elephant journal is at Electric Forest Festival at the Double JJ Resort Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan. Click here for Thursday’s update. Click here for The Journey. Click here for a preview.

For starters, this is the driest coverage possible:

Enough. Only trouble is interesting.

We struggled out of bed to get to the complimentary brunch buffet before 1 p.m. Q got us up and insisted on our prompt awakening, and we thank her… begrudgingly.

We missed the early afternoon acts because the internet is slow and uploading videos takes a long time and there were naps and baths to be had. Word on the street is that Reverend Peytons Big Damn Band rocked it, as I’m sure did Steez and JJ Grey.

It was 5 p.m. by the time we learned that the Good Life tent was hosting an open bar until 6 p.m. We arrived to find several supremely refreshing adult beverages and a surprise set by Eliot Lipp + friend:

Stephen Marley played a vibrant set, covering some old favorites by his father (Three Little Birds, Jammin’, and Could You Be Loved, by my count) mixed in with his modern rasta-soul sensibility.

We tried to see Chiddy Bang, but their flight had been delayed, and so their set was pushed back to start in the middle of The String Cheese Incident. Too bad; we tried.

This is me walking between stages:

String Cheese opened their first set with Best Feeling (this is super bootleg video, as you will hear at the end):

SCI was on point, keepin’ it tight while gettin’ loose, sounding sharp and clearly enjoying themselves. This night included a cover of “Tom Sawyer,” by Rush.

After Cheese, we got to walk through the forest again to see Galactic tear it up on the Sherwood Stage. Tom says it was the best set he’s seen so far, and I’m inclined to agree. Here are several samplings:

There’s no video of anything after Galactic because the camera died. So let me tell you about how Emancipator with Ilyia on fiddle helped everyone get wild and weird at the Forest Stage. Tiesto instigated a vast dance party but we were impatient to get back into the Forest to see Cirque du Womp and catch the end of a grimy Break Science set. Late night was Lance Herbstrong at the Wagon Wheel. Quite a scene, but we’d seen enough so we called our guy Mike who, despite having been off his shift for two hours, drove us home in the golf cart just before 4 a.m.

Today is Saturday. We are gathering strength before venturing out to see Keller Williams solo, check out Janover, perhaps overhear some REO Speedwagon during happy hour, then Lettuce and more Cheese (itchin’ for a Keller Incident!). Late-night looks to be gnarly this evening, featuring Big Gigantic, Bassnectar, and Shpongle presenting The Shpongletron Experience, with another performance of Cirque du Womp in the mix.

This truly is the good life.

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Born on planet Earth, David Telfer McConaghay has since wandered across its surface in search of something which, when found, kindly insists that he continue searching. His immediate family lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, though he also feels at home in Washington D.C.; Grass Valley, California; Bogotá, Colombia; and now, almost Boulder, Colorado. He completed his B.A. in English & Creative Writing at The George Washington University in 2008. Experiences at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm are the primary source of any yogic inspiration David aka Sri Nivasa may express. He plays on Facebook Here and can be followed on Twitter Here