This past weekend, Elements Music Festival returned for its fifth year of celebrating music, art, and wellness with almost double the attendees from last year—which created some changes throughout the whole festival to say the least.
Looking forward to a stacked multi-genre lineup, the EDM Maniac team geared up to check out our first Elements Music Festival. Check out our 2023 Festival Report Card:
Vibes: A
The energy from attendees was truly filled with love and appreciation of what a dance music festival is supposed to feel like.
Moving through crowds was pleasant as most people used manners and said “excuse me”. Whether you were headbanging to Level Up or groovin’ at Noizu, attendees shared a mutual respect for giving others space.
Beyond the music, there were plenty of activities to get attendees involved with one another. Whether it was one of the workshops held at the Wellnest or silly games and activities at the FunBox, interacting with the Elements community made the experience that much more special.
Let’s not forget LSDream’s Lightcode on Sunday morning that had over 4,500 RSVPs on the Elements app. This magical experience truly brought the community together and set up for a perfect last day.
There were silly totems, kandi trading, and smiles throughout the whole festival. The community at Elements has us counting down the days till next year.
Production: B-
Each stage embodied a different Element: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, plus the Wub Hub.
While each was designed in its unique way and was equipped with pyro, lasers, projectors, and more, there were some downsides throughout the four days.
The main stage (Fire Stage) had a gorgeous design structure that was incredible to view during the day or night, but the DJ and middle screen were set a bit farther back so if you were on either far side it was impossible to see.
The Fire Stage was also split pretty much directly down the middle leaving the right side for VIP only. While a perk to VIP, this also made half the crowd extremely empty during smaller sets.
There was major sound bleed between the Fire, Earth, and Wub Hub stages making it harsh on the ears while walking throughout. Also, there were more than a few cases where CDJs cut out in the middle of a set.
The Air Stage left us in awe as it was perfectly placed in the middle of an enchanted forest surrounded by lighting and decor that truly set this one apart from the rest.
Music: B+
Elements Music Festival pulled together a competitive and diverse lineup for 2023. With 75+ artists across five stages, attendees were served with music of all kinds.
House, dubstep, experimental, techno, jam bands, and more; there was diversity in all sorts of genres and representation of multiple ethnicities and genders.
Unfortunately, due to code red weather concerns the festival was evacuated on Saturday night for about an hour and a half. This cut multiple sets short, but luckily Elements was able to adjust and reopen the festival grounds with updated set times for headlining acts.
We saw a vast array of local and upcoming talent, artists we hadn’t seen before all while ending the night with headliners such as Skrillex, Subtronics, and Chris Lake.
Sets ended at 2AM, but the campgrounds were filled with sound camps throwing down renegades until the sun came up.
Venue: C+
This year’s Element’s Music Festival was held in Long Pond, PA at the Pocono Raceway. There were some changes made from last year’s set up to accommodate the increase in attendees but this left both pros and cons.
There was plenty of space at each stage and you never had to wait in line for bathroom, food, or drinks for more than a couple minutes.
The Fire stage and Earth stage were primarily built on rocks and gravel leaving not many places for attendees to take a rest and sit. On the other hand, the Air stage and Wub Hub were built in the forest creating a magical atmosphere.
After some rain, walking paths quickly turned into puddles and mud making it difficult to walk through smaller spaces.
Forest areas were completely decked out with art installations that truly made you feel like you had stepped into another world.
Getting into the campgrounds was a struggle for most attendees. Waiting lines were extremely long and left attendees with little to no direction. Security into the campgrounds and into the festival was extremely inconsistent between days.
Overall: B
Overall, Elements Music Festival was a great experience.
Weather interrupted Saturday night causing all attendees to evacuate the festival grounds. Everyone leaving through one entrance at the same time felt like a major safety concern.
While we understand the need for the evacuation, we felt there should’ve been a safer and more convenient way to do so.
There were also major inconsistencies in security while entering the campground and festival grounds each day.
The experience, music, and energy of Elements truly stole our hearts, and we hope to see some logistical improvements in 2024.
Featured image provided by Jake West
