In my never-ending quest to try something new, I decided to go to Lost Lands for the first time. It didn’t take much to persuade me since the notion of going to a music festival that featured amazing artists, real life-size dinosaurs and the EDM community, particularly headbangers, was enticing to me. After extensive research and review, I bought my festival ticket and decided to camp, also for the first time, on the festival grounds.
My journey started at 3 A.M. as I traveled to my pick-up point for the long-haul bus from NY to Ohio with others who flew from around the world to go to Lost Lands. Filled with excitement, my fellow passengers on the bus presented their stories about what brought them here and why they had to attend Lost Lands. It got me thinking about the general perception of this festival. For me, I had always wanted to go to Lost Lands. I knew from the promotional materials and advertisements, as well as comments from past attendees, that Lost Lands was a unique festival. But surely a festival where thousands of faithful fans seem to come back year after year must mean that the organizers have been able to capture an experience that fans want more of. I decided I would find out what that experience would be like and provide a feature of these experiences that may not be commonly shared but would provoke interest when realized.
After an eight-hour bus ride, we finally arrived at Thornville, Ohio. I knew we arrived at the site because I could see festival tents, but nothing could prepare me for the sights and sounds that I was yet to experience. Disembarking from the bus, I grabbed my suitcase and started to walk to my camping area. To my surprise, I could not believe what I was seeing as I laid my eyes upon the entrance to Lost Lands for the first time. Gasping in surprise, I kept looking around with my eyes wide open and in full amazement. The festival organizers prepared an entrance to a walkway that leads to the grounds that recreated an actual lost land to perfection! The pathway has dinosaurs that you could go right up to! Imagine being greeted with a mechanical T-Rex growling! A sight I will never forget. Beyond the T-Rex are more dinosaurs with eggs large enough that you can crawl into and take a photo of yourself hatching. Deliberately placed torches line the walkway on the right. It was at this point that I started to realize with great anticipation that I was about to enter the most awesome recreation of a prehistoric site I have ever seen!
I had arrived on Thursday, and I knew I had to find my tent at some point and get ready for the Pre Party taking place at 5 P.M. The organizers payed special attention to accommodating all of their attendees who wanted to camp by allowing an early arrival period that started on Wednesday. I could see many of the camping attendees heading to the main entrance of the festival and I could not wait to get there myself. I was directed to make a right at the mechanical Stegosaurus where I found my charging locker, my campsite and settled into my tent which was Easy Close camping. I was provided with a generous sized four-man tent which included a queen size air mattress, two chairs, two sleeping bags and very close access to the festival grounds. I quickly put on my festival gear and ran towards the official festival entrance of Lost Lands!
As I stepped into the entrance of the main festival grounds I was awed! These guys (Excision and Lost Lands Team) thought of everything! Passing by numerous Triceratops and Pterodactyls perched up high, I kept walking further in, and I couldn’t believe how much attention to detail the organizers have to give festival-goers an authentic Lost Lands feel. From the additional dinosaurs to the lush landscaping, and the beautiful background of trees… everything was perfect. If you look to your right and you come across a massive field that leads up to the Prehistoric Paradox, one of two main stages. It’s impossible to not be taken back by the massive Brachiosaur and baby Brachiosaur that are joining attendees at this event. Their presence makes you feel as though you are very privileged to having just discovered this ancient land filled with dinosaurs! I actually had to stop myself a few times because I could stop saying oh my god over and over again. It’s hard to put into words how wonderful it was to see this valley of dinosaurs walking across and nesting in the valley with even more freaking dinosaurs on the actual stages! A true fantasy come to life, the Brachiosaurs’ direction cutting across the valley is a special recreation of living time-capsule from when the dinosaurs ruled. The next four days would be a moment in time where bass rules and the valley would be presented with the sights and sounds of some of the top bass headliners in EDM.
I continued to walk the grounds towards the Prehistoric Paradox VIP area and entered to find a comfortable section that was easily accessible and accommodating (flush toilets). My general look of fascination was overly apparent as another basshead saw me smiling from ear to ear while I was telling him how incredible this event was. He looked at me and said, “Wait till you see this at night.” I knew this meant that the venue had even more to give and would have a different feel when the sun went down. As eager as I was to experience this, I just was so happy to see the PP stage and all it had to offer in the daylight. Boasting three enormous screens and at least six mechanical dinosaurs, there is truly no other stage like this. I walked around the VIP section and through the GA area of PP several times and could not find a bad view in the place. I love to walk through GA and see my EDM family up close, so I can get a sense of the vibe in the crowd. This crowd actually makes room for you to crisscross through GA, which is what I normally do, and they tend not to pack in towards the front of the venue making it possible to move around (front to back and side to side) and enjoy the views from all areas and angles.
Getting to the Thursday pre-party right as it started, I knew I wouldn’t have enough time to completely explore the grounds as I wanted. It would start to get dark in a few hours, so I had quickly purchased a burrito to enjoy and was greeted by a DJ playing “It’s the most Wonderful Time of the Year” (Pola and Wyle), as the b2b2b2b2b pre-Party officially began. This pre-party was, as you would expect, bass heavy and completely invigorating. It came across as a celebration of this gathering and I could see and hear why it was so special as the DJ played all styles of drum and bass from dubstep to hardstyle. I walked towards the giant brachiosaur near PP and noticed a small area where you could ride mechanical baby dinosaurs. I watched as various attendees were able to steer these little mechanical wonders in a special pen area.
As day slipped into night I could see what my fellow headbanger was boasting about. The screens on PP were even more impressive as they illuminated the night with their superior visuals and pleasing arrangement. Honestly, I was enjoying the music along with the stage but was even more impressed with the level of comfort at this pre-party. As you can imagine, I was exhausted at this point from travelling and needed to sit and I easily found a spot to rest while enjoying the show. The music was at the perfect sound level and I found that I didn’t need my earplugs and could listen with ease. Pretty soon it was 11 P.M and the preshow had ended, I knew that if this preshow as a sign of things to come tomorrow, then I was in for the time of my life.
Waking up in my tent on Friday, the first official day of the festival, I came to the realization of how lucky I was regarding my accommodations in easy close camping. Practically all the necessities were super close and easily accessible to me. Toilets and showers were three rows over along with a general store. Walking a bit farther were even more food concessions and my charging locker. Meeting some of the staff who set up the grounds for us and provided help when needed made this such an easy stay for me. The team that ran the lockers accommodated me by allowing me to charge my computer and my other electronics with ease. I also found that the staff’s willingness to assist me went beyond that of helping me with a charging locker. In addition to letting me know the layout of the place they also shared with me the sets they were looking forward to and what events I should check out. They also told me that someone climbed the adult Brachiosaur last night and as I listened to them relate the story to me I thought to myself, I want to climb that dinosaur! Finding out from the staff that the organizers encouraged the local children in the area to come see the dinosaurs before the event was fascinating.
My camping neighbors were primarily from Australia and I became friends with them right away. Truly an interesting bunch, I loved meeting headbangers from faraway places and getting a sense of what bass events were like in Australia and across the globe. Many of my fellow campers were bass musicians themselves and like me were at Lost Lands for the first time. To be honest, I realized how important having a camping experience is at an event like this. My fellow campers made me feel at home here and that is one of the reasons why so many of us go to festivals to see our EDM family and be around our community of friends. I was working on this trip in my tent (on my laptop) and while the temps soared to 80 degrees I thought that the tent itself could have used a bit more shade to keep the heat down. Sweating it out, I finished my work and got ready for the first official day of Lost Lands 2019. Having a personal agenda to primarily attend bass artist sets, I also wanted to look into this notion of wellness that Lost Lands has created as part of their festival offering. If you didn’t already know, many festivals are now offering additional events that include activities catering to public health and personal enrichment, music production development and inclusiveness. Having decided to include these options so early on in the festival’s history indicates that the festival organizers understand the importance of total wellness and the impacts it can have on the overall outcome and enjoyment of the festival. By no means an afterthought, the production team created a special Discovery Center located in the middle of the Village Market Place. The offerings included diverse events such as Rise! Meet and Greet Your Neighbors, Evolve & Emerge from your Dwelling (slow movement exercise), Cavezen Meditation (PLUR inspired), Lip Sync Contest, Be your own Twinflame (promoting better relationships) and Don’t be a Dino-Sore (yoga workshop).
Not having had a chance to look at all of the festival grounds the day before, I was looking forward to seeing and discovering the areas I didn’t get to, as well as checking out the first artist I had on my schedule, Kai Wachi, who would be appearing on the other main stage, Wompy Woods. A different set up from PP, WW has an impressive surround sound and light system that hugs you as you’re in the GA section. By no means a copy of PP, WW has its own Brachiosaur on the actual stage where the artists perform underneath! Its long neck spiraling into the sky on this stage feels like a beacon calling you over. The sound on WW is different than PP due to its arrangement of speakers but it also feels like a more intimate space with another VIP viewing section well planned out. As I moved through the crowd towards the front of WW, I was able to enjoy the intensity of Kai Wachi’s set. Towards the left side of WW, I could see another stage area called Raptor Alley set back in a wooded area and host to upcoming late-night sets called Sound Camps featuring additional artist performances included in the festival admission. Kai Wachi’s set was primarily hard bass and what I was expecting. He drove the afternoon for everyone as the headbangers rocked the rail and continued to enjoy the music in these beautiful surroundings. At that moment, Wachi played my favorite bass song WTF by Herobust. I lost it! Whatever I was doing before that song played just didn’t matter and I started to move my arms like crazy. Just like the soft whisper in beginning of the song, I started at this festival like a lamb, but I was gonna go out like a lion. Clearly the WW stage was living up to its reputation for putting out amazing bass sound! I found myself bobbing my head and dancing almost as hard as my fellow headbangers. Wachi even played Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction, which was fun to hear between the heavy bass lines. It made me think I might be hearing a lot more sets that incorporate a nice mix like this.
Next, I headed over to PP to see Midnight Tyrannosaurus whose set was glorious and seemed to define the feeling of the night, taking all of us on a trip through the bass universe. Like many other artists, he was so excited to be here at Lost Lands, and from some of the sets I had heard throughout the night… all of the artists were clearly looking forward to this event all year. I loved Ghastly’s set, it was uplifting with plenty of bass! It made me wonder why I haven’t been eagerly seeking out these artists at other festivals I’ve been too. For Black Tiger Sex Machine’s show, I watched from the VIP area at PP. The BTSM’s show was fantastic, it had a somewhat dark and brooding identity to it, with their flashing light headgear pulsing to the beats of their hits. BTSM’s show is a mature version of bass that gives you just the right balance of hard-style to bass. Also, for some reason their set sounded louder than Ghastly’s, so I had to put in my earplugs for the first time to vibe out. As one of the sets I was most looking forward to that day, BTSM’s orchestration was unique with its complex setting and visual effects can at times feel disturbing in the context they are presented. For example, their graphics displayed a woman who was running from a person attempting to physically assault her. The scene changes quickly in a time sequence a few minutes later where she has to defend herself fighting for her life. If bass could tell a story BTSM is doing it. It truly feels like an EDM musical, expressing the realness of life. BTSM’s decision to make a tour announcement in trailer form was somewhat distracting since I was expecting the promo to lead to a very heavy baseline of another song, but it didn’t. It (the tour) seemed to have a syfy feel and according to their advert is slated for 2020. Zeds Dead played a set I wasn’t expecting which was one without overly heavy bass. I loved their set and I sang and danced through it from start to finish. I was starting to realize that any of these artists could and would provide a great set no matter the content which may be somewhat unpredictable. Zeds Dead’s show was excellent, and it featured a lovely balance of deep house and bass which by their fellow Lost Lands artists standards was what I would consider super mellow… and yet this did not detract from the experience even when they played Eleanor Rigby (Beatles), as an EDM song? Absolutely!
Yes!!! This was the night that Excision played the most incredible two hour set which I watched with the staff members at Lost Lands. What an incredible bunch of team members eager to share their music experiences, make new friends and help you out at a moment’s notice. In the end I was glad I did hang with them because they let me know that the ‘#IAMWAKAAN’ FAMILY SET I was so looking forward to attending at the Takeover Stage (aka WW at night). It was taking place later after Excision’s set which somehow, I had forgotten about. Excision’s two-hour set seemed to go by so incredibly fast and though he promised us an incredible show which he easily delivered, I hated to see it end. But, I would be lucky enough to see Excision two more times at this festival. (More on that in part two of my experience). Later that night I made it to the ‘#IAMWAKAAN’ FAMILY SET!!!! It was so much fun with really cool music, but I knew I couldn’t hang for much longer even sitting down. I took home message of the night from the DJ’s: “You wanna get high, you wanna rage, you wanna headbang? Then you better make room for it right now”.
*Featured image via Rukes.com*
