Ep. 53 Festies Recap: Lightning in a Bottle 2026

Sunny and Clark are back from Lightning in a Bottle and giving Vanessa the full recap.

We cover favorite sets, workshops, camping adventures, festival lessons, new friendships, and the moments that made LIB unforgettable. Plus, we read notes left by fellow festies at our campsite, including stories, advice, confessions, and shout-outs from the community.

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Shout out to everyone who left us a note at our welcome table!

@casas-colorado @_pleaseletusrave_ @torib.diary @a_break_in_time @weareravetrash

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Transcript

Cold Open And Recap Setup

Sunny 0:00

Hey Vanessa.

Vanessa 0:01

Yeah, Sunny?

Sunny 0:02

What do you call two best friends that love music festivals?

Vanessa 0:06

Hmm, I guess you'd call them Festies! Oh my God, I cannot wait to hear everything.

Sunny 0:45

Yeah, so welcome to our Lightning in a Bottle recap episode, everybody. Um, Vanessa gets to hear all about it. Clark and I have been at Lightning in a Bottle for the past five days, right? Five days. Yeah, yeah. As you can hear in my voice. Um, Lightning in a Bottle is at uh where is it?

Clark 1:07

Buena Vista Lake.

Sunny 1:09

Thank you.

Clark 1:09

Down near Bakersfield, California.

Sunny 1:12

In the hot, hot sun.

Clark 1:14

And it was hot. Like we heard from so many people that had been past years, they're like, this is like 10 degrees hotter than it was last year.

Vanessa 1:24

Oh my gosh.

Sunny 1:26

The 10 degrees made a difference. It was pretty wild.

What Makes Lightning In A Bottle Unique

Sunny 1:29

Um, but before we get to uh all of that, I just want to say first that um if you're not familiar with Lightning a Bottle, um, Lightning and Bottle, it's a really unique combination of interactive art installations, community gathering workshops, yep, and music. And during the day is mostly like the workshops and things like that and going out on the lake. And then at night it turns into like a whole different universe.

Clark 1:54

Yeah, seriously.

Sunny 1:55

Glowing art cars and performers. Performers, yeah. Well, performers like walking around, kind of doing yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, anyways, yeah, that's my little description of lightning in a bottle. My my voice is rough today, so bear with bear with me, everybody.

Clark 2:11

Yeah. After after experiencing it firsthand, I feel like what I told Sunny, there's a lot of festivals that say they're arts and music festivals, but like this this means it. Like this, this is not like lightning in a bottle is not messing around when they say art and music festival. Like there's a bunch of live paintings being made similar to outside lands with their like graffiti walls. But these are like, you know, full-on uh huge canvas paintings that painters are doing, and at the end of the festival, a chunk of them bring their art to one of the entrances close to the lightning stage, and you can walk around and like bid on the art and stuff.

Sunny 2:53

Ooh, that's cool.

Clark 2:54

Which is super, super cool.

Sunny 2:55

Yeah, it's called the art walk.

Clark 2:57

Yeah, and they get set up like kind of dusk time, and then it's just you know, it they leave it all po you know posted there for the rest of the night, basically.

Vanessa 3:06

So it's equal arts, equal parts, art and music.

Clark 3:10

Yeah. Yeah. I'd I'd even say maybe even more art.

Sunny 3:14

Yeah, totally.

Clark 3:15

Like yeah, visual visual art in general. Because it doesn't stop. That's awesome.

Sunny 3:21

Getting down there, yeah.

Arrival Heat And Camping In High Noon

Sunny 3:23

Let's see. We left around eight in the morning, and then by the time we got to Bakersfield, Clark said he started our first camp site setup video around three o'clock. Uh peak heat time. So um good. Yeah, perfect.

Clark 3:39

Um right in time, right in time for that.

Sunny 3:43

Yeah, we uh camped in the campground called High Noon, which was actually I think the closest campground to the stages that we could have gotten. Um, so that was nice. But the flip side of that was it was also the hottest campground.

Clark 3:58

Yeah, and the loudest movie. Um, no. No. We I would say we didn't have a problem with music or you know, volume or hearing like stages and stuff in the campgrounds.

Sunny 4:16

Yeah, no, not really.

Clark 4:17

No, I think the I think we had more of that at Bonnaroo on its side. Yeah. Like being being so close to the dance music uh stage.

Vanessa 4:25

Well, that's good.

Clark 4:26

But yeah, yeah. So we didn't have any issue that, but high noon is is like on the most arid, like desert part of the whole area versus the other, you know, sunrise, sunset are both close to the water with, you know, some grass and and you know, some like trees and stuff going on. So that's I think something we would look into if we uh were going again, would be yeah, trying to possibly camp in one of those campgrounds.

Sunny 4:51

It's kind of like you gotta pick do you want to be closer and hotter, or do you want to be farther and cooler? Yeah. Is the is the choice. But farther and cooler, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how to compare because I didn't get to experience anything else, but I I liked where we got to camp because the walk was so close.

Clark 5:08

Yeah, yeah. The the walk we were we were on Cambodia, which that road runs directly into Lightning stage, which is one of the main stages that has the storage containers and the googly eyes.

Vanessa 5:26

I'm gonna be honest, I tried to follow like what what the main stages were, like the

Main Stages Art Cars And Decor

Vanessa 5:33

music. It was kind of just like all over the place for me, someone who isn't at the festival, trying to look at the schedule. So, how many like actual stages were there that you can think of or count?

Clark 5:47

I feel like there was probably like a lot of little there were five like main stages, and then there was like an endless amount of little like art cars, mobile, yeah, yeah, no, like mobile DJ setups setups that were that were basically just even fancier art cars.

Sunny 6:09

Right, yeah.

Clark 6:10

Yeah, so I mean lightning and thunder are two of the biggest stages, right? So lightning, thunder, then woogie, stacks, the junkyard, and grand artique.

Sunny 6:26

And petite Artique.

Vanessa 6:28

Woogie and Junkyard were the only two that I kind of kept hearing stuff about when I was just like looking through everybody's posts of Lightning in the Bottle.

Sunny 6:37

That makes sense because the decor for those two stages um definitely stick out the most. Yeah. Um the Woogie stage is the one that has the like canvas mushrooms. Um and then the junkyard is just a full stage of uh exactly what it says it is junk. Um all like all scraps from the junkyard that they have.

Clark 6:59

The panel that we saw with the uh Flemming brothers, they were talking about how the junkyard literally is pieces of previous years' lightning and thunder stages that they've kept.

Vanessa 7:13

I saw that in a post that they posted and I reshared it on our page.

Clark 7:17

Yes, yes, yes. I I remember you you sent that. Yeah, yeah. So they they did talk about that too. Um, and I will say it was very cool seeing the repurposing of so many different things. Um, like we kind of talked about that how Ed would like everything besides the music so much at this festival. But I kept telling Sunny, I'm like, these stages are so much more unique and so interesting compared to other festivals we've been to.

Vanessa 7:46

Wow.

Clark 7:46

You know, how um yeah, how this like spaceship that they built in Junkyard where you know you could go around the back and then be inside the spaceship cockpit that like the DJ is in. Um I just I actually just sent a post uh in our Instagram that I want to post on our story that's like there's buttons and keys and stuff that change lights inside of that that people that are just in there can like touch and play with. Whoa. So there's like cool interactive stuff just in there. The crossroads, which was like had during the daytime how it would have speakers, but then would have DJ sets too. That's that beautiful, like uh canop really cool canopy with like a bunch of like tiered layers we post on our story. It looks like something out of like Star Wars or something. Um yeah, so so just those, and then like stacks is a bunch of industrial crates that like hold produce or other stuff that they built into these um and they're stacked. And yeah, and they and they stacked them up. But yeah, it was it was a it was a pretty um visually interesting place to walk around in, even during the daytime when there was no lights or DJ sets happening.

The Analog Handmade Feel And Crowd Size

Sunny 9:04

Yeah, the very first thing I noticed was like everything is so unique and all the signs that say like where to go are hand painted. There isn't that like there isn't that like classic festival font. You know, it's just like it's literally just like cardboard, or not cardboard, but sometimes actually with someone painting like you know, lighting stage this way or entrance slash exit, whatever. Everything is just so um to quote them actually analog is what they said. You know, they don't um in the panel that we during the panel that we watched, they mentioned that they don't necessarily have the funds to like keep up with all the tech and all the like new things that festivals are doing. So they chose to go the complete opposite, and that ends up being like what's so awesome about the festival and what people love about it.

Clark 9:58

Yeah.

Vanessa 9:59

Yeah, that sounds really unique and like I don't know, like personal almost or personable. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Clark 10:07

No, I I think that's a great word. Yeah, I think that's spot on Vane. It really it there was like a handmade nature to it.

Vanessa 10:14

Yeah.

Clark 10:15

Because of that.

Vanessa 10:16

So it's not that crowded then, like there's not like a bunch of people. Do you know what the max what the capacity is or how many people go to this?

Sunny 10:24

Apparently, this was the first year that they ever sold out completely.

Vanessa 10:28

Oh, really?

Sunny 10:28

Um, and they mentioned during the panel that that's uh 25,000 tickets.

Vanessa 10:33

Ah that's so small compared to like every other one we've ever been to. Okay, wait. So is this your guys' like favorite one now?

Sunny 10:45

Um it lighting in a bottle is amazing. The literally, like, if I were to make a pros and cons list, everything would be pro, pro, pro, pro, pro, and then the big con would be the heat, which is not their fault whatsoever. Right. Obviously. Um so uh that's like the only tick against it. Um, but other than that, yeah, it was it was incredible. I'm really grateful that we got the opportunity to go.

Clark 11:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was it was pretty uh spectacular. And our neighbors that we ended up camping next to was like this huge festival family. Yeah. This was like their fifth year going together. They literally they can't they just end up camping next to each other in the in the regular campsites five years ago.

Sunny 11:31

Oh, I didn't know that.

Clark 11:32

And yeah, and they like met at Lightning in a Bottle. Oh and then, you know, and they brought in some other friends that they'd known, but they're all from kind of all over the place. Yeah, and it was like a group of like 25 people.

Vanessa 11:44

Oh my gosh, more.

Clark 11:46

Yeah.

Vanessa 11:46

And do you guys meet all of them? Are you guys friends now?

Sunny 11:49

They introduced themselves right away.

Clark 11:51

Yeah. Um and and we chatted, I mean, like the people, the the the guys that were camping closer to us just physically, we probably chatted with more because we were just, you know, near them. But they were also musicians, like they had some acoustic guitars and stuff, and they were playing every once in a while. And um one of them, it was someone's birthday, so they brought a pinata and they were like singing the pinata song and stuff and doing that on like what on Sunday.

A Typical Day Lake Breaks And Night Runs

Sunny 12:22

Yeah, I want to just tell you kind of what our like typical day looked like because we got sort of on a schedule. Um we woke up around like eight o'clock, thanks to the sun. Um had breakfast thanks to Clarky. So Clark uh would make us breakfast. He prepped uh breakfast burritos, protein pancakes, some bagels that he made.

Clark 12:44

Oh, yeah, some like yogurt, like some like protein bagels. Protein bagels. Uh-huh.

Sunny 12:48

Everything protein. Um and then we would kind of like get ourselves situated with our social media and anything like festies related. And then by the time it hit like one o'clock, two o'clock, I had to be in that water in the lake. Like there was no other option because it was so freaking hot. Um so thank you for sending us the floaty because Yeah, oh my god, you were all good. Sorry, like it wasn't this that's no, you're all good. Yeah, so then we'd go into the actual festival grounds, float in the lake for a little bit, um, grab some food inside, and then after we would get some food, we'd leave the festival grounds. I would shower on the way out, and then we'd head back to camp, um, chill for a little bit, and then dinner and head back out for the evening around eight.

Clark 13:39

Yeah. Oh basically.

Vanessa 13:41

So music was starting at like eight or later.

Sunny 13:45

Well, music did start at like one or two.

Clark 13:49

Yeah.

Sunny 13:49

Um like barely maybe a couple DJs. Uh-huh. Um, but then it like the main stage didn't open until maybe seven, I want to say. Oh, okay. Six.

Clark 13:59

Yeah, like yes, yeah, six or seven, yeah.

Sunny 14:01

So then it was from then until like four in the morning that that music went. So it's definitely like an it's definitely a nighttime thing. But yeah, I would turn into once the sun went down, I would turn into a different person. Like that golden hour is like the best time of day. Yeah.

Vanessa 14:18

I guess it kind of has to be like a night thing, huh? Because of the heat. Like they'd have so many people passing out, probably if it was like sooner than that.

Clark 14:26

Well, and we say that, like, that doesn't that doesn't mean there wasn't stuff happening.

Workshops Panels Harm Reduction And Elixirs

Vanessa 14:31

Yeah.

Clark 14:31

In the festival, right? Because, you know, you could go and there was like learning about tarot cards in, you know, in one of the smaller areas. You could go um see a you know, a variety show in one of the stages. You could uh yoga. Yeah, you could go do yoga in this like beautiful pavilion that they made.

Sunny 14:52

Meditation.

Clark 14:53

Yeah, you yeah, so sound baths.

Sunny 14:55

Like you could so many things you could do.

Clark 14:58

Walking around everything, and you go, Oh, I really like how that DJ sounds, you know, and and you go there and you really enjoy it. Or, oh, what are they talking about over there? Oh, they're talking about power reduction.

Sunny 15:11

That's what we stopped at.

Clark 15:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. We stopped at a panel that they were talking about, um uh OD and um Narcan and stuff, and we're like, we will always take more information on that because it's important. Yeah. That's what was happening during the daytime was just like all these other things, um, all these other talks.

Sunny 15:32

Do you want to talk about your learning kitchen experience?

Clark 15:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I and I could have gone to like five more things there and I would have been so down. Um, but I went to this one that was uh a founder of a you know a cold press juice company, and she, you know, was talking about benefits of just different uh juices and elixir in general of um all the different natural medicines and stuff, you know. Um she also had someone who was a purveyor of like nootropic um uh mushrooms and stuff. So he um I even have some because he was giving out samples and stuff of it. Yeah, so like they made this like juice elixir that had like coconut cream and a couple different mushrooms and it had kava kava in it. Um yeah, had like a bunch of bunch of stuff. And yeah, we like uh I drank that at like 1.30 and then met up with Sunny and went and floated in the water. And I was like, yeah, it's a good is a good day. It's a good day. Um yeah. Even the night before, we'd also had Kava Kava, which I've liked kava for a long time. It's like a uh a root that they powder. It's in a lot of Pacific Islanders drink it and stuff. It's like a really, really wild. Dope. I think it's called it's so good. Yeah. And oh, Sunny and I actually had drinks. I had a drink with Kava in it the night before. And when I was looking up that place, it's called Elixir Elix Art. You know where the Grass Valley. Yeah, it's from Nevada City. Nevada City. It's the it's the place, and we we'd been there before because like oh my god, duh, I should have put that together. Because Bobo had uh yeah, our friend Beau played a show at this place in Nevada City.

Sunny 17:27

Oh my gosh. The founders, they live in Nevada, part two of them live in Nevada City.

Clark 17:32

Yeah, two of the brothers.

Sunny 17:34

A lot of people uh that are employed there are from Nevada City.

Clark 17:39

Yeah, so that was the learning kitchen, and they had a bunch of other like seminars on different um, you know, health foods and stuff. Um, and yeah, I think when we go back, I want to really get myself out to more of the the learning kitchen stuff because I really enjoyed the one that I went to. Um uh and the people I was sitting next to, like we were talking about what we were gonna see and stuff. So shout out to that too.

Vanessa 18:08

Nice. What'd you do, Sunny? What workshops did you go to?

Sunny 18:12

Boo, I suck. Um I oh no. I didn't make it out because it was just so freaking hot. I was like, I have to like save to come out later. And the last day someone gave us this advice, and I was like, I wish you would have said that Thursday. Um they gave us the advice that like out in the actual um festival grounds is a lot cooler than like in the campground, which like I know that, but I didn't think it was necessarily cooler than like being under our easy up, you know? Um so if I would have just like gotten my shit together and like gone out into the festival grounds and kind of forced myself to stay there, then I would have gone to more stuff. Um and then also looking back on it, we could have like not gone out for one of the nights and just like focused on hanging out during the day instead. Yeah, you know? Um so unfortunately I did not make it to any of the like classes and I I'm really regretting that. But I did get to see the panel with the founders. Yes. And then like I said, we came across the harm reduction um panel, and then we also came across somebody speaking about just oh yeah, legalization of mushrooms.

Clark 19:28

Of of of uh just of hallucinogenics.

Sunny 19:31

Oh, oh, okay.

Clark 19:32

Yeah, in general.

Sunny 19:33

That was really interesting.

Clark 19:34

Yeah, and like they have a foundation that is doing work to try and get, you know, stigmas disassociate, you know, taken away from uh from just them uh hallucinics in general and psychedelics.

Music Highlights And Surprise Favorites

Vanessa 19:50

I want to hear about some of the music that you guys saw.

Clark 19:54

For show.

Sunny 19:55

So much music.

Clark 19:56

A couple like surprising ones for me, or not maybe not surprising, just you know, hadn't looked the DJs up. Um, but we ended up at the junkyard and we saw Mntra and um Saqib. Uh, I'm just gonna double check that I said, yeah, Saqib. Um and they were, you know, one after the other. And Mntra, we were just digging the like super groovy, uh awesome, dancey vibes from from his the ending of his set, because we got there kind of in the middle. But then he finished his set by doing this like more up-tempo version of Girl from Ipanema that was dope, which is like a jazz standard. And that was really fun. Sunny and I were like just looking at each other, like, oh, who who chooses to end their set with this? You know, like this like really kind of soft way to end. But then he got on the mic and he was just like tearing up at how many people came to see his set, and he was just like so thankful. Yeah, he was just like, Thank you so much for coming and seeing me. He's like so excited. Yeah, um, and then and then the next DJ right after him, Sake started his set with like a 10-minute riff and multiple flips of thriller samples, like Michael Jackson thriller samples. So, so again, Sonny and I were like, hell yeah, this this is great.

Sunny 21:22

You know, after a while, I was like, Are we still on thriller?

Clark 21:26

Like, is is not that I'm complaining, but is ba-do-da-do-da, don't like still happening.

Sunny 21:32

Um yeah, I just want to preface um this section by saying that Clark and I forced ourselves not to do any homework for this festival. So we did not look up any DJs. Wow, the things we went to, I know the things we went to were DJs that we already knew of. Um, so anything else we saw we saw that we liked were just things that we stumbled upon. Um, or like recommendations from friends.

Clark 21:59

Yeah. Yeah, like in in the moment.

Sunny 22:02

The acts I liked were um Noga Erez, who um I've mentioned her on this podcast before, but she was uh incredible as usual, got the crowd pumped. Um it was a nice break from the uh EDM because she's a rapper, so that was really fun. I loved Barry Can't Swim. Uh J is it J. Worra, is that how you say it?

Clark 22:22

Yeah. Okay.

Sunny 22:23

Um yeah, and Jayda G. Yes. We're super fun. Funky, Groovy, you know, just the stuff that we like. So those are the artists I can name. Oh, and we were also very surprised by Mary Droppinz, who Oh yeah. I was saying, like, I don't care about Mary Droppinz, but everyone else is going, so I'm gonna go. Um, that's so lame, you, but that's how I was. And uh she was so fun.

Clark 22:47

Yeah.

Sunny 22:47

It definitely wasn't like just break beat the whole time, like I was worried it would be. It was a very dynamic set and uh fun to be at.

Vanessa 22:57

I think I heard you say that in the background of one of your videos that you were taking.

Clark 23:04

Oh yeah. Dope. I mean, she has like one of the best DJ names ever. Mary Mary Droppinz is like just goes. That name goes so hard.

Vanessa 23:17

I'd always heard of that, but I never had listened to her. But I've always heard of that name.

Clark 23:22

She does some absolutely like filthy dubstep drops. Like they're they're super sick.

Sunny 23:31

We also made

New Friends Totems And Festival Family

Sunny 23:32

some new friends. Oh, yeah. That was my next question.

Vanessa 23:34

How many festies did you meet?

Sunny 23:38

We okay, so well, I didn't bring this up yet, but we actually Clark made a pepper totem of our dog, and that ended up being super popular, of course. Yeah. So a lot of people stopped us and asked if that was our dog and this or that. We ended up just talking to a lot of people with through that icebreaker. And um, yeah, we met uh one person who her name is Cyber, and she hung out with us like basically the whole weekend, and it was her first festival ever. Um, so that was fun to just be with someone that had never done something like that before.

Clark 24:15

Yeah. Um and uh and she was working the festival um yeah as a as a ranger. So she would like finish her shift and then have the rest of the you know the day to to do stuff. Yeah. So yeah.

Sunny 24:28

We ran into uh an elementary school friend of ours named Sammy. Shout out to Sammy. I would always run into him at festivals. That's so funny, yeah. And then we knew that our friend Brogan from high school was gonna be there, and we hung out with her most of the weekend also. So awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Clark 24:45

Yeah.

Sunny 24:45

It's Bryce, duh. Oh my goodness, Bryce, of course, who I've been talking to like all day today. Um, our friend Bryce, also from elementary school, right? Yes. So we hung out with him and a couple of his friends too throughout the weekend. So it was a good time.

Clark 24:58

Yeah.

Sunny 24:59

Oh, I forgot to tell you that we ran into Dana, who um she's a fitness coach for women in the EDM community. And we ran into her because um we had the pepper totem and she was going around to all the like pictures of dogs and animals and booping them. And then she made a cute like montage video of that. So she came up to Pepper and like I turned around and I saw her and I was like, Are you Dana? And she was like, Yeah, I am. And so I reminded her who I was and we got to chit-chatting, she was super nice. They um had just came back from EDC, so they did a back-to-back, back-to-back festival weekends. Oh my gosh. I asked if she would come on the show and she said she would. So we need to hit her up to uh I need to hit her up in you know, in the real world and set that up. So thank you, Dana, for uh chit-chatting with us for a little bit. Yeah. That's awesome.

Clark 25:48

Yeah, and then we'd and and then we'd run and then we'd run into our neighbors and we'd be like, neighbor? You know, like in the festival.

Sunny 25:58

Oh, another one, we can cut this out, but we were in line and this guy turns around and he's like, Clark? And Clark was like, What's up, man? And they're like saying hi to each other, and so good to see you, so good to see you. And then we like walk away, and I kind of recognized him too, but I turned to Clark, I was like, Who was that? He was like, No idea.

Clark 26:17

No, I was I wasn't like no idea. I was like, I just can't, I can't remember. Can't place him, yeah. Yeah, I can't remember his name.

Sunny 26:23

Then later he was like, he kind of reminds me of Steven Tan. That's what he said. And then fast forward a few days later, Brogan runs to say hi to someone. She comes back. I was like, Oh, who did you see? She said, I saw Tyler and Steven Tan. So that is who it was. I was like, it was Steven Tan. I could not leave it alone.

Clark 26:40

Are you not still thinking about that? I'm like, I'm just I'm at in the festival now. I don't care. I don't give a fuck.

Vanessa 26:46

My brain does not work like yours and Vanessa's.

Clark 26:49

Yeah.

Sunny 26:50

Brogan was like, that would drive me nuts. I was like, I know, thank you.

Clark 26:55

Yeah. I was like, it's okay. Um, but yeah, it was it was a pretty um incredible festival. Just like all of the things we were hearing about it and how much love and like family feeling. Oh, so many families too.

Vanessa 27:15

Oh, really?

Clark 27:15

So many families with all with their kids and stuff, which was super cool. Like they have a whole they had a whole family zone at Lightning and at Lightning in a Bottle. Oh. And that that was like always had stuff going on and and was super packed.

Sunny 27:30

So yeah. I there there's so many more things we can get to, but I don't wanna I don't wanna, it's late over in in uh Iowa, so I don't want to keep us for too long.

Vanessa 27:38

Exactly, exactly, because of the time difference. Yeah.

Reading Camp Notes Confessions And Advice

Sunny 27:43

Talk to your friend from a closet. Um I wanna fast forward because we put a table out at our campsite. Oh yes. Yeah, my mom very kindly made a sign for us that said, Festies podcast, leave us a note. And so a lot of people stopped by and they left notes for us and put it in the box. Um I have not read them. Clark has gone through them and like organized them a little bit, but has supposedly also not read them.

Clark 28:12

Umly if they were very short and my eyes just like read them real quick.

Sunny 28:18

The next part of this episode is gonna be us going through those, if that's okay. Um, please do. And I'm very excited, uh, because yeah, like I said, I have not seen these.

Clark 28:27

Um, you can leave a story, a confession, advice, a shout-out, or other. Nice. And then we had a a b a box where they could mark it if they wanted to be kept anonymous.

Sunny 28:39

Or write their name.

Clark 28:40

Or write their name in. Well, this person wrote their name in, but then they checked keep anonymous.

Vanessa 28:44

Okay. How many are there?

Clark 28:46

I think I counted about like 25, 30.

Vanessa 28:50

Oh. That's a good amount. Okay.

Clark 28:56

Yeah. So I think I'm not sure.

Vanessa 28:59

I was trying to do math in my head. I was like, that's like one per thousand people.

Clark 29:05

I have I have I have the story and advice ones, and I think Sonny has the I have other. You have the other and shout out, I think. Okay, but he didn't read these. Or confession. Oh, confession. Yeah, I tried not to I tried not to read them.

Vanessa 29:21

Okay.

Clark 29:21

There's some that are like a one sentence or not even a full sentence.

Vanessa 29:25

You guys should trade off. Okay.

Clark 29:27

Okay, sure, sure. So this one says, got adopted into a rave fam, and one of the members used to go to the same school together uh in Costa Rica. Oh, fifth grade. I haven't we haven't seen each other in over 15 years. Same class and next door neighbors. Wow. And that's from that's from Van.

Sunny 29:47

Shout out.

Clark 29:48

That's so sick.

Sunny 29:51

Wow. Um, okay, this person ticked off other, and their response was don't put butter near the hole. It's hard. Your turn.

Clark 30:01

This one is a the mine are all gonna be stories here for a moment. And this one says, shower's broken down, can't find others, map won't load. These nerds will surely get me through it.

Sunny 30:13

Oh, because we had candy at our table.

Clark 30:15

Yeah, we had candy for people to take at our table, so they like grabbed a box of nerds and they're like, This will help.

Vanessa 30:21

Nice doing the Lord's work over there.

Clark 30:24

Yeah.

Vanessa 30:25

Okay, Nisani, you're next.

Sunny 30:26

Next one for me. Fish are cool.

Vanessa 30:31

Yes, they are. And they are not, they are friends, not food.

Clark 30:36

Yeah. John Summit's camera girl ditched me mid-set last year and proceeded to go backstage with him after the set, got ghosted. And they wanted to be Captain Onvis.

Sunny 30:49

Mine says, have a great fest with a heart. Aww.

Clark 30:53

Make sure you just drop them so you don't get back to the same ones again.

Vanessa 30:57

Yeah, sunny drop-ins.

Clark 30:58

Yeah.

Vanessa 30:59

Sunny drop-ins.

Clark 31:00

Um, okay, so now I'm now I'm into I think the rest of mine are all gonna be advice. So this one says, always find time for the things that make you feel happy to be alive. And it's from Leighann. Hey, so shout out to Leighann.

Sunny 31:12

That's so cute. All right. Mine says it starts with a handle, and the handle is at we are rave trash. And I actually remember um this couple that stopped by. Um, they said, So excited to listen. Lib, laugh, love, lib, fast, die young, Seth and Tori. And Seth and Tori have a um like rave, what do they call it?

Clark 31:36

Um It's like re- it's like repurposed clothing that they make into like rave clothing.

Vanessa 31:43

Oh, sick. Shout out Seth and Tori.

Clark 31:46

Dope, yeah, yeah. Shout out to them. They were they were super nice. We chat with them for a minute. This one says is another piece of advice. Neti pot every night before bed if you want to make it out of here alive. And if you want to be able to breathe on your way home.

Vanessa 32:00

Yep. Yep, yep. Essential.

Clark 32:03

Also, Vanessa, your um your things of uh saline.

Sunny 32:09

Oh my god.

Clark 32:11

Saved our life too.

Sunny 32:12

Nice, yeah. Yay, yay. I was struggling, thank you.

Clark 32:15

Yeah, because the wind and the dust was rough.

Sunny 32:18

Gnarly. Okay. Mine says, thank you for the nerds.

Clark 32:24

Uh and this piece of advice. This piece of advice is from Saxon and it says, Going solo is hard but rewarding. It can help show you who you really are.

Vanessa 32:37

Aw, I love that. I love that you're I've been to a concert by myself. I don't know if I could do a festival by myself, but more power to you.

Clark 32:45

This this is one of one of them where you could just make some incredible connections with people.

Sunny 32:52

Yeah.

Clark 32:53

If you went to the case. Everyone wants to help everybody. Yeah. I think it would totally doable.

Sunny 32:58

This next one is a shout-out. Um, and the response is uh the shout out is to Angel and Elizabeth for having me enjoy this experience. Forever friends. Oh, festival Asia, you have very nice handwriting.

Clark 33:13

I know some people's like, dang. So this piece of advice is uh from Colby Copeland. And uh, and they have their Instagram handle, so we'll we'll uh we'll tag them too. It uh at a_ break_ in_ time. But they say, make your life full of I can't believe we did that. Not I wish we did that. Oh yes, very, very profound.

Sunny 33:40

I have a confession. The confession is I am not a whore. They asked to be kept anonymous.

Clark 33:48

Hey uh this next piece of advice is from Crog. It's just a feeling.

Vanessa 33:59

Okay. What?

Clark 34:01

It's advice, I guess.

Vanessa 34:03

Yeah, it's just a feeling. You'll get over it.

Clark 34:05

Oh, Sonny's got a wrong one. Uh or not.

Sunny 34:10

Oh, oh, oh. Okay. This is a story and confession. This says, I brought my Mormon dad to his first L I B. I brought him to Bond, yes. Yet I'm hoping he can learn to heal from his shit.

Clark 34:26

Dope.

Sunny 34:27

That's what this says, right?

Vanessa 34:28

I hope that he healed from his shit. I love people bringing their parents to these.

Clark 34:32

Yeah, that's sick.

Vanessa 34:34

Oh my god, I saw this TikTok or this reel of a dad dropping off their daughter at L I B and he said, have fun at the rave. And she said, You too. And he goes, Me too. And then it cuts to like him in front of the stage, like lasers and shit. So yeah, I love her.

Clark 34:50

It's so good. Yes, those are fun. This piece of advice is from Chels and Brian. And they say, Don't wait. You're young, healthy, and beautiful. Live your best life now. Love you.

Sunny 35:05

Oh, love you. Here's a confession. Festies are my happy place. Sometimes after I have festi dreams. Like literally, I'm at the fest and then I wake up and it's a normal day. This is from Colorado Chris, and they left their handle at casas-colorado. And then at the very end he wrote, or was it?

Vanessa 35:29

Those are the sound like the best kind of dreams.

Clark 35:32

Just make you question it right at the end. Uh uh, and this this this speech this piece of advice is uh passion is loving something when it's hard. Don't look for what you're naturally good at. Look for what you love even when it's difficult. And it's and it's from Fred Durst. Wow. Yo, dude, I didn't even notice. Didn't even say anything about a chocolate starfish. That's crazy.

Sunny 36:04

Here's a confession. I'm an out gay man in his 20s who has never had sex with someone under 40. Daddies are so hot.

Clark 36:13

Dope.

Sunny 36:14

Keep me anonymous. Oh, love it.

Clark 36:18

Yeah, that's so good. Okay, and this advice is keep in touch with your fest friends. You make it lightning in a bottle. Share all your funny stories with them. It keeps people smiling. Never forget why you're here and keep coming back. Uh, and that's from at Tori b. diary.

Vanessa 36:36

I love that. Fest friends.

Clark 36:38

Mm-hmm.

Vanessa 36:38

Like best friends. Fest friends.

Clark 36:41

Your best friends, you make it, Lib. Mm-hmm.

Sunny 36:43

Should we rename the podcast? I'm just kidding. Um says, festivals are a psyop. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Clark 36:53

Uh. And this one, this piece of advice says, walk up to a stranger and pretend to know them. See how far they take it.

Vanessa 37:00

Oh my god, I love that. That is so good.

Clark 37:04

And then it's from Jangus, it looks like.

Sunny 37:09

This confession says, I love Kyle with a smiley face. Kyle.

Vanessa 37:17

You better love her back. Kyle.

Clark 37:19

Whoever you are, Kyle.

Sunny 37:21

That was my last one.

Clark 37:22

Uh perfect. It's a perfect split. This is my last one, and it's a piece of advice saying, Bring your own shower. Save that money. And it's from Marcus. And it's at Please Let Us Rave_. Oh, uh, that's his handle. Um, he definitely left us some stickers.

Sunny 37:40

Oh, awesome.

Clark 37:41

Yeah, yeah. There's a stickers. How much over the showers? Peps.

Vanessa 37:44

Thirteen dollars. Oh my god. Yeah, no thanks. Yeah, I'm bringing my own shower. Thank you.

Sunny 37:50

Um, shout out to Lauren from uh SideQuest Grid on our last episode or the episode before that. Um, who brought up the pressure sprayer to clean yourself off at night because Yes Although we didn't go get that, we had something similar to that that we used to give our dog a bath. And so we brought we brought it with us and that was so nice to have.

Clark 38:12

Yep, yep. We rinsed uh most nights we'd rinse off our legs uh with it. Because it like really like your legs and feet. Yeah. And that was really nice.

Favorite Takeaway Thanks And Festival Toolkit

Sunny 38:25

Um so yes, thank you to everybody for taking the time to stop by our table and leave us a note.

Clark 38:31

Yeah, and ch and chat with us. We had a we had a good chunk of people. Good chunk of people just you know, stop and chat for a bit too, which was really fun.

Sunny 38:40

I think that was my not I think. I know, but that was my favorite part of lightning in a bottle, which is the people. Yeah. Everyone is so nice and like everyone is just so happy to be there and wants everyone else to have the best time they can have. Um yeah. So again, thank you to everyone for just bringing the good vibes.

Clark 38:58

Seriously.

Sunny 38:59

Oh did we cover it? Now I need to go. I mean, I know we didn't, but yeah, yeah.

Vanessa 39:04

I need to go next and I don't know when I'll go, but I need to go at some point.

Sunny 39:08

Yeah, you would really like it. Ed would love it too. Yeah. Despite the the music, but uh all the there's just so many cool things to look at. I was talking You don't even have to go out at night.

Vanessa 39:17

Yeah, I was talking to him about that. I was like, you would love it, except for the music. He's like, I can deal with the little bit of EDM mirror there. Like he wants to go. He wants to go.

Sunny 39:27

Oh yay, okay.

Vanessa 39:33

All right, and that wraps up our full lightning in a bottle recap episode. If you want to see more from this weekend, we've already posted Sunny and Clark's campsite setup and daily LIB recap content over on our socials. And we also have a full festival vlog coming out very soon, so stay tuned for that. You can find us at Festies Podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And a huge, huge thank you to Lightning in a Bottle media team for having Festies out to cover the festival and for making this whole experience possible for Sunny and Clark.

Sunny 40:06

Yeah, and I just want to thank everyone again who stopped by our campsite, left us notes, shared stories, um, or just hung out with us throughout the weekend. Before we go, um, if you're getting ready for festival season, please check out our Festies digital toolkit. It includes packing checklists, curated sheets, and templates designed to make planning easier and help you feel more prepared for whatever festival you're going to. You can find the link for that in our show notes.

Vanessa 40:32

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow the podcast, leave us a review, and send this episode to any of your festival friends. And we'll see you guys in the next one. Bye.

Sunny 40:42

Bye.

Clark 40:43

Bye.