly excellent all weekend (there were some issues in the Carousel Club on Thursday afternoon with the bass drum being overwhelming) and the music flowed from artist to artist without a hitch. The lines for food vendors was mostly reasonable, although there were longer waits at peak times. The food selection was varied, although there weren’t as many healthy options as previous years in the venue and “fried” was the primary option. It’s not easy managing a 50,000 person festival, and hiccups are inevitable, but overall the festival did a great job handling a massive undertaking.
I do have some recommendations if you choose to make it to Electric Forest. First off, make sure you’re financially prepared. The festival is expensive, even if you’re not doing any VIP options. You get your money’s worth, but it’s not a budget festival. Be prepared to spend money on food, drinks (if you’re a drinker) and merch. Electric Forest will give you every opportunity to spend as much money as you want to and, while you get your money’s worth with most of it (drinks are overpriced, but they’re overpriced at almost any event) it’s still costly. There are shirts, posters, pins, blankets, stickers, and that’s just from the official merch. There are dozens of vendors selling a ridiculous array of souvenirs for you to bring home from your Forest adventure, from raveware to light-up toys to one of a kind art pieces worth thousands of dollars.
If you can make it work I would absolutely consider doing a VIP option. The grounds are huge, and just the comfort of less walking and a little more personal space can make a world of difference. VIP options range from close camping all the way up to personal cabins, villas, and luxury tents set up for you when you arrive. VIP viewing spots and VIP food options give the VIP folks additional comfort, and the air-conditioned VIP bathrooms can be a lifesaver. Obviously VIP isn’t an option for everyone, and there is a limited number of VIP tickets sold, but taking the plunge for VIP can absolutely be worth it if it’s within your budget.
Every year I go to Electric Forest and every year I wish I could stay longer. There’s no way to see and do everything, and the need to pick and chose can be heartbreaking. This year was even more difficult with the weather throwing a wrench into plans. However, the Electric Forest team did everything they could to make this an amazing experience. The one good thing about leaving Electric Forest is being able to look forward to returning to Electric Forest next year. I’ll be holding on to that for the next 12 months until I get to come back home to Rothbury.
