Lightning In A Bottle has become one of the larger, more well-known transformational festivals in California. It takes place over Memorial Day weekend annually in Bradley, CA – but in . 2019, it’ll be returning on a smaller scale.
In a letter sent to the LIB community today, they addressed their growth and challenges they’re facing. While mourning the death of two individuals who passed away at the event in recent years, they emphasize the mantra of “take care of yourselves and each other.”
They then dive into some growing pains they’re facing. They write:
There have been other challenges as the LIB community has grown. 2018 was our biggest year yet with just over 27,000 beautiful souls in attendance. We are always accepting new LIB’ers into the experience. There is a learning curve to festivaling, especially festivaling like we do at LIB. The Do LaB team are working on ways to educate and introduce everyone to the community better, but it is up to all of us as LIB participants to be stewards and teachers of the LIB vibe.
They continue on to explain that they’ve decided to create a “more intimate festival” where they can “all focus on making that LIB magic.” The amount of tickets for sale for the 2019 event will be decreased by over 25%.
Festivals across the country are being cancelled or downsized due to lack of attendance, poor ticket sales and other logistical reasons. Consider, for example, Okechobee’s cancellation and Electric Forest’s shrink from two weeks to one. We’re glad to see that Lightning In A Bottle is taking early precautions to save themselves from burnout with too many attendees and keeping their intimate festival vibe strong.