Story and photos by Watchara Phomicinda

 

California is known for its outdoor events, and why shouldn’t it be? Where else can you stay outdoors most months of the year with no more than a hoodie to keep you warm at night? And Angelenos love their music outdoors, which is why Lightning in a Bottle has become a favorite event — with music performances, art, and culture under the sun and moonlit skies.

The Lightning in a Bottle Festival began in July of 2000 as a private birthday party and a celebration of nature and music with no more than 100 people. For the next three years the event would remain private until 2004 when the organizers, known as The Do LaB, would turn it into a public festival, held first at Gold Creek Ranch in the Angeles National Forest.

The years ahead would see venue changes, more elaborate staging, impressive musical lineups, increased attendance, and even some controversial drug arrests.

After the first public festival, the organizers took a one year hiatus and then resumed in 2006 at Live Oak Camp in Santa Barbara, Calif. It remained there each year through 2008 until the festival became so popular that the organizers needed to find a new location to accommodate the record crowds. After another one year hiatus, the festival returned in 2010 to Oak Canyon Ranch in Silverado, Calif.

The festival would move again in 2013 to Lake Skinner in Winchester, Calif., bringing with it over 15,000 attendees and some drug arrests. LA Weekly reported that “Los Angeles residents were arrested in a sophisticated sting for passing weed and party drugs to other friendly “attendees” — actually Special Investigations Bureau cops — are raising a stink after being slapped with serious drug charges and huge bond amounts. Several dozen guys were hauled to the Southwest County Detention Center near Temecula after an undercover operation by SIB, a task force of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Station, whose alleged nasty tactics, slurs and push for fairly extreme criminal charges have left attendees and their families crying foul.”

This didn’t stop the festival from moving ahead, but for the first time in its history, it would move outside of Southern California to the San Antonio Reservoir Recreation Area in Bradley, Calif., halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This year’s festival, held May 22–26, brought in over 18,000 attendees and a lineup that included acts like Moby, Little Dragon, Amon Tobin, Lucent Dossier Experience, and Beats Antique.

So what makes this festival so special? Fans say it’s the music viewing experience that can only be described as spectacular. Attendees can view music on three large stages, three smaller stages, and at least five after hours stages. Every stage has its own unique design and attendees are free to create their own experience, choose their own music, take classes, do yoga, and wander through vendors selling things like artisan jewelry, clothing, handmade goods, organic vegetarian and vegan foods, and fresh drinks like strawberry lemonade.

The Festival Guy said about this year’s festival, “Lightning In A Bottle is the best overall music festival experience I have ever had. When you combine the lineup, the art, the cleanliness and the happy crowd with the fact that the festival runs 24 hours a day for four days you end up with an experience that crushes any other festival. I don’t have enough stars to give this festival a proper rating.”

Lightning in a Bottle is also the only United States festival to win the “Outstanding Award” from A Greener Festival, three years in a row. The organizers bill their event as a “Leave it better, Leave it Beautiful” event. That means that attendees are expected to take their trash out with them and leave the venue better than when they arrived. The organizers also donate money to local causes. This year’s event supported Monterey County’s Sol Treasure’s local arts and culture programs, and the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary.

The 2015 Lightning in a Bottle Festival will return to Bradley, Calif. May 21–25. The lineup has not yet been announced.

Watchara Phomicinda served as a photographer and photo editor of the Mountaineer student newspaper at Mt. San Antonio College and now works as a photographer and assistant photo editor at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune newspaper. His photos have been featured in numerous publications including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.

This story is a part of a special alumni series. Students who have graduated or transferred from Mt. San Antonio’s journalism program are featured weekly.

Substance is a publication of the Mt. San Antonio College Journalism Program. The program recently moved its newsroom over to Medium as part of a one-year experiment. Read about it here.