This week I manage to go to Future Forest Festival. This is the third edition for the New Brunswick electronic festival and this year might be the best yet. And here are some reasons why:
The Lineup and Music
It had everything you wanted from D&B, Dubstep, Techno, House, ect… There were 3 stages so if you didn’t like what was playing on one, you would just get up and go to another where there were totally different genres of music playing. Locals acts like Pineo and Loeb, Charife, Ben Rama, Troublesum among others were amongst the lineups and the east coast electronic scene was felt in total. Most of the djs played lots of cool music and throwbacks where pretty popular among the selection. I heard exciting new tracks from djs like J.Phlip and Mizz Maxine and tracks that I haven’t heard in years, some newly remixed and others just the classic vinyl version. Overall it was great to hear the fresh sounds and the classics blend together
The Details
The festival is held in a very remote area so the access was limited to basic things. However, the event had everything you would need. It had all the basics like a first aid, security, bathrooms (not always the cleanest but there were lots of people) and friendly organizing staff. The great thing about it was that they thought of the people first. The festival had charging stations for your devices, and atm machines, different types of vendors and instead of selling water bottles they gave the water for free. Now a lot of people would not see this as a big deal, but it very much is. Water is the most essential thing to our bodies and lots of festivals really capitalize by selling it. The fact that the organizers could have just sold it or let you bring your own but instead they gave it to anybody that needed it in my book that’s an A+!
The People
The Maritimes is a place where the economy is bad. There is not a lot to do and it’s freaking cold in the winter! But one thing that we have here is good friendly people. The good vibes where flowing everywhere (as hippie-ish as that sounds) and people where just nice and showing love all over the place. As the Future Forest Festival keeps getting better and better, I can’t wait to see what is in store for the coming year.
Ya it was great….until they shut the music off at midnight and if you wanted to keep partying, you had to pay twenty bucks for headphones!!! Like wtf??
For one stage. The mushroom stage went without headphones.
I find the sour comment above totally surprising. Saturday was the only night with any silent disco, and music was still being played at FULL volume at the Forest stage ALL night long. The Prism stage (with the silent disco) was still playing music, but quietly. The bass wasn’t bangin’ there, but some might even qualify that “quietly” simply as a reasonable volume at which to listen to music. The $20 for some NICE headphones was a deposit, which was given back when the headphones were returned. One refundable deposit = personal control of volume, with very loud as a definite option. Also, some DJs playing the silent disco really took advantage of the headphones, using that medium to do things with the audio which wouldn’t work otherwise – what an auditory trrreat! Overall, just SO much fabulous music, and such gorgeous visuals and decor. Future Forest is an incredibly well-organized fest, with an unbelievably positive microculture, and a pile of wild and sweet humans … Total paradise.
What a lovely article. Thank you soo much for capturing this magical weekend for us. The silent disco was to allow the Keswick Ridge area some peace and quiet on the water. The mushroom stage ran until sunrise every day and the headphone were free to use a 20$ deposit. Totally reasonable considering the quality of the headphones and allowed you to tune into any stage from anywhere on site. Super cool and kept the community happy. : )