Buena Vista Lake Campground, CA | May 21 – 25, 2025
The long-standing immersive experience exponentiators at the Do LaB brought Lightning in a Bottle back to Buena Vista Lake Campground over Memorial Day Weekend with the carefully orchestrated attention to detail that they’ve built over multiple decades of putting in the work. 2025 was a return to the great cosmic campfire, where the art rebels, rhythm chasers, psychedelic seekers, and the always welcomed & celebrated wide-eyed first-timers gathered not just to dance, but to truly connect.
After my 13th year in attendance of this deliberately delirium-inducing dreamworld, I have been privileged to watch it morph and molt, expand and contract, but never lose its heartbeat. This year, more than ever, that heartbeat pulsed with one message:
Love Reigns
– even in the face of reverent silence of our collective shared grief under excruciating starlight.
Because truthfully, many of us arrived carrying loss. We had just lost Stevie Mac on these same grounds one year ago and then Josh Levine of Fired Up Management later that year – an unexpected double tap not just to the vehemently vibrant Las Vegas art, festival, and Burner scene, but for the entire carefully crafted space these visionaries & healers helped effortlessly foster. And this year, I departed Los Angeles Thursday afternoon after hearing that a decade-long colleague and friend Dave Shapiro – an unforgettable bespectacled agent extraordinaire from my old heavy metal booking world – died in a plane crash earlier that morning. And yet, in their absence, they were everywhere. In the music. In the laughter. In the spontaneous acts of care that resonate when the dust settles and the soul steps forward.
Lightning in a Bottle is more than an annual holiday weekend festival.
It’s a test of faith in magic.
A reminder that there still exists a place to communally grieve and celebrate in the same breath. It’s the Land of Ooo for grown-up misfits – every corner pulsing with curiosity, absurdity, revelation. A maze of rabbit holes for the spiritually playful. A “Be Here Now” paradox where time disintegrates and the present becomes a playground. From the wild bricolage of art installations to the wondrous workshops that felt like communal breathwork for the collective nervous system, this was not passive entertainment. It was mass participatory lucid dreaming and healing. A defining moment of uncontainable creativity, diversity, and unity – basslines soaked in intention, visuals streaked with absurd delight, and a crowd that lost all sense of self in favor of something bigger.
One of the brightest stars in this constellation, as always, was the Junkyard Stage, where Patricio Motta’s vision of homegrown alchemy bloomed into full flower. This stage has always felt like LIB’s open secret: a place where local legends get to share the same wavelength as carefully curated surprise guests. This year, it was clearer than ever – this is where the next wave gets lifted. This is where the future is forged in the crucible of grit, dust, and raw potential. It’s not just a platform. It’s a proving ground wrapped in unadulterated wanton joy. There’s something particularly special about dancing to SoCal’s finest like Sacred Son, Ray Kash, Big Cee, Tara Brooks, Jon Charnis, SAAND, Ejag, Shawni, Sweet Nectar, Christopher Mohn, Ben Annand, Loboman, PABLoKEY, and Shady Vandals, alongside surprise guests Monolink and Zhu, simultaneously leveling the playing field and elevating those that have more than earned their shine.
From the lush sonic sanctuary of the Woogie to the industrial-chic inferno of the Stacks, from the mythic crunchy rumble of Thunder to the expansive electric resonance of Lightning, each stage felt like its own realm, complete with eloquent lore, synesthetic color, visceral texture, and transubstantiating transformation. LIB doesn’t just book stages – it builds ecosystems – worlds within worlds. These aren’t performances – they’re pilgrimages.
This year didn’t disappoint, with hella highlights like Marques Wyatt b2b Patricio, Girl Math (VNSSA & Nala), Coco & Breezy, Claude VonStroke, and Joy Orbison at Woogie; Underworld, Four Tet, Khruangbin, Jamie xx, and John Summit at Lightning; TroyBoi, Subtronics, and Mary Droppinz at Thunder; and the Grand Artique‘s always eclectic magic with the likes of the Librarian, Anzio, and Global Brunch (Spekt 1, Danni G, Beatalks, & Maikimaik). And let’s not forget the roaming artcars, playa ready to throw down the afterparty until sunrise when all the main stages are still recovering from the previous night’s shenanigans. The People’s Banana stood out again this year, showcasing fan favorites like Massio, Alexis Tucci, Fleetwood Smack, Liquorbox, Animal Kontrol, and more.
And for the select few that stayed past the Monday afternoon exodus, we were treated to an extra intimate showcase of Yasmine’s Azaiez’s massive talent – a violinist and DJ traversing the hallowed grounds on a little lit-up art train, serenading us with her siren songs. We sat in the grass, mesmerized by the realization that we were but a minute fraction of attendees that were lucky enough to bear witness to this tantalizing experience.
These are the artists that carry the torches and pass the batons, leading with legacy, responsibility, passion, and unrequited feelings into the new world so we can dance in the dirt and connect to the old world for this succinct moment in time.
The details matter. The upcycled light fixtures. The lovingly chaotic signage. The commitment to Leave No Trace not as a rule, but as a philosophy. And perhaps most touching of all, the newcomers who arrived wide-eyed and left initiated – not into elitism, but into care. Care for the sacred land, the united people, the revered moment.
And that’s what Lightning in a Bottle has always been. Not a destination, but an acknowledgement that we can build these new worlds. That we are already building them.
And that the fuel for it all
– more than bass, more than art, more than dust –
is love.
Lightning in a Bottle 2025 was a powder keg of creative expression
– a collective heartbeat –
a moment where the message isn’t just felt, but lived, and no other set this weekend exemplified this message better than the showcase Henry Pope delivered to the masses along with a hyper-eclectic ensemble of talented artists and performers like Alana Hil, BL SUEDE, BARZ, Techno Tupac, and Printz Board at the Grand Artique.
We were bearing witness to a collective awakening disguised as an arthouse dance party. A creative council of intentional caretakers convened not for ego, but for elevation of each and every one of us, united. Underneath a sky thick with bass and belief, this group of visionaries engineered momentum. With reminders of BOSA’s massive live show debut two years ago planting the seed at this very same stage, this set was the harvest – a full-spectrum explosion of next-level artistry & purpose, forged in the fires of resolution, skill, and radical trust and inclusivity. It was the kind of moment that transforms us. A ripple of goosebumps, tears of joy, and ecstatic movement surged through the Grand Artique like a psychic lightning bolt.
Alana Hil set the stage, appearing through the dusty nightsky breeze like a siren spinning visual and sonic spells with the prowess of a cosmic architect from another planet, fusing surrealism with soul & stature. BL SUEDE summoned ancestral grooves with velvet fire – Afro-diasporic rhythms crashing beautifully into future-forward sounds, honoring the history & evolution of the healing power of music simultaneously. BARZ brought the precision, the punch, the sonic alchemy coalescing with Techno Tupac’s masterful renditions – unreleased tracks featuring spoken word artist Lazarusman and Berlin’s Eleonora. Printz Board effortlessly made it feel like a living room jam with your most talented friends. And Henry Pope – the gravitational center – didn’t simply stand in the spotlight. He shared it.
This was not a showcase of individuals. This was a shared uprising. If the message of this year was Love Reigns, this set was the banner. A real-time reminder that evolution happens not in solitude or division, but in collaboration and co-creation. That power doesn’t always roar – sometimes it syncs, sways, and invites everyone in for the joyride. For a brief and burning moment, we were all tuned to the same frequency.
A frequency that sounded a lot like hope.
