May 23-25, 2014 | Bethel Woods, New York, USA
The inaugural Mysteryland on North American soil took place in Bethel Woods, New York. The worlds longest running electronic dance music festival graced the legendary Woodstock ’69 grounds, so fitting!
I purchased my tickets right when the festival as my counterpart really wanted to celebrate this event as her first festival was Mysteryland Chile and she wanted me to experience what she had endured! Unfortunately she was dealing with visa issues to re-enter Canada so I had to setout alone on this one.
Friday. So I rented a car and started my 6-hour drive from Toronto to the holy grounds, which would be my first camping festival. Upon arrival; parked the car and quickly figured out that I have about a 30 minute walk with my tent, cooler, luggage and sleeping gear! People don’t make the mistake I did; bring a wagon or something with wheels!
I got my will call ticket and proceeded to the campsite security. There they really didn’t get to frisky, they did a quick body search and had a quick look in my cooler. I proceeded to quickly find room for my tent before sundown. Friday, the day I arrived was the campus pre-party that Nicky Romero was hosting at the Circus tent. It was a good start to the celebrations with Michael Calfan, Vicetone, John Dahlback, Don Diablo, Nicky Romero and Tritonal.
Saturday. The gates opened fairly early, around 12, but the line up about 2 hours long fill with anxious ravers to be apart of history. The word being passed while waiting in line was that there was no backpacks allowed, there were drug dogs, security was checking everything etc. Most of these allegations weren’t true; there were dogs at the entrance, but I cam only assume bomb dogs (or else I would presume every second person would have been tackled), reasonable size backpacks were allowed in the venue and normal body checks were happening. I took a lot of time Saturday exploring the grounds and the various stages. I really enjoyed the Mexican themed stage, the wishing tree, the array of flags on the grounds, Q-dance, vinyl, the boat and the main stage. I got to see some heavy hitters like Sick Individuals, Sultan + Ned Shepard, Dyro, Fedde le Grand, Nervo, Showtek, and (unfortunately) Steve Aoki. But to my early departure from the main stage I got to fall in love with Big Gigantic – so so good, those drums and sax!
Before home, back inside the camping ground, I had two unexpected stops. The first one was to the Bang on NYC which was such a chill and groovy vibe where lots of people gathered, danced but mostly chilled out enjoying the moment. From the not so far distance there was a bizarre airing of circus music coming naturally from the circus tent. I headed over and there was a small gathering of festivalgoers, a gypsy band (Amour Obscur) and lovely people dresses as birds. What we had on our hands was an amazing party of music I never know existed with bird people feeding everyone gummy worms as if we were their young. Not that the day was unpleasant but this was by far one of the highlights of the day, I suppose because it was so random.
Sunday. The reasonable thing about camping is that you may not appreciate as it sounds ridiculous is that the sun in the morning is kicking your ass out of bed. Yeah, yeah, its bad you say but it isn’t: It means you have some pre-drinking to do, finding of Saturdays friends, maybe a shower? Who did I enjoy: Dimitri Vegas & Like mike, Moby, Dillion Francis, DVBBS, Flosstradamus, Dillstradamus and Pete Tong.
Overall, the camping experience changed my perspective; you never lose that disconnect with the music or festivalgoers or the party but you are separated enough have some down time, as you need it. Mysteryland was probably one of the best festivals I have been too; maybe the best so far due to the nature of the people my only negative point is that you cannot have Steve Aoki or Kaskade as your headliners. They are just not good enough in my personal opinion. Will I go again next year? Yes I would love too but that being said would a Tomorrowland possibility trump this option – I think so as there is always room to explore new festivals and boundaries. To keep bouncing around along the same path can cap your vision.
P.S. But I am still routing for my 2015 return!
