I was a speck among the crowds, strolling through the Sherwood Forest, gazing upward, smiling quietly to myself. I felt a tap on the shoulder and looked to my right to find nobody there. A childlike giggle echoed in the air, and I spun around to see a small woman peeking out behind a tree. She wore a waistcoat and held a parasol, and smiled at me with her whole face. “Those are the forest creatures,” my friend whispered softly, knowing the encounter required no further explanation. I greeted the woman with a smile and a laugh, and both of us continued to mosey on our different paths through the lit-up, hammock-filled trees. 

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That interaction at Electric Forest 2014 was one of many that felt touched by magic. And that feeling is far from unique in the world of camping music festivals that fill forests, fields, and beaches all over the world every year. These festivals are carefully designed to capture a dreamlike aesthetic and spirit, but their culture offers commentary on reality. The rituals and rhetoric that define the festival scene are informed by rich musical and cultural histories, and resemble social movements that extend far beyond the sanctity of festival walls.

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The camping festivals explored in this site are specific in style and geography. This analysis focuses on camping music festivals hosting jam band and electronic musicians, located in the United States and parts of Canada and Central America. This is not to say that festivals with different musical foci or location are less culturally or politically relevant – in fact, the North American jam-electronic festival scene would be much different if not influenced by different musical and global versions. But the festivals here analyzed are uniquely guided by jam band and EDM culture, as well as the politics and social norms specific to this part of the globe.

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The culture engrained in these festivals not only draws from musical history, but also social movements. Festivals offer a catharsis driven by the normalization of behavior that starkly diverges from the norm. Could these rituals, seen as outlandish in our day-to-day, represent a quiet protest? Are festival grounds effective venues to incite social change, or are they simply a temporary escape?

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This website explores these questions, providing insight into why the North American jam-electronic festival scene morphed into its current state, and examining how the culture challenges elements of our day-to-day lives away from the stages and campgrounds. First exploring the music – the heart of the festival scene – informs a subsequent cultural analysis and examination of how the North American jam-electronic subculture engages with historical and contemporary social movements.