Written by Rebecca Hollman
Photos by Rebecca Hollman from Imagine 2019
Imagine Festival returns to the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia this year on September 16th-19th. Besides announcing that they will indeed go forward with doing the festival this fall, they have also announced the the festival will be in a brand new location! It may be a new location for Imagine, but it is not a new location for Atlanta festival-goers. Chattahoochee Hills is a large horse riding facility located in Fairburn, Georgia – about 45 minutes from downtown Atlanta. It once hosted the first iteration of Counterpoint Festival and it hosted all three years of the US based TomorrowWorld. Counterpoint moved away to a different venue for its second two years before it ceased to exist and TomorrowWorld had three monumental years at Chatt Hills before the epic TomorrowWorld 2015 disaster. RIP.
Imagine Festival has been an Atlanta staple since 2011 – bouncing around from venue to venue. Initially a smaller two day festival at the Masquerade Music Park, Imagine upped its game in 2018 and moved to being a 3 day camping festival at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. After 2 successful years at the speedway, they will now be moving to the even larger and arguably better Chattahoochee Hills.
Worried about Imagine being held at the grounds where the TomorrowWorld disaster was held? Read what the owners of Imagine, Glenn and Maddie, have to say here:
“Improvements for Imagine since TomorrowWorld:
1. Car camping
2. Paved roads on site (buses and shuttles won’t get stuck)
3. New French Drains through out the entire site for better water management
4. Uber/Lyft drop off and pick up ON SITE
5. Parking on site
6. Sell out at smaller capacity than TomorrowWorld
7. Increased Cell phone capacity for most major carriers plus “cows” provided by most major carriers.
8. Full wifi available for all guests (small fee for different levels of data)
9. MUCH MUCH MUCH more
With all of this said, we have not figured out how to control the weather, yet. So please plan for all types of weather. This is a camping festival so enjoy the outdoors and Mother Nature, whatever she may bring. PLEASE, respect our “Mother” and leave no trace. Thank you and much love as always!”
The Lineup:
The Imagine lineup offers a wide range of artists for electronic music lovers of all shapes and sizes. Excision, Griz, Illenium, Kaskade, Griffin, and Madeon top out the major headliner section. But beyond that, the lineup offers up some bass heavy hitters like Subtronics, Liquid Stranger, Peekaboo, Dion Timmer, Borgore, Riot Ten, BTSM, Virtual Riot, and Barely Alive, some trippy bass like CloZee and Sphongle, a whole Wakaan takeover with Champagne Drip, LUZCID, Esseks, Shlump, and G-Rex, some old school UK dnb in the form of Corrupt UK and Dieselboy, and a whole lot of tech house like Shiba San, Malaa, Walker & Royce, VNSSA, Dillon Nathanial and Lee Foss, and even a super unique bass house b2b set of Ghastly and JOYRYDE.
New for 2021
1) Car Camping Passes are now sold on a per car basis, not per person. This will allow guests traveling in groups to save money and reduce their carbon footprint by encouraging carpooling. If you want to camp next to your car, you will only need to purchase 1 Car Camping Pass per vehicle and the pass comes with two (2) GA Camping Wristbands and one (1) 20×20 campsite with parking for your vehicle.
2) Imagine Festival now offers a Companion Camping Pass. This allows you to camp at Imagine as a companion to a Car or Tent-Only Pass, allowing you to join up with your friends and share a campsite. Please note that this “Companion” Camping Pass does not include your own campsite.
3) Tent-Only Camping Passes are now available. Tent Only Camping Passes come with two (2) GA Camping Wristbands and one (1) 10×15 campsite. Additional friends can join your Tent-Only campsite, with the Companion Pass mentioned above.
4) Imagine presents two pool parties with headlining performances by Kaskade (Saturday) and John Summit and James Kennedy (Sunday). The artists will be performing on one of the Main stages facing the pool. Pool Party guests will gain entrance to the festival grounds at noon and will be able to flow between our newest stage and the Aqua Day Club & Pool which overlooks the entire festival.
5) Thursday festival ticket holders will be able to see a Thursday night pre-party with Ganja White Night.