Why Elements continues to feel like more than just a festival

From storm-soaked camping to unforgettable stages, Elements Festival proved even rain couldn’t dampen the energy, creativity, and community that make the festival so elemental.

The energy was high from the moment we entered the Elements venue for early entry camping on Thursday even with it raining almost 20 minutes into setting up our site. It was a bit intense for a while, but we all came together to keep the spirits up as the rain started to fill up our tarps. Once it stopped, everyone was just so thrilled for the pre-party which Crankdat and Wooli dominated. The weather was truly a elemental experience with scattered thunderstorms, but something about it felt fitting. Even though there was a lot of rain, there was just enough sunshine to keep us going.

The new stages were absolutely incredible. I would say the stages are my favorite part about Elements as you can tell a lot of thought went into each detail to really showcase the element represented for each. The new Fire Stage incorporated these intriguing bowls of fire the really caught my attention and the fire cannons shot extremely high into the sky like no other stage I’ve seen before. They also included a sun look design on the tails of the stage which made it really glow against the sky. The Fire stage is actually carved from wood, which adds to the overall craftsmanship compared to inflatable stages.

The new Earth stage included a deer head that was extremely encapsulating with a psychedelic like background that moved across it’s face with the music. I also kept saying how the Earth stage looked so sparkly at nighttime as it had unique towers of lighting that accompanied the deer head.

Getting lost in the Neon Forest is also an experience that is truly unique to Elements. The forest’s art has real character, much of it is hand-painted or made up of smaller installations, and you can tell real thought and effort went into each one. It’s perfect to just hang out in there and feel the vibes of the thick woods, which is such a change from being out in the open by the other stages. The contrast between the two also feels very fitting for the overall elements theme.

Another unique aspect of Elements is the Vibe Villages which encourages people to all camp to together and come up with a name for the group. I feel like this really shines a light on the community aspect of festivals. Many of these Vibe Villages welcome new people in with open arms and all have their own themes.

My favorite sets from the weekend were mainly at the Fire Stage (my favorite of the four) with ATLIENS, Ihatemodels, and Matroda. The Water Stage also stole my heart – best sets there were YDG and Daily Bread’s Cloud Conductor set. The Cloud Conductor set is a special, deeper-dive side of his sound, featuring older favorites, unreleased tracks, rarities and surprise selections that create a more exploratory, laid-back journey than his typical high-energy sets. My favorite set at the Earth Stage was Know Good on Sunday it was a “feel good” set that was great energy as the night started for the last day.

Plur was alive and well also – a very large puddle from the rain turned into the cutest duck sanctuary with dozens of rubber ducky’s that people all came together and offered. It really made light of what was caused by the rain and showed how silly/creative ravers can be on the fly. Also, my friend lost his phone and thought it got stolen but everyone I was with kept insisting: “Your phone has to be at lost and found. This is not the festival where someone would steal your phone.” And sure enough, his phone was at lost and found, which I feel says a lot about Elements.

Looking ahead to next year, Elements Festival will return August 6–8, 2027, with its loyalty ticket sale now underway for returning festival-goers.

Featured image credit: Neil Bayless/Exron

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