Photo by Aaron Glassman,

Art, music, yoga festival hits maximum capacity

–The eleventh annual Lightning in a Bottle festival concluded as the West Coast’s premier camping, arts, music and yoga festival again surpassing expectations. Imagined and executed by Los Angeles event production company Do LaB over Memorial Day weekend, and returning to the San Antonio Recreation Area for the third consecutive time, Lighting in a Bottle, fondly referred to as “LIB,” proved to be the biggest gathering to date, hitting max capacity at 20,000 tickets weeks before the gates opened.

This year brought expansions to the festival with the gates to LIB opening a day early on Wednesday May 25 to welcome eager pass-holders, a Village Action Day with an appearance from The Polish Ambassador and Ayla Nereo, the addition of the High Grounds camp, and many other celebrated highlights.

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 Chet Faker, Moderat, Jamie XX, Big Gigantic, Grimes, plus many others.

Photo by Jacob Avanzato.

The festival’s other main stage, the Thunder Stage, an amped up version of Do LaB’s Big Fish at Coachella complete with the 2016 addition of visual screens, featuring artists such as  Cashmere Cat, Ekali, Eprom, Dimond Saints, Mija and others.

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.

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 re-visioned 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 staff to enter, while The Lost Hotel churned relentless beats and played host to an interactive dining experience.

Photo by Juliana Bernstein.

The festival’s spiritual epicenter, The Temple of Consciousness, featured a 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 moderated by Dream Rockwell. Those in search of educational forums hit The Village and The Learning Kitchen, where 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.

Get a taste of the magic in this LIB 2016 Aftermovie below: