My Biggest Takeaway from Electric Forest This Year Was Finding True Love

(A story in multiple parts)

Day Four of Electric Forest was the day when I really threw my plans out the window because I ended up wanting to continue the epic vibe from the previous day even more than I wanted to see my must-see sets. It’s funny how things work out that way sometimes.

Everyone from my group camp got up and started getting ready at around the same time, but once again we went in staggered because part of our group wanted to go in early to secure us a spot near The Observatory so we could all catch the secret Seven Lions b2b Dimibo set. Similar to the previous day, I started walking with my friends towards the festival entrance, but I broke off from them while we were still in the Group Camping area because I decided to just drop into Luke’s group camp to meet up with him there instead of going inside the festival and trying to find him in the craziness that would be Seven Lions b2b Dimibo (the world premiere performance of their newly formed Abraxis act).

I got to Luke’s group camp, where he and his friends were all sitting around hanging out, and he was pleasantly surprised to see me. We all hung out at his camp for a little bit until his friends decided that it was finally time to make our way into the festival to see Abraxis in action. When we finally got to The Observatory, I was not at all surprised to see how packed it was. There was hardly any room at all for people to even make their way through the crowd to find their friends, and everyone was super into it. We managed to bump into some of my friends and I said hi to them as we continued to try to make our way further into the crowd.

After a few songs, Luke’s friends decided that it was way too packed in there and it was way too hot, so we decided to leave before the set ended and we walked around and found ourselves at the Chapel. We hung out in the Chapel area for a while and even got to see some weddings take place, which was cool. Last year when my friends and I stumbled upon the Chapel we bore witness to this bizarre furry wedding and it was confusing but also quite entertaining. This year, it seemed we stumbled upon actual regular weddings, so that was pretty cool too.

Eventually, Luke said he wanted to go dance again and that he was feeling down for some house music. So I told him if house music is what he’s after, Sacha Robotti was really good house music and he was playing over at Tripolee. Luke said we should head over there ASAP, so we broke off from the rest of his friends and made our way to Tripolee. When we got there, by some fortuitous stroke of fate, I ran into a group of my Camp Rabbit Hole friends again! So I introduced them all to Luke and we all danced our asses off to Sacha Robotti’s set and into Luttrell’s set. It was so great to finally be able to see a set with my friends again, as I hadn’t really been able to do that since Day One.

About halfway into Luttrell’s set, Luke asked me if I wanted to go walk around and explore the Forest with him for a bit before going over to Ranch Arena to meet up with his friends for Hippie Sabotage. I told him of course I’d love that, so we made our way into the Forest and just walked around and took in the sights for a bit. We ended up finding my group camp’s meetup spot, which I was super happy about. I introduced him to the rest of the group camp members who were there, and then we continued our exploration of the Forest. It was a really great opportunity for the two of us to get even more quality time in with each other and we got to know each other even better as we traversed the Forest in each other’s company. We eventually found the sound bath thing, and I wanted to go in with him but the line was way too long and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so we both decided that we would check it out later on if there was still time.

Finally, it was time to head over to Ranch Arena to meet back up with his group camp friends. We went into the crowd and were able to find his friends right away, which was pretty cool. I wasn’t really a fan of Hippie Sabotage myself, and thought that they talked/yelled way too much during their set. I liked some of their music, but their stage presence and conduct wasn’t really my thing. But Luke and his friends were all loving it, so I was having a great time as well because my new friends were all having a great time.

Luke had previously told me that he would be down to go check out FM-84 at Jubilee with me, so about halfway through Hippie Sabotage I asked him if he would still be down to go with me. He paused for a moment and thought hard about it, and told me that he kinda wanted to stay there with his friends since it was the last day and he wanted to maximize his time with them. He said if I wanted to go that we could just meet back up again later, so I thought about it for a moment and I told him that I’d stay there with them because even though I really wanted to see FM-84 and they were one of my must-see sets, what I wanted even more was to continue spending as much time as possible with him. So he said “Hell yeah, I’m glad you want to stay with me!”

We stayed through the entirety of Hippie Sabotage’s set, and then we stayed at Ranch Arena to get some hardcore headbanging in for Snails. After Snails, his friends all wanted to go see Zeds Dead, but Luke, luckily for me, wanted to go see Seven Lions. So we broke off from their group once again and started making our way over to Tripolee. It was at this time that I once again threw my plans out the window, because The Midnight was playing at The Observatory and they were one of my absolute must-see sets going into Forest this year.

We finally got to Tripolee, and Yotto was playing. Luke had never heard of him before, but he was really happy to get another dose of house music in before the festival ended. We met up with some of my Camp Rabbit Hole friends who were also there to see Seven Lions, and I was really happy that I got to experience one last set with my friends this year at Electric Forest. I thought it was really cool, too, that even though Luke had expressed earlier that day that he wanted to spend as much time with his friends as possible since it was the last day, he followed me to go see Seven Lions so that I could also spend some time with my friends on the last day of the festival. Without me even asking him to.

That Seven Lions set was truly something else. I had the absolute time of my life with Luke and my friends, and for a good majority of the set Luke and I were dancing together and had our arms on each other’s shoulders and were just really deep in the feels, something the music of Seven Lions is known to facilitate. We would occasionally look at each other during the set and tell each other things like “You’re so amazing,” “I’m so happy I met you,” “I’m glad we’ve become such great friends,” etc. At the height of our mutual feels trip, the emotions really rushed over me and without even thinking about it I got behind him and put my arms around him and we danced together like that for a little bit. It was a highlight of the set for me because not only was he completely ok with it, but neither of us thought anything of it since we were both just enjoying the set together and feeling out the vibe that was there.

When the set ended, my group camp was trying to organize ourselves to take a group photo at The Nest, and Luke followed me for a little while until we got there, but then he decided that he really wanted to try to find his friends who had all gone to see Zeds Dead. He said they were probably already well on their way to their group camp, so he said I should swing by his group camp after I was done with all my stuff with my group camp so that we could hit up the final night of the RV parties together. We hugged one last time that night before going our separate ways, and for whatever reason I had this weird feeling that that would be the last time I saw him that night.

When I got back to my campsite with my group camp friends, we hung out for a little bit to decompress for a while before heading to the RV parties, and sure enough, the feeling I had earlier ended up becoming true. Luke texted me after a while and said that he actually got really tired after getting to his campsite so he was going to call it a night. But he said that we should get together in the morning and hang out until it was time to leave the festival, so that made me happy that he was willing to see me one last time before the magic of Electric Forest finally came to an end this year.

I did end up running into his brother and some of his friends on my way to the RV parties, though, so I got to hang out with them and party one last time that night and that was pretty cool to me because I took it as an indication that I wasn’t just “Luke’s friend” to them but that they had truly accepted me as one of their Forest Fam as well. We danced until the sunrise came and all the RV parties had to shut down and all the music finally stopped. Luke’s friends decided that they weren’t done with the music yet so they said we should all just go back to camp and play music and hang out until we finally feel tired enough to fall asleep. I was really happy that they had invited me to continue hanging out with them.

After a while of hanging out and talking and listening to music, I finally started to nod off a bit in the chair I was sitting in, so they tapped me and said I should probably head back to my camp to get some sleep before the long day ahead. So I got up and made my way over to my camp and I ended up passing out in the common area. I was so tired that I didn’t even make it into my tent to sleep in it one last time before the festival truly ended.

That’s where I’ll end things for now. I still have one final installment of this story, where I’ll recount the final adventures Luke and I had on departure day and I will finally explain why this connection I shared with him led me to finding true love at Electric Forest this year and why this was by far the most significant connection I’ve ever made in my entire decade of raving and going to music festivals. Stay tuned, I know I’ve said it over and over again but I promise you this isn’t going where you think it’s going! ;)

Thank you again for taking the time to read my stories of my experiences at Electric Forest this year! It’s been really cathartic for me to relive these memories and write them down into stories. I hope you have enjoyed reading them!