Lightning In a Bottle

I love LIB!!! I go every year. This year was the best. Nice temperature, unlike the horrible, horrible heat from last year. Great people, awesome neighbors, and amazing music, arts, and vendors. I got to participate with the Zendo project for a little bit too, which was nice. This festival is very organized and cares about their people. They have harm reduction programs like Dance Safe, Zendo, and Plur Angels that other festivals lack (*cough* *cough* EDC). There are SO MANY workshops, classes, and activities that 3 days is not enough to complete them all. Also, portapotties = always clean, always toilet paper. I’ve never been to another festival that had their portapotty game on point like this one.
Next year I am taking my little sister because there is a whole family area camping site for families! This festival really does include everyone. I love it. So much.

I’m torn between two and three stars here in my review for the 2015 LIB in Bradley.
The good first: a nice, friendly festival where vendors put a lot of effort in to make it special. Two starts for clean porta potties twice a day and a great location, plus the stages are just awesomely nice to look at.
Now the bad: the organization was terrible — basically non-​existing. The festival organizers did not provide ANY transportation for goods /​gear when we arrived on friday night (parking passes were sold out and are extremely expensive!).
We are very organized festival campers (burning man, desert heart, …) we had a dolly, cooler with wheels etc) — however, as no shuttle or tram was running when we arrived — we were told because of fire restrictions — we had to haul all our equipment, food etc from parking @ gate 2 to gate 11 — over sandy, hilly un-​paved roads, bridges and stairs, about 2 miles. Pretty hard to have a good festival start after this. Even writing the review here makes me fall out with the «organizers».
Also the departure was VERY un-​organized — it took us over 5 hours to get to the main road — although we left our camp site at 10:00 AM — the shuttle to the car was stuck on the road, the parking guys only let cars in batches of 20 leaving the parking gate etc. etc. etc.
The neutral: the festival is geared towards younger people (22 — 27 year olds) who like to party (with their crew) and do not put any effort into costumes. Some seemed to think that wearing granddad’s bathrobe is a costume. *sigh*. well — not for me.

This was my first year at Lightning in a Bottle. Wow! I will definitely go back next year. It is definitely transforming, nonjudgmental, friendly festival.

This year was so much more organized. I got to will call at around 10 am on Friday. I picked up my tickets and parked at LOT 3. We get picked up by the shuttle, and dropped off approximately .3 miles from our camp site. We walked down the ravine in 85 degree temperatures and established our new home for the next 5 days. I had a second trip to venture off to, so I hired a bike trolley for about $ 15 to fetch my belongings and to enjoy a scenic ride.
We camped near the «Woogie Stage». Near our campsite, were food vendors, bar, porta-​potties, and an art installment. To the right of our stage, was a bridge that connected us to the «Lightning Stage». If you pass that, there are more food vendors, bar, porta-​potties, and an art installments. Passed all that, there was another bridge connecting us to the «Thunder Stage». The weather ranged from 40 degrees at night, to 95 degrees during the day. They provided free water refill at the stations, and lots of organic beverages at the vendors. Not to get too much into details, I urge you to find out more about this place on your own next year! This is a transformational festival, and if you want to grow, you have to come here.
Here is something I would like to share with all of you I met:
Dear dearest of friends,
I truly enjoyed witnessing the deep connections being develop right in front of my eyes! Whether it was observing a conversation between two friends, a heartfelt hug, a friend petting a gopher, or John blasting Arthur in the taint with a super soaker; this was beautiful! (Well, maybe not so much of the taint blasting). The connections that were being built reminded me of the bridges at LIB. The evident energy of high-​fives, greetings, and eye contacts being exchanged at the bridges represented the channel of love being passed through our connections.
It baffles me about how much we have grown together thus far, let alone solely this past weekend. We all experienced massive growth within our minds, bodies, souls, and most of all, our hearts. The sheer capacity of our ability to love has expanded to the farthest depths of the universe and back; this is beautiful! My words alone cannot bring this phenomenon justice. I want to remind you, my dear friends, the heart is an instrument meant to expand as big as the universe, and to resonate as loud as the Lightning stage. Til next time LIB-​ers, peace!
Your friend,
Nathan

Ok, I hesitated to write this review… I’d like to consider myself a pretty positive person, I like to have fun, and I’ve been to more music festivals than I can count (several of them camping fests). I left Lightning in a Bottle 2014 (Bradley CA) really disapointed and as my friends are already discussing next year, I had to write this review to warn people of the venue and hope that someone from the Do Lab reads this. Now, I’d like to start with the positives which were the vibes and the people. Both amazing. There was almost no security which really made you feel trusted and welcomed and everyone was incredibly friendly. We arrived early Friday morning with a car pass and were told to go to the farthest possible camp ground as that was where the car camping was (makes sense). We arrived and the lot designated for cars was packed full. The only option was to drive down this steep hill to an area that we later discovered was a dried up lake bed. There was plenty of room down there and no one stopped us or told us we shouldn’t camp there.
The terrain and conditions were the worst I’ve ever experienced. There was stickers EVERYWHERE. And by stickers I mean those round spiky things that stick to everything and hurt like hell when you step on them. They covered every inch of our carefully crafted campsite. In addition, there were these horrible bugs with pinchers everywhere (my boyfriend said they were earwigs… I’d never seen them before anywhere but LIB). I woke up every morning to at least one or two crawling on my body even though we were careful to zip up the tent when we weren’t entering or exiting. The heat was unbearable and the website claims that there are free water stations everywhere… sure, if they don’t run out of water. Which they did… and there was a moment where I almost went into a panic attack because we had run out of water at our campsite and the water stations were dry («am I going to die out here??»). The music was ok… on day two I heard a speaker pop at the main stage and they never fixed it so there was a popping sound coming from the speakers all Sunday and Phantogram sounded like crap because of it. The last complaint I have is the actual layout of the festival. The hills are VERY steep and only two had stairs so you have to climb up these hills in deep sand in 99 degree temps… sounds fun right?
Now, I think if we had had a better camp location we would have been much more satisfied with the event. But in our defense, the DoLab should have put signs up saying not to go down the hill and camp at the bottom. It wasn’t safe… a fellow festival goer was sucked into quicksand just a hundred yards from where we were camping and had to be pulled out with a totem. Just not acceptable. I love the DoLab and the shows it puts on in LA. And I love the whole burner culture and what it represents, which is why it took me so long to write this review. But I’m hoping that people will be more prepared after reading this (BRING ALL THE WATER, DON“T CAMP IN THE LAKEBED). If you decide to go next year… god speed my friends.

This year the Do Lab took the festival from Silverado to Lake Skinner in Temecula. It was my first year, so I don’t have the comparison that other longtime LiBers will for this event. But it was an amazing festival.
GETTING IN & OUT
I had a weekend pass, so I arrived on Saturday afternoon. I’d already heard nightmare stories of the 6 – 7 hour line that people picking up their tickets from Will Call had endured on Thursday evening. My rating of this festival would be very different had I waited in that line, but around noon on Saturday I didn’t wait more than 15 minutes to pick up my ticket.
Getting to the grounds was also easy, with plenty of signs on the road between Will Call (at Temecula Preparatory School) and Lake Skinner Campgrounds about 30 minutes away. Individual searches that you normally find at festivals were replaced here by car searches, but once you got the green light you basically wouldn’t be searched again (notwithstanding the undercover presence… more on that later).
CAMPING GROUNDS
This festival was unique in that anyone who wanted to attend more than one day of the festival was basically forced to camp. As someone who never voluntarily camps, this took me significantly out of my comfort zone.
Instead of having assigned spots, it was first-​come-​first-​served to get a spot. They had 3 camping areas in which I wandered around for the better part of an hour before finding a spot large enough to accommodate my oversized tent (my fault). By the time I’d set it up in the 90+ degree heat, I was exhausted.
The campgrounds had closed the onsite bathrooms for the festival, leaving the strings of porta-​potties throughout the grounds our only option for relieving ourselves. In that heat, this was less desirable than actually finding some remote bushes to do your business, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many attendees opted for this rather than the plastic poop hotboxes.
The festival brought in portable showers at $ 7 a pop. I would have gladly taken advantage of this, but the showers closed at 12am — the same time the music stopped — and people like me who like to shower AFTER getting dirty were left without this option. Luckily I had pitched my tent next to a hose, and took «hippie showers» multiple times per day for the 2 days I was there.
FESTIVAL GROUNDS
This was laid out really well. Stages were far enough apart that there was no noise bleed, and the walk in between each stage was reasonable. At least 2 of the 3 stages were set up with hose sprayers that were on until about 6pm, which were a must in the oppressive heat of the desert. There was even a small water park-​type area separate from the stages that you could get soaked at.
Food and drink vendors were easy to get to, and the water stations were plentiful for refilling your bottles. At every turn there was a collection of waste bins for the various forms of trash — Landfill, Compost, Recyclable, and a smaller one for things like cigarette butts. I probably stared at these signs for a few minutes before throwing anything away, trying to figure out which bin it went into. The festival stresses environmental responsibility, and has even won some «Greenest Festival in the Nation» awards for several years now. But no matter how many «pack it in, pack it out» signs I saw, there were clearly a lot of attendees who didn’t get the memo.
SECURITY
I’ve been to a lot of festivals over the last couple years. This is one where I can’t imagine that people would need any kind of conduct enforcement. Alcohol was being sold, and sure, people were smoking weed or possibly on psychadelics, but none of these activities lend themselves to easy overdose or really put anyone else at risk. Even so, it became clear that there was a significant undercover cop presence that in many cases seemed to be acting out of turn with attendees. I heard accusations of entrapment, people being arrested without being read their rights, and having to post $ 25,000 bail for the «sale» of drugs that they refused money for.
In the week following the festival, the Do Lab released a statement that they had contracted with the Temecula PD for uniformed officers only, and had no knowledge of any undercover presence at the festival. I am not sure how the situation is being addressed, but it clearly left a bad taste in the mouth of many attendees… even those like myself who had done the festival completely clean.
PEOPLE & MUSIC
I really think this is what makes the festival what it is. LiB has a cult following, and devotees have been to numerous years of this event. I’ve never seen a gathering of more friendly, enthusiastic, and open people. Being an asshole is pretty much the only thing that people will look down on you for. The lineup is a great mix of deep house, electronica, and bass music. If you come for music, you’ll get more than your fix here, with some amazing staging.
There is much more to be said about this festival, but these are the highlights of my experience!

Was lucky enough to score a one day pass last year and LOVED IT! The campsites were next to the lake. The vibe was amazing! If you like electronic music, you should check it out. I was amazed at the vegan/​vegetarian food options, thank you LIB! Oak Canyon Ranch is the perfect location for the festival! I’ve been to many music festivals and I was impressed. This year I went to Tahoe for the weekend, but if I’m in town I will def check it out next year.

Beautiful, just beautiful. I had the honor of volunteering this amazing event Memorial Day Weekend and I was in awe of it all. The art literally blew me away, the music was bumping all night long and the people were some of the nicest I have ever met!!! It was truly an inspiring weekend and I learned a lot about myself and the world around me and found a greater appreciation for humanity. I live 12 miles from the venue and I still chose to camp to gain the whole experience and I am glad I did.
Lightning in a Bottle was a LIBerating weekend :) I highly recommend!

LOVE’d it last year. We only did the day pass but everything was pretty amazing I’ve saved up all year since then and now got two 3 days passes. So excited I cant wait for this year! I’m sure it will also be a blast.
(P.S.) Everyone said DO NOT USE WILL CALL (They’re right) there are less lines (which means longer lines) and the easiest way to go is get them mailed to you. If you already purchased them using will call don’t worry you can email beTicketing and they should be able to help you out and mail them to you instead! (not sure how long they can do that for though…)

I went last year, and had to wait in line for literally 2 hours to get my wristband! As did everyone else… in the HOT HOT SUN… NOT FUN… it seemed really POORLY organized… DO NOT DO WILL CALL!!!
Then after parking your car, people were screaming and pushing each other to get onto the trucks which drove you to your camping spot… packed like sardines… Chaotic.
Haha. The performances and sound setup were pretty good though as was the general vibe from the people there… Loved the art and the event layout…
Did not like the «holier than thou» organizers yelling at you for throwing an empty bottle in the trash can… and ORDERING you to take your trash with you… will not be going back… I mean they seriously have people WATCHING the trash cans, and telling people not to throw their trash into them… it’s just weird… they are trying to merge burning man culture with default world culture… TRYING.
Save your money and hit up Burning Man or Coachella… those events sell out for a reason… they are well organized and a lot more fun ;) (See you there!)

Lightning in a Bottle was as I heard one festival goer put it — «A Burning Man Resort.»
The weather was sensational — outside of some light harmless morning rain. There were barely any lines for porta-​potties, no drama, and just a relaxing — all enveloping mellow vibe throughout the festival.
The camping was easy. Outside of some hectic running around — trying to get our stuff over to our camp space, we had no issues. We were right by porta-​potties, and it was easy to navigate to and from our camping area to the stages and vending areas.
I was thoroughly impressed by the sound systems at all of the stages and the diversity of music — ranging from folk, to Americana, to Bluegrass, to Rock to Dubstep, to Middle Eastern — to ambient — to everything in between.
The food was phenomenal. I lived off of Lydia’s raw food, as well as the Bliss Bar’s outstanding vegan raw food sushi rolls, power shakes, coconut water, and hot chocolate.
OmShan Tea was the ideal way to welcome in the magnificent day. Serving up natural herbal teas with wit and diligence. As a beautiful assortment of festival faces gathered around OmShan’s pouring stations, I felt overwhelming goodness rise up in my body and heart.
The art installations painting the picturesque landscape were something else. From large sculptures, to interactive sound installations, to live art, to natural art displays — I felt invigorated by all of the moving and stunning art — wherever I looked.
The vendors were great. I bought tons of lovely take-​aways, including a hot red onesie, a wondrous pinecone necklace, a soft white sweater, vitamins, sage and more
The people were What’s Up. Beautiful outfits, beautiful souls, and beautiful dancing everywhere.
I will be going to Bonnaroo next week, and was at first apprehensive about attending two different festivals so close to each other, but I’m so glad that I made the decision to venture out to Silverado for an epic adventure.
I hula-​hooped till 5 in the morning. Met talented musicians from all over the world. Did yoga. Made friends, and I definitely got my groove on.
Thank you LIB. Till next year…
Trust.

Overall LIB is pretty major. The Do Lab has been killing it for years, and they really bring it when it comes to this fest. From the stages to the sound, to the talent to the vendors, to the art and installations, to the people watching, it’s gorgeous and done well. It’s everything you love about Burning Man without the dust storms. Plus, they sell beer AND have ATMs. Very SoCal, and VERY convenient.
But let’s say this: Do Lab, please stick to stages and not event logistics. Hire someone to help you. PLEASE. The parking situation failed. We tried to buy a parking pass last minute and couldn’t get one — fair enough, there were shuttles from the back parking lot to bring people in with multiple stops along the campground. Then we get there, and surprise! The shuttle service just kind of stopped because they packed in so many people that they literally couldn’t get through the pathways, and we were only a half day late to the fest. From what I’ve heard this has happened every year, even with smaller crowds. That’s a huge logistic problem that really needs to be addressed because hello? Camping = more stuff than you can carry a half mile in.
Also, regarding ‘being green,’ I’ve never seen a festival get trashed as much as this one. LIB should consider charging $ 10 more to have more garbage and recycling cans around to help stop the littering.
Beyond the parking and the greening, we honestly had a great time.

I wanted my 300^th review to be special. The timing was perfect as I just came off a Memorial Weekend trip to CA for Lightning In a Bottle festival (or LIB as it is known) and I figure it was high time (no pun intended) somebody wrote a Unilocal review for the festival in its new location.
This was the 10^th year for the festival though the first couple of years were more a private event with friends/​family who started LIB. The last several years has seen LIB grow a lot and for whatever reason last year in 2010 they moved the location from Santa Barbara to Orange County.
I feel like most of the 9,000−12,000 people who came this year were from California or at least the West Coast (ie: Seattle, Portland, ect). A lot of the people I met at the festival were very surprised that I flew in from Austin. Those from Cali who know of the festival sometimes refer to it as the Burning Man of California. At this point it is still more of a regional event in general though I think it has tremendous growth ahead of it.
LIB is really cool because it is multi-​layered. Even the lay-​out of the festival grounds at Oak Canyon Ranch has layers. The Lower Camp is where the central action takes place – this is where there are several stages that show house/​dance/​techno/​trance type bands. This year there were tons of great DJ’s and musicians like Pretty Lights, Thievery Corporation, Eskmo, Beats Antique, Pumpkin and tons more. The bands started playing around noon and really cranked up at night like around 9PM-​12 midnight though the music would play all night long at various parts of the festival until after the sun came up. The Lower Camp is where most of the art is located – all through out the festival there are artists painting works of art that you can bid on for charity. The Lower Camp has the artist gallery, the movie screen where they show documentaries and art house films all night long and most of the food and shopping vendors. You will find that a lot of the people like to camp on the Lower portion. This is where my friend and I set up our tent. It is easy to access everything from here.
Food = outstanding! Most of the food vendors serve vegetarian selections like veggie burgers though there were a couple of places that had fish like crab cakes, shrimp and fish tacos. I did not find any red meat or chicken anywhere. There was a food vendor that had raw food (a company out of San Francisco) that was outstanding. To save on plastic LIB encourages you to bring your water bottle as they have free water located all through out the camp grounds. The main sponsor of the festival is New Belgium brewery which is awesome because this means FAT TIRE beer on tap. Yum.
The Upper Camp grounds was my favorite spot. It is located up a very large hill that gives you a great work-​out to hike up and also gives you great views of Lower Camp and the lake and mountains surrounding the festival (you also have the option of riding in the back of a commercial truck acting as a «people mover» if you hate to climb). Believe it or not but LIB is a family friendly event (all ages) and the Upper Camp is where the families who are camping with babies and children are located. This area was named the Temple of Consciousness. This is where you find the Yoga tent with all day and all night Yoga classes taught by a variety of talent from all over the world that includes music, singing and dance. They also have solar cooking classes, lectures on things like hydroponic gardening, micro-​farming and how to make kombucha.
The Upper Camp had one stage used for music at night though the best part was during the day when the same stage had the most amazing speakers. Two of my favorite self-​help/​spiritual authors, Marianne Williamson and Don Jose Ruiz gave hour and a half talks. The discussions were phenomenal from all the speakers and were a rich diversity of topics. The Upper Camp also has the Om Shan Tea tent which is a self-​serve (unless you sit at the tea bar with the tea master) tea area that you can gather around with your friends and drink free, delicious hot tea (no shoes allowed) and engage. Some of the coolest people I met were in the tea tent.
Speaking of: LIB has the coolest people. You will see a wide variety from hippie types with their babies in slings to some older couples to lots of young ravers and 30 – 40 somethings. Like Burning Man you have many people wearing costumes and make-​up with props. They have a foam bath that is connected to a fire truck that you can clean up and cool off in and clothing was optional, and all co-​ed.
Camping is so much fun! Be aware that being the desert in the spring it can get very cold. Bring socks and jackets for night just in case. If you buy the weekend pass it includes camping but if you want your vehicle on the camp site it costs extra and those tickets are very limited.
If you like self expression, music, art, love and if you believe in magic you should experience LIB!