Wow! What a trip... It started out fortuitously but not without some typical last minute "oh, shits", a rushed amazon delivery and the realization of a 20 hour drive to attend. With a co-pilot, a Prius, plenty of snacks and a 4am departure, we made good time all the way Nevada on day one. The second day completed the travel to the fest where we showed up just as the first act was coming on stage. We rushed to get our tent set up and then strolled onto the dance floor.
The festival had three main stages, each decorated with care and finesse. The Knoll stage seemed to be dedicated to a lively variety of genres, and featured some of my favorite sets of the whole fest including 'Diggin Dirt' 'Dirtwire' (no there was not a dirt theme), and Ozomatli. The main stage, aka the Groove Stage, was settled into the forest in a nice natural clearing. The stage was framed with beautifully cut wood circles and shapes that rounded the LED walls into an aesthetic art piece. The Saucy Spa, the late night stage, pumped the music through a quadraphonic sound-system into the sunrise hours. Check out our photos to see the stages in action.
Every stage had great sound quality but two of the three stages had 'Funktion-One' speakers. If you have never heard of Function One's or have heard of it but never experienced music played through a Function One sound system, it rocks, rumbles, and rips through the air with surprising clarity and vibrance. This is the current state of the art speaker system. Enchanted Forest even took the sound quality even further. At the Saucy Spa, the late night stage, four stacks of Funktion-One speakers positioned at every corner of the dance area, all angled to the center of the dance floor. Why is this special or notable? Damn, I am glad you asked! A quadraphonic speaker setup enables artists to shape sounds in a 3D environment and can 'pan' audio to all four speakers (front left, front right, back right, back left).
Below was a brotherly collaboration in an attempt to translate the musical event through photos.
