By Kaytlin Martino
My journey to Lightning in a Bottle began in 2017, but let’s back up a little. Coachella 2016 was one of the best festivals I have ever had the pleasure of attending. I fell in love with the vibes, sights and smells of this wonderful festival so much that I did not hesitate to purchase a pre-sale festival pass for 2017. As the days got closer to Coachella I became more and more excited, itching to get back to the polo fields. I woke up the Thursday before Coachella (the day we were supposed to leave) and I was extremely sick. I ended up having strep throat, tonsillitis and the stomach flu all at the same time. Coachella seemed impossible for me. While heartbroken and sick, I sold my wristband on Friday, Day 1 of Coachella, for $200. Two weeks after weekend 1 of Coachella, my FOMO was so significant that I was just looking for a reason to attend a festival. So, with the $200 I received from my Coachella wristband, I bought a last minute pass to Lighting in a Bottle, and I never looked back.
What is Lightning in a Bottle?
Lightning in a Bottle takes places in Bradley, California, about an hour north of San Luis Obispo. LiB is a central location for most California residents, but a very long 10 hour drive for me, coming from Arizona. It was 3:00 a.m. when we pulled up to the entrance of Lake San Antonio, the venue for LiB. Cars were pulled off to the side of the road reaching as long as a mile with people trying to get that last bit of sleep in before the crazy weekend begins. Around 8:00 a.m. the gates are open.
To me, Lightning in a Bottle is the most efficient festival to enter and exit. Security is minimal, they do not search cars or people and the line flows continuously into the venue without much delay. LiB is a 4-day camping festival and it is unlikely for anybody to attend the festival and not camp. With this, the camping is basically a free-for-all. You may park wherever, however and with whoever you would like. We decided to park our cars along the edge of the dirt path that separates the camping zones. We placed our tents in a very large circle with our EZ Ups and “kitchen” in the center.
When we arrived on Day 1, the weather was cold. It was in the mid-60’s and cloudy. (Perfect festival weather if you ask me) The weather stayed cool throughout most of the weekend until the final day when it heated up to mid-80’s. Something that makes LiB so unique is that is placed on Lake San Antonio and the festival caters to the surrounding nature by providing activities such as a lakeside launch party with Desert Hearts, floating hang-out spaces and excellent viewpoints of the sunset over the lake.
Apart From the Rest
What makes LiB unlike any other festival is the weirdness of the people, outfits, stages, activities and structures. With an abundance of interactive activities that challenges your everyday views, LiB allows you to open your mind to a whole new way of life. The White Library allows festival-goers to paint and draw all over the walls of an all white building, giving people the option to express themselves whichever way they would like. The Meditation Mountain is just a short hike up a small hill and gives people the most amazing views of the festival as well as all things necessary to sit back, relax and meditate. The Rink-A-Dink Roller Rink was styled as a vintage roller rink from the 80’s with a giant disco ball hanging in the center. Roller skate rentals and all-you-can eat nachos were free along with games such as Simon Says and dance offs. The Fun Cart was a traveling small cart that would place itself at stages, around vendors and by water stations. The cart would play classic dance tunes and had several discos balls hanging on it with a machine pumping bubbles, transforming the area into a bubble wonderland. Bugaloo City was a small renegade stage that was placed in the middle of the campgrounds. The stage was a beetle shaped car with DJ decks in the middle. Couches were placed around the beetle and rugs were everywhere for people to sit back and enjoy music into the late hours of 4:00 a.m. The Soapbox Derby took place this year for the third year in a row. Specially qualified people can design a small ‘soapbox’ car and race down a hill, competing against each other with a crowd of people cheering them on. As you can see, there is far more to do at LiB than just music and this is what brings me back every year.
For anybody that has ever been to a Do Lab event, knows just how amazing their structures can be. Not only are the sound systems some of the best I have ever heard, but the structures that put together each stage are designed to highlight the type of music that plays. For example, the Thunder stage traps in the heavy sounds of bass music, the Woogie trees allow the unique sounds of house and techno to travel throughout the crowd and the open structure of Lightning gives bands and DJs the opportunity to let their sound travel.
The Vibes
Possibly the best characteristic of Lightning in a Bottle is the mutual respect and love everybody has for each other. This is not a festival that people will shove you to be at the front, elbow you or yell at you for accidentally standing in their way. LiB is a festival that you can attend to feel love, support and share an appreciation for music with everybody around you. Personally, I love hanging in the back of a crowd to avoid getting pushed and shoved while also having the ability to see the stage. At LiB, I am able to stand in the very front of the crowd with a decent amount of space around me and just vibe with people I have never met before.
The style of this festival is completely different than any other festival I have attended. With the Woogie stage being placed on one side of the festival and Thunder on the other, the style of the people are completely different depending on the side of the venue you are on. Around the Thunder stage where artists like Bleep Bloop, Tipper, Mad Zach and Shlump play, you will see people dressed in more of a hippie/ boho/ wook look. This area of the festival bumps with bass and lets people lose themselves in the music. Across the bridge at the Woogie stage where artists such as Walker and Royce, Nicole Moudaber, Will Clarke and The Black Madonna play, the style is much more techno/ house with decorated military hats, wigs, sparkles and jewels.
With my love and passion for house and techno, I went with a purple wig, decorated military hat with a Dirtybird logo, a purple top and 80’s style skirt for my first day at the Woogie. Pro tip: wigs look and seem fun but after a full day of dancing, a wig is the LAST thing you want constricting your head. Throw a hat on top of it and it’s a recipe for a panic attack.
The Music
Now for the music. Lightning in a Bottle is amazing because you can experience almost any type of music, depending on what you’re feeling in that moment. We traveled throughout the festival searching for the sound of the moment, whether it be alien abduction music at Thunder, bumping house at Woogie, smooth techno at the Favela Bar or loud sounds of the bigger names at Lightning. As I mentioned earlier, The Do Lab has some of the best sound systems I have ever heard. With this comes some of the loudest bass I have ever been in the middle of. I made the decision this year to purchase earplugs for the event. I used DownBeats reusable earplugs to protect my ears from the frequencies. Looking back, all of my favorite sets were when I had these ear plugs in. They allow you to hear the small details of the songs and cancel out the muffeling of the bass. With this, my favorite set of the weekend was The Black Madonna at the Woogie stage. Prior to LiB, I had barely heard of this artist, but we decided to leave our group at the Thunder stage and listen to some house at Woogie. It just so happened that her set began right as we walked up. We stood on a large wood stage-like structure in the direct center of the woogie and danced as The Black Madonna took us to a new dimension filled of house, wubs and techno. With the Woogie trees flashing lights all around us, speakers in the front and in the back of the stage, the Woogie felt like a completely different world.
My second favorite set of the weekend was a surprise set by Blacklizt at the Pagoda Bar. Blacklizt is a side project of ZHU, in which he brings dark techno warehouse vibes. He closed out Saturday night from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. We sat on the speaker in the front left of the stage and looked over the crowd while feeling the bass from the artist. Prior to LiB, I had no idea ZHU had this side alias but what made it so amazing, is that you could tell he was playing the music he is passionate about. Blacklizt is the genre and style of music that ZHU truly is, and it showed through his mind-boggling set.
The Future of LiB
Lightning in a Bottle has many great aspects, but like any other festival, there are some downsides. Sadly, the love, kindness and acceptance that LiB is known for began to fade away this year. Although I have only gone to the festival in 2017 and 2018, I noticed a significant difference in the crowd and the interactions with the people. It was obvious that as the festival gets larger, people who don’t understand the true meaning on LiB begin to outnumber the ones who try to hold the traditions.
I would recommend LiB to anybody who is willing to open their minds and experience a world that will challenge their beliefs. This festival brings so much more than just music and is definitely not your typical EDM festival, so with that, I ask anybody who attends this beautiful festival to uphold the kindness and acceptance that it was created for. Uphold traditions like high-fives on the bridge and howling at the sunset, even when your exhausted on the last day. It is up to the future attendees to keep this festival just as beautiful and enlightening as its always been.
Wow I am so so excited to (hopefully) go to LiB next year after reading this review. Thanks so much Kaytlin! You can find her on social media: Instagram.
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