This is going to be my very first post, I'm not sure where I fit into this community yet but I thought I'd share something that I truly was inspired by and cannot stop thinking about since I'm going back this July. That thing is the Northern Nights Music Festival up in Norcal in the beautiful Redwoods forest.
Why do I enjoy this festival and why do I feel the need to share it..?
I'll start by saying this is a camping festival where you sleep under the stars in the warm July summer nights, for a three days you're living amongst some of the oldest and tallest trees in America, you become unattached to the real world and it's materialistic values, you're amongst friends and strangers who all share the same wavelengths as you, and for me I became one with myself and the many beings and things around me (I know that sounds corny but it was the most majestic place I've ever been).
I first went last year but this festival has been happening for the last five years and I regret not attending sooner. You camp by the river with over 5,000 other festival goers, you can either camp on the riverbank or in the redwood forest (I suggest if any of you guys decide to go to camp in the redwoods), and for an entire weekend you're unattached to the real world and I mean this quite literally. There is no phone service that far up north in the woods, no wifi and no way to charge your phone; unless you plan on walking over a mile to get back to your car to charge it (don't waste your time). With that being said the only contact you have is with the people you went with and the people all around you attending the festival.
After realizing at the half way point of the three hour drive up that we had last phone service I noticed myself unconsciously trying to use my phone with no luck, we don't realize how attached we are to our devices and it's sad to me how dependent we've become to a single object. Taking a few more pictures of the scenery I turned my phone off and put it in my backup, this weekend I was going completely silent, off the radar I planned on living in the moment and saying fuck technology.
Getting to the festival grounds we parked our car and immediately met a group of girls celebrating a birthday and drank a beer with them, from there we got ready all the stuff we could carry and started our walk to find the rest of our group who had left earlier and already picked out our campsite. Met a security guard who was kind enough to wander and get lost with us (most of the worker's first days was our first day and they'd never seen the whole site), passed small pockets of campers here and there but still no luck, we started to follow the sounds of voices and music when finally we came across the huge redwoods campsite where there was a sea of tents, people and hammocks that stretched high up the tall trees. Met more workers who wandered with us till we found our friends already posted up cooking chili. I keep pointing out how we met people because everyone that was there was kind, genuine and down to earth; there was no differences, no judgements, no competition, just people all coming together for the sake of having an amazing weekend. Dropping our first load off we went back to the car two more times to get everything we needed to camp. This festival besides the port-a-poties and shower, if you want it to be free you've gotta bring it yourself. That means food for meals and snacks, drinks to stay hydrated or to get you lifted (you do you), and if you require nicotine I suggest bringing enough supply to last you for four days because they are expensive AF there, looking back I think they charged to take a shower too.
Finally getting all our gear down to the campsite, sitting down then looking straight up at the trees it really sinks in on just how massive these trees are. If any of you have read the Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings or watched the uncut Lord of the Rings: Two Towers movie with the character Treebeard and the Ents, thumbs up, you'll be able to understand why those examples. How the writers talked about trees and how they described them being old and wise is what I felt; walking through the redwood forest at that festival brought back words and images for me from those books that made the whole experience so powerful. When I realized that these trees are so large, so old and that they will outlive a lot of us put into perspective for me how truly small you are in this big world. Protected under their canopy of leaves and branches it was a cool 60 degrees but as soon as you'd step out from under their shade the temperature felt like a high 80 to 90. At night you could hear the wind blowing through the branches above but never once did I feel that wind down below on the ground. Being able to live with those giants for that brief time I felt and understood their protection and sanctuary, it was so inspiring and majestic. If y'all ever get the chance to go and visit the redwoods please do, it's a very humbling experience! I'm going to try to not talk about the redwoods anymore but I hope you can understand why they had such a big impact on me during this trip.
After eating our homemade chili we got ready to walk to the main stage, the sun had set and it was dark now, lights were attached to the massive tree trunks to illuminate a path for us to walk down and stepping out from the tree line you could see the horizon; black silhouettes of tall pointed tree tops clashing with the starry dark blue sky. Lights bounced off the trees painting a spectrum of colors; red, blue, green, yellow, orange, pink, an entire rainbow stretched over the trees. Getting to the main stage there were artists spray painting blank canvases and an aerialist swinging on silk, the music had started and we lost track of time. When we got back to our tents it was three in the morning. We all went to bed underneath the redwoods and woke up with the sunrise and to our neighbors playing ASAP Ferg's Shabba remix. We cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and started to fill the floats with air for the river. Once everyone had changed we walked down to our other friends campsite which was right on the riverbank, waiting for everyone to arrive I looked down the stream and saw hundreds of floats and people in the water, the sun was shinning with not a single cloud in the sky, the music had already started for the day. Finally getting into the water we tried floating down from the top part of the stream (I highly recommend wearing shoes, the ground is nothing but hot rocks and the river itself is nothing but rocks too), floating to the river stage from where we were was such a mission, we got 3/4 of the way down and then hit shallows and baby rapids, tried floating down it unsuccessfully because it was to shallow and had to walk the rest of the way, looking back I really should've filmed the adventure of our dumb asses trying to get down stream. After the mini rapids, shallows and painful rock/shoe losing trilogy we made it to the stage and it was a sight to see. Hundreds of people on literally a hundred different floats, some super huge seating eight to ten people, small inner tubes, unicorns, Homer Simpson donuts, killer whales, pizzas; if you could imagine something being a float it was there on that river. Our neighbors that camped next to us had blown up a ball that was about seven feet tall, climbed up this hill that realistically was a mountain, security tried chasing them down and failed, stuck at the bottom all they could do was shout up to them to come down; once at the top they released that big ball down the hill and it came rolling down to the river of people. Epic-ness is all I have to say. While floating you'd run into another person and instead of apologizing you'd say hello and talk with them till one or the other would drift away when you'd then say goodbye. The big floats dominated the river, moving anything aside that was in it's way, half the girls on those floats would be shooting you with water guns topless. The amount of women that walked around bare chested was awe inspiring, they gave no fucks and had such confidence in themselves. Putting a disclosure out. Let me just say that this festival was a true hippy fest. You are up in Humboldt county, where the hippy's live and the weed grows. All the people who attend are from Cali and bordering states; so Oregon, Arizona and the north-west part of Nevada. I was born and raised in SoCal and I have to admit that the states on the left coast are very likeminded in the hippy notion. So one can imagine that this festival welcomed both the new era of hippies and also the old school grassroots too.
We lost half of our group floating that day and one of our friends almost drowned (he's fine though, couldn't stop laughing and sunk). Eventually we got out of the water, sat on the riverbank and talked with a group for what felt like hours but was probably no longer than 30mins. They had a dance floor on the bank, we walked to that and spent the entire day dancing to the music. When it started to cool down we walked back up to our campsite, found the rest of our group, made sandwiches, changed into sweats and got ready to walk to the main stage. At the main stage the artists were still painting their portraits, the aerialist was spinning on her silk and we danced till the music had stopped.
Walking back to our campsite I was wide awake and wanted to dance till the sunrise. Deciding to locate the silent disco we were off again wandering through the wilderness, it was dark out now, the stars were all out and we were guiding our path with a lantern, we followed the voices this time because at the silent disco you won't hear a thing. After a little walk we arrived to opposite end of the river and there was the disco, dj's would play sets here till the sun was up, taking a pair of headphones from the workers you turn them on and boom, you've entered that dj's world, take off the headphones and you'd never even know some one was performing, looking around it looks like a crowd of people dancing to music in their heads. As soon as the headphones go back on though you're submerged in their world and your own. Half the group got tired and left, but two others including myself decided to stay. We danced and danced, waiting for the sun to rise over the mountains and tall trees. It was calm now, almost everyone had left the disco to get some rest while the rest that didn't attend were already fast asleep. The music set was getting slower and quieter, when the sun had risen up above the tree line the dj thanked the crowd and every one walked back to the campgrounds to rest. Getting back to our spot we settled down in the chairs, looking up into the trees not a single sound was made, I landed up sleeping in the open only waking when our group finally woke.
This festival I had to leave Sunday day because we had a trade show to work in Vegas the following week, it was such a hard thing to do. Leaving early, packing up, lugging all of our stuff back to the car, saying goodbye to our friends that had planned on staying till Monday morning was mostly bitter with no sweet. Driving back down to the real world and finally getting phone service made me realize that we weren't in Wonderland anymore. Ever since I left those woods I've thought about them everyday, I cannot wait to go back and camp under their branches once again.
Let me know what you guys think and if I should keep writing about some of the few festivals I've attended. Maybe some do's and don't's, I'm not sure!
2015 Lineup:
The drive up to the Cook’s Valley Campground:
The essentials:
The view from our tent:
Our campsite:
The Golden Teachers I found:
Festival at night:
Drive back down to reality:
-This tree was struck by lightening, caught on fire, was hallowed out due to the fire but to this day is still alive and well. An old school teacher once made it her home and lived in it. Now an old Asian couple owns it I think (bought it for some outrageous price too).
-The famous Chandelier Tree, it longer exists do to a storm this past winter that brought it down, moment of silence for the fallen giant. RIP Chandelier Tree
Website for Northern Nights Music Festival:
https://www.northernnights.org
https://www.instagram.com/nnmfestival/
2017 Lineup (Phase One Drop):
