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If you haven’t been to Do Lab’s Lightning in a Bottle yet, you really need to put it in your calendar for next year. LIB is a must-attend festival for any festival goer! With a magical environment, art installations, engaging workshops, conscious vendors, Dough Lab Pizza, and the best musical acts, you can’t go wrong.

Seeing the beautiful hills and views of Bradley, CA filling the rearview with colorful sunsets and enchanting memories this year’s glorious Lightning in a Bottle concludes as the emerging premier camping, arts, music and yoga festival again surpasses the expectations of all. Imagined and flawlessly executed by Los Angeles’ merrymaking collective of event production virtuosos Do LaB over Memorial Day weekend, LIB continues to ascend as a kaleidoscope of adventures and life changing experiences that will successfully surprise even the most seasoned revelers. With the many festivals attended by our Collective Lifestyle team, Do Lab never seems to disappoint. Their events, especially LIB, are always a huge magical success.

Returning to the San Antonio Recreation Area for the third consecutive time, LIB 2016 proved to be the biggest and best gathering to date as Do LaB cemented a major pre-event milestone in its rich, colorful history, hitting max capacity at 20,000 tickets weeks before the gates opened. Always striving for new growth and metamorphosis, 2016 brought inspiring expansions to the festival with the gates to LIB opening a day early on Wednesday May 25 to welcome eager passholders into its warm embrace which included a Village Action Day with an appearance from The Polish Ambassador and Ayla Nereo and the addition of the High Grounds camp, among many celebrated highlights such as a completely reimagined Woogie stage.

We didn’t get a chance to make it on Wednesday, but we sure do regret it after seeing some coverage from our Collective Lifestyle friends who were there. We’ll definitely be there early next year to get a glimpse of the magic that happens before the amazing festival.

For a glimpse on what you missed out on, check out the official LIB 2016 Aftermovie below:

Monumental and captivating art installations, melodies of pink and red sunsets, playful animative performers and the natural eye-catching rolling hills landscape served as the backdrop for the affair, providing an enchanting portal for intimate moments and aural discoveries alike. It’s also has a plethora of amazing views for anyone trying to capture these moments with their camera. Early risers were treated to daily yoga at the Lightning Stage, which hosted an array of practices including a set with music curated by Marques Wyatt and yoga under William Close’s renowned Earth Harp. After yogis stretched their limbs and opened their hearts, the Lightning stage showcased the festival’s top acts from early afternoon into daybreak of the next day with performances from sensual and soulful Chet Faker, gripping and emotive post-minimal sounds from Moderat, an intoxicating and meandering set from Jamie XX, jazz saxophonist stylings of Big Gigantic, an ethereal Grimes, hip hop vocalist and producer Lafa Taylor who invited a bevy of dancers onstage, and a trippy, otherworldly live afternoon performance from Russ Liquid Test – plus many others! Almost every act at LIB showcased some of the biggest and most upcoming artists in the scene right now. We even got to attend a private set by Lafa Taylor hosted by the Do Lab and the Confluence, following a behind the scenes interview with Dede Flemming, one of the co-founders of Lightning in a Bottle and Do Lab. It was very insightful to see how everything for Lightning in a Bottle is so carefully planned and curated to precise detail. It is definitely a festival worth going to when you know how much careful effort is put into this festival.

Sunny skies brought daytime dance parties, where The Woogie stage shone brightest. As temperatures turned up the heat, house and techno worshippers flocked to the prismatic awnings of the stage, which featured a fanciful entanglement of neon piping winding and wrapping around the DJ booth. Afternoon sets laden with misters and good vibes regaled audiences, where progressive producers such as Sacha Robotti, Justin Jay, Jonas Rathsman,Lane 8 and Lee Burridge took turns spinning long after the sun rays had fallen beyond the horizon. The Woogie also hosted an early Saturday morning memorial tribute honoring the late resident favorite Pumpkin, as many friends and family gathered to celebrate and dance under the magical canopy Pumpkin had played so many times before.

Twilight beckoned wanderers in search of the wonderfully weird and bass-centric beats, those who ventured into the evening found themselves fully immersed in the mystical offerings of the night, each stage brimming with late night sets. The festival’s other main stage the Thunder, an amped up version of Do LaB’s Big Fish at Coachella complete with the 2016 addition of visual screens, lived up to its namesake with showstopping, mesmerizing sets from the world’s preeminent bass music aficionados. Day and night, the Thunder unfurled a fury of innovative sound, culminating with long-time LIB’ing Legends Pantyraid closing out LIB 2016 with an unforgettable Sunday night set. Supporting acts over the weekend included Cashmere Cat, Ekali, Tokimonsta, Eprom, Dimond Saints, Mija and an incredible b2b by G Jones and Minnesota, who delivered one of the most dynamic sets of the weekend.

Keeping the tunes pumping throughout the day and long after the main stages went quiet after 2am were the Favela and Pagoda bars, which helped to ring in the weekend festivities by starting off the music on Thursday prior to the main stages coming to life on Friday and continuing into dawn on Monday. Surprise sets were key aspects of both stages, with LIB artists Patricio, Autograf and the Glitch Mob’s Boreta all stopping by for late night thrills. If you attended and liked the Favela and Pagoda bars at LIB, they’ll also be at Do Lab’s Woogie Weekend playing the after hours jams as well.

Roamers found themselves stumbling across the many immersive environments of Lightning in a Bottle, which features music, art, and interactive installations. Environments such as The Grand Artique boasted a large-scale revisioned stage for late night frivolity, the mysterious Lightning Inn was a labyrinth of secret rooms requiring finding clues, passwords, and improvising with the hotel’s wild staff to enter, while beautiful The Lost Hotel churned relentless beats and played host to an interactive dining experience. Other dining experiences could be found across the festival grounds with The Village hosting The Last Supper Club and Amori’s hosting one ripe with tantalizing food and saucy burlesque.

The festival’s spiritual epicenter, The Temple of Consciousness, featured an enlightening Cacao Ceremony to open the weekend with intention and purpose, and later welcomed headliner Chet Faker for a secret surprise set. Prince Ea also shared an inspiring Q&A session at The Temple moderated by Dream Rockwell for those looking to bathe in his wordsmithery that challenges preconceived political, social, and environmental ideals. Those in search of educational forums hit The Village and The Learning Kitchen, where pioneering luminaries such as Cherie Rae Russell, Marza Miller, Jennifer Dumpert, and many others enlightened open ears.

New in 2016 was the first ever Do LaB invitational Soap Box Derby, held on a steep hill just behind The Woogie. Lucky contenders had a chance to enter the race with homemade derby cars which this year included a silver bullet, skateboard, blue pig, and coffin + many more iconic creations on wheels with the winning entry being a very large banana driven by two Do LaB founders.

LIB proudly continues its reign as the most environmentally conscious festival in America, having received the Outstanding Award five years running from A Greener Festival for its healthy food vendors, free water stations, composting and recycling infrastructure, “Leave it Better, Leave it Beautiful” policy, and other green initiatives.

Following the smashing success of LIB 2016, Do LaB sets their sights on LIB’s sister festival Woogie Weekend taking place this July 8-10 for its sophomore year at Oak Canyon Park in Silverado, SoCal. An intimate musical adventure, Woogie Weekend features house and techno’s rising stars plus a master class of veterans poised to bring the house party vibes. Returning to the former stomping grounds of Lightning in a Bottle, headliners for 2016 include Benoit & Sergio, BLOND:ISH, Claptone, Damian Lazarus, Eli & Fur, Kidnap Kid, Mathew Jonson (live),Oliver Huntemann, TȂCHES, plus over 30 more artists! With a serene festival setting for camping, dancing, community and experiencing, Woogie Weekend is a time to reunite and reconnect with great music, amazing people, and radical self-expression. Watch the Official 2016 Lineup Trailer and become inspired by the famed Woogie. Discounted “Later Bird” tickets are still available on the website here with prices increasing on June 12.

Thank you to the Do Lab and the Confluence for allowing us to cover this amazing festival. We highly recommend this and Woogie Weekend for any fan. It is definitely a festival worth going to. You will love every second of it! See you at the next one!

  Photo Source: CJ Berina of Collective Lifestyle & Juliana Bernstein @gettiny (photo’s with bottom right watermark)

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