Upon my nighttime arrival at Moonshine Music & Arts Festival the luminous Earth stage looked and sounded amazing. Oddly enough the racetrack venue was directly off the main road so I rolled with it. There was no VIP ticketing so the few hundreds (max 300) of attendees camped in the same area across from the main (Earth) stage. I set my campsite upon an incline as a rain precaution facing the Earth stage. It was awesome watching Paper Diamond close out Friday night after setting up camp.
Camping: Yes
Music Genres: Dubstep, House, EDM, Trap
Crowd Type: Fox tails, friends, family, an assortment of people different from me
VIP Available: No
Food: Yes
Water Stations: No
I did not see as much music as I wanted due to scheduling conflicts and Georgia summer weather. Some artists did not show up for undisclosed reasons also. In down time around the campsite, I met and got to hang out with some chill people. I met Panther, who enlightened me that you only need one tree to hang a hammock. My neighbors were cool as usual. For Moonshine I had the pleasure of being company to witty sisters (Alix & Amanda) and a grizzly bearded gentlemen, Thomas. Pretty sure there was a Jordan, Chelsea, and Demarr aka Exit 9 in there somewhere as well. I briefly spoke with Robbie Dude after scoping out his dope cartoon shirt, cool and talented guy by the way. A few notable acts I saw for the weekend: MiMOSA, Paper Diamond, Tracy Levine, Space Jesus, and Keys ‘N Krates (Live).
I talked to an officer of the law and it was interesting to hear his outlook on the festival scene. He was open minded to the fine social scene which was cool. So glad to hear not all officers are at festivals solely to arrest people. Sunday we kind of created our own mini workshops. Kandi making & painting. We also learned about a few other workshops from instructors passing by. One of my favorite moments of the weekend though was late night Sunday. Chilling on Moonmats listening to music watching people fire spin. It’s a vibe.
Room for Improvement:
On the bright side, one of my neighbors said Moonshine did better than it did last year. Organization and communication goes a long way. For some reason signs of “No alcohol past this point” (to the campgrounds) were placed after I arrived. Forcing people to get rid of alcohol before they enter while people already setup got theirs in with no problem seemed a little sketch.
Provide more information to schedule changes, workshops, and exterminate the grounds. There were so many ant piles around the campgrounds. I appreciate the handing out of water bottles but it just creates more trash. Hydration stations are a little more efficient. Attendees couldn’t bring alcohol they bought inside the venue grounds to their campgrounds. Strange. The Silent Disco was very quiet. Quiet in the sense that it shut down early Friday night and didn’t even happen Sunday night. Where were the go carts?
Just saying. People are willing to help, the Moonshine needs help. Listen to your patrons. It’s a cool concept with the festival name and stage names (Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water). Heady.Made.Weird presence always makes things interesting too. I hope the festival returns next year with a facelift.
P.S. I accidentally sat on an ant pile the last night. Yikes!