After taking a few years off due to COVID, this is inevitable. I felt like LIB accidently attracted a bunch of influencers who seemed to care more about their selfies than their trash or cleaning up after themselves. One the other hand, some of the attendees were a bit much. I made a bunch of new friends and even more memories! I had the pleasure of camping with a HUGE crew, which made wandering off easy since I knew there would always be someone back at camp. I ran into a million old friends and familiar faces from past festivals, shows, and events. It’s easy to be in a bad mood when it’s 97 degrees and you’re dealing with dazed and drunk party animals, but I didn’t come across one bad vibe from the workers and groundskeepers. THE PEOPLE 7/10 Ysabella Lopez – the event staff at check in, to the food vendors and security, the people were friendly AF. Plus, it made showering off after seem like an absolute luxury. I don’t think Kern County or the city of Bakersfield would approve of us swimming if it wasn’t safe. The dust was bad this year - I heard people saying that it reminded them of Burning Man - but hey, nothing a mask can’t help with! Matt Yamaguchi – this “lake” - okay, for as gross as it may have seemed, I was in that lake, and I probably would have suffered some level of heat exhaustion without it. I wouldn’t recommend this festival to a beginner as conditions were rough, but as long as you had some kind of shade at your campsite, it was very manageable. Setting up camp in triple digit heat was not my favorite thing to do, but once our canopies were pitched and shade was available, it really wasn’t thaaaaat bad. THE ENVIRONMENT 5/10 Mike Kim – are some things you simply cannot change - like the heat, the dust, and the sanitary concerns surrounding the “lake”. With fire blasting from the stage, it was exactly how I wanted to end things on the final night. Griz: Griz ALWAYS puts on a great show! He was on stage dancing with his sax, playing tracks from his recent album, Rainbow Brain, with a few hits from older albums as well. He knew exactly how to get us to go stupid, dumb, and hyphy. Carmack: because you know he mixed all the Bay Area Bangers in his set. Rexx shouted out his best friend in the crowd, “Jimmy” - fast forward to 3 AM at the Stacks - I was hanging with some people from Berkeley and I asked, “did you catch Rexx’s set?” Turns out, I was talking directly to Rexx’s bestie, Jimmy. And he performed tracks from Father Figure (a KSJS favorite) along side a live band… a LITERAL live band. There were only like 50 people in the crowd. For me, Of the Trees is an artist I recently discovered so it was dope to get to see a few tracks live. It left me wishing I hadn’t slept in so long! Mike Kim – Eric Allen – the Trees: Sunday was my favorite day, kicking it off with Of the Trees. Kaytranada: Saturday was rough for me (I stayed out too late Friday night, lol), but I managed to catch the end of Kaytranada’s set which did not disappoint. It was the final set at Thunder so they closed out with a lot of wubz and even more lasers. G Jones B2b Eprom: after all that House, it was nice to get a little break. And it was at the Woogie Stage which is my absolute favorite in terms of visuals. Some of my favorites were: Brian Ngo – Watson: because it was the first time I made it out on Friday after the heat died down. It was a perfect opportunity to get lost and discover new sounds. From wonky Bass Music to House and Techno, to classic EDM and Hip-Hop, whatever music you’re into, it was at LIB. Here were some of the highlights in music, environment, and people. LIB returns after the pandemic with some amazing vibes! For those of us who got Early Arrival, it was a 6 fun-filled days of music, dust, friends, and heat.
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