Elements Music Festival has my heart after this year’s edition. I cannot say enough good things about this festival and it is amazing to see a great festival in the Northeast once again. If you are from this region, you know we do not have much. And what we do have gets taken away from us. We usually have to go to great lengths and travel on a plane for an amazing experience. After my first Elements, I can confidently say I will be back year after year.
Now Elements has been around for many years but I never could make the trip to Pennsylvania. It has expanded year after year in both its lineup and size. It sits roughly 2 hours away from both NYC and Philadelphia. The festival is situated next to the Poconos Raceway in the middle of the forest allowing them to go late into the night. And the afters go late into the morning (prepare yourself for sunrise sets)!
This weekend was special in many ways. I met some of the most lovely people and feel we will be friends for years to come. Hurricane Debby tried to bring us down the first 2 days but the ravers united for an incredible last 2 days filled with sunshine and love. As for the festival grounds, there were 4 beautiful stages of music. They represented all the elements of life Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.
Elements Music Festival features dance music and its culture at its finest. You will have a new family at the end and be ready to do it all again.
The Grounds
Tucked away in the Pennsylvania forest, Elements sits right next to Poconos Raceway in Long Pond. The location could not be more perfect. Elements has a very unique twist on camping called Vibe Villages. They do have Glamping and GA Camping as well. But what makes Vibe Villages stand out is the after-parties. If you can get a group of 10+ people the festival will establish a zone for you to set up your camp. I was fortunate to be in a 40-person (shoutout to Chaos Council) camp which allowed us to have ample room for activities, hanging, and sleeping.
But back to the afters. The festival will sanction some of the camps to build stages for afters and play from right after the festival ends to sunrise. These stages are impressive! Walking around the campsite you will be in awe that they are built by the community just looking to keep the party going. In addition, there are art cars that roam around allowing people to hop on and off and enjoy music on the move. This unique feature maybe Elements stand out from any other fest I have been to so far.
The Stages and Artists
I thoroughly enjoyed all 4 official stages within the fest plus all the mini ones. The Fire stage was the main stage so to speak holding the most amount of people. It had fire exploding out of it at all times and an impressive fireworks show every night. It also had this really cool fire tent to warm people up when it got a tad chilly at night.
Fire Stage featured primarily House with Chris Lake B2B Cloonee, Dr.Fresch, Fly With Us (AC Slater and Chris Lorenzo), Walker & Royce, and so many others rocking the stage. My favorite sets of the weekend happened here with Chris Lake and Cloonee having me move for 2+ hours.
The next biggest stage was Earth which featured all the Bass music you needed + live bands. Excision, Subtronics, LSDream, The Floozies, and others had the festival thrusting and bending their minds. The Earth had the best visuals out of any stage with its trippy outlines and multitude of lasers.
The water stage was the most impressive design in the shape of an octopus. At night it came to life with lasers shooting out of its eyes. It featured a diverse lineup across Bass, DnB, and Techno. Subtronics (sunset), Sub Focus, Dimension, and Sara Landry graced this stage and had the people moving. Dimension was my 2nd favorite set of the weekend and could not recommend him more.
Finally, the Air stage was by far the coolest one. It is built right into the forest as a Pagoda. It has tree houses surrounding the area allowing lucky enough attendees to get a bird’s eye view. Bob Moses, It’s Murph, Township Rebellion, and Slander (Before Dawn) had the forest dancing all night long.
The Food
I don’t usually comment on the food at a festival because it tends to be subpar, but man Elements had the best festival food I have ever had. It wasn’t terribly pricey and they had an incredible amount of options for both meat eaters like myself and vegetarians. There were unique options from Birria Quesadillas to chicken and waffles to huge flavorful wraps. I rarely ever waited in line to long either.
Also, there were a ton of water stations!! You can never have enough water stations and I was so happy to see this.
The Community and Concluding Thoughts
As stated before, I met some of the loveliest people of my life at Elements. Everyone was beyond nice and I didn’t see a hint of negativity or fights throughout the festival. This is also coming right after Hurricane Debby straight-up ruined the first 2 days of the fest (along with my tent and canopy lol). That did not keep anyone down, people still went hard and shared love it all. Hugs were everywhere and random compliments were of plenty. The afterglow from Elements was as real as it gets.
There is no question I will be back at Long Pond next year and hopefully up there playing as well. While Elements is not officially the best festival in the northeast (for now) I have declared the honor in my view. I know it will keep getting bigger and bigger and attracting talent and ravers from around the world.
Till next year Elements, thanks for making me a happy boy 🙂
