It seems that the EDM music festival that takes over Rothbury, MI every summer is taking a note from Coachella and expanding the festival to two weekends in a row, The Festive Owl is reporting.
The mysterious (yet seemingly always accurate) Festive Owl is confirming that Electric Forest submitted permits to hold back to back weekend festivals in 2017. While there is no official word from Electric Forest themselves, we can assume that the lineups would be identical for both weekends just like Coachella does.
Reactions on social media have been pretty mixed. Diehard fans don't want to see the festival become any more mainstream than it already is.
@TheFestiveOwl this is so sad man. Forest isn't Coachella . The magic and intimacy is getting ruined .
— Hi i'm Kenny. (@808TheWobbler) August 31, 2016
@TheFestiveOwl fuck this the forest isn't Coachella
— Kîłö (@CamiloW42) August 31, 2016
Others can see the logic in it if the festival wants to grow, sell more tickets, and book bigger headliners.
@TheFestiveOwl I see why they did it. Tickets sell out in 2 weeks or less and only 38k attendees
— BLEEZY (@blazerym) August 31, 2016
The festival originally premiered in 2008 as the Rothbury Music Festival at the Double JJ Resort in Rothbury, MI. Mostly jam and rock bands performed. In 2011, the festival was rebranded and called Electric Forest and to this day books mostly EDM/techno artists and a few jam bands.
Metro Times reached out to Electric Forest for a comment, but they have not responded.
