Review #17: Elements 2024

ELEMENTS REVIEW 

WOW. THIS FESTIVAL. 

This was THE worst festival I’ve EVER been to. 

Buckle the fuck up and let’s get into it. 

Thursday was early arrival. We got there in the rain, some of our friends waited in will call for 2 hours, outside, in the rain. They also opened will call at 1 pm Thursday???? wtf? Why not earlier??? Why is the will call off site and not inside the fucking building your holding it in?????????? Bonnaroo’s will call was inside with no line, and its triple the size. NOT TO MENTION THEY MAILED WRISTBANDS LATE. So they charged people a $16 shipping fee to not send them their shit on time and have them have to wait in the will call line. FRIDAY WAS EVEN WORSE FOR SOME PEOPLE. It rained so bad Thursday into Friday that they then wouldn’t let anyone into camping Friday and will call. They said “the campgrounds and box office will reopen at 1 pm tomorrow.” At 3 fucking pm. But not clear communication to us camping inside already at what the fuck is going on. JUST SAY ITS FUCKING CANCELED. not to MENTION BUT OUR SITE WAS DESTROYED. 5 CANOPIES BLOWN AWAY, TWO TENTS RUINED. ALL OUR CLOTHES AND LUGGAGE WAS FLOATING SOAKING WET BC THEY PUT OUR GROUP IN THE BACK IN A FUCKING CORNER WITH NO ONE AROUND US. GOT ABSOLUTELY FUCKED BY THE WIND. 

And on Saturday at will call the cops SHUT IT DOWN BC THERE WAS SO MANY PEOPLE PARKED ILLEGALLY BC THERE WAS NO WHERE TO PARK. 

So imagine you couldn’t get into camping Friday, you have no where to stay and you still don’t even have your wristband lol, and then you go to will call Saturday opening at 1 pm again lololololol and then they still won’t give you your ticket. 

WHAT

Bro. 

So now we have no where to sleep, no clothes to wear. And this was in the morning, then the storm got worse. We were sitting in our car for 4 hours on Friday and realized we can’t stay here. 

Finally we got out, and the rain was coming back soon so we had to act fast. Luckily we got an airbnb around 5:30 pm, rang out what we could, shoved everything into garbage bags and left. 

So back to Thursday, security wouldn’t let me bring the go pro stick in bc I could use it as a weapon LOL. okay so I had to walk ALLLL the way back to camp. Then when I left they announced that no video or audio recording devices are allowed including a go pro. 

??????????????

I’ve never been to a festival that gave me a fucking problem about the go pro. Like I can’t vlog lol??????? YOU THOUGHT. 

Don’t you worry I got vlogging w Dabs in that bitch and I WILL be posting it. 

So Thursday only two stages are open, they take us through a back way bc I get it, the other stages aren’t open, they don’t want the mud to get worse. I respect that, but the fucking stages that was open was the smallest stages and there was a decent amount of people there. 

Let’s talk about the stages, so the fucking water stage was a almost 360 stage, the concept was super cool, it was a pretty stage, the sound was good, but it was in a bottleneck. It was in a pocket. You walk through to get funneled into a shit show. If you had to leave that stage Thursday it was a SHIT show. Literally so packed. Leaving that stage was awful. Saturday was better bc the other stages were open and then Sunday (which we didn’t go) but I read that they moved Subtronics LOL to this STAGE. WHAT. LOLOLOLOLOLOL. SO THE FESTIVAL ORGANIZER COULD PLAY THE FIRE STAGE LOL. Over 9,000 people had subtronics on their schedule and it was so packed over there they had to stop letting people into that stage. what??????????? I mean the stupidity is what’s really impressive here. 

The fire stage was nice, big area. The sound was good until it got later and then it got lower? Same thing with the earth stage which was not Earth at all. In my opinion the stage designs didn’t really give me the elements. Mother Nature gave me more the elements than the decorations. They were nice but it just wasn’t giving elements lol. The air stage was in the trees LOLOL. 

Bro I’m telling you I’m so impressed by the stupidity. 

I didn’t like the layout tbh, I just personally would have done stuff differently. Again these are all my opinions. 

The mud was absolutely disgusting. That wasn’t their fault but they also didn’t do anything about it Saturday. It was out of control at the air stage. 

The bathrooms all weekend were DISGUSTING. I never once went into a porta potty with toilet paper. General store ran out of wipes. Thank god we brought some but wow. I mean at 7 pm, suns still out, no toilet paper. Some of the porta potty’s in camping were flipped over…..someone was in one when it did. We heard people talking to security about how the residue inside was now running into their campgrounds…..so now their shit is wet and has actual shit on it. What the fuck. You can’t even properly have your porta potty’s in the ground? But you’re telling us we aren’t prepared???? Lol. 

The water refill stations are a joke. In the worst spots. Had 4 water things on them. Two of them got shut down Saturday night, people were waiting 45 min to an hour to get water. Huh?????????????????

Medics were on it. Thank God, they did the best they could with the thick ass crowds. I saw them walking around, on carts, and checking on people. Love to see it. 

Security was rude and inconsistent at the gates. The people who checked us in were really nice when we drove in. Also though, people waited 3-5 hours to get into camping all for them not to check their car at all. 

I mean they didn’t check our car at all. We waited about an hour, not too bad at all but no one checked anything. 

It was clearly understaffed. 

Couldn’t use your card to pay for anything lol. Allll wristband, that’s annoying bc at least the option for card would have been nice. Like Roo had both options. 

The merch was mid and the people working the merch tent at the end of the night were FUCKED UP. we were just trying to get a jacket and they had no idea what was going on and the line wasn’t moving. 

Group camping annoyed me tbh. I picked the air village to be away from the renegades but still have the option to go to them if we wanted. They fucking had the fire village next to the air and water, not only am I soaking wet in my tent, wet blanket, can’t sleep I’ve gotta fucking listen to dubstep which I love but at 6 am and my site is destroyed. Lolololol. It’s honestly comedic at this point. We really were laughing and joking the majority of the morning until I realized now I have no clothes lol and no where to sleep, and alllllllll the money in camping supplies that just got fucked. 

But 

As soon as we got to the airbnb it was a VIBE. we partied there Friday, got to hang out w each other, did laundry and just chilled. It was a super super fun night. 

So when we went Saturday we were just wanting something to make this festival worth it. 

The vibe and energy was absolutely dead. No life in that crowd. I don’t blame them at all. I don’t know if it’s bc of the situation or they are just like that. Idk it was the weirdest thing. It felt like EDC on a bad year and Hula had a baby then got divorced and the child grew up all fucked up. That was the vibe. City fest meets camping fest. 

And ON TOP OF THAT

The sets were fucking mid. I’ve seen all those artists SO many times and it didn’t feel like they cared for this one. And why should they? This fest is shit. Subtronics is one of the biggest names in the game rn and you put him on a small stage for his first set??????

It was all just a joke lol. 

The expectations were just too high. We all expected too much fr. Not to mention 4 planets are in retrograde lol. 

So Saturday night we are just over it. We leave around 2:45. Walk to the pick up for Uber, can’t get an uber. We are calling taxis, trying Uber. I mean it’s ridiculous. 4 of us have a taxi coming that doesn’t know what time is. Then the other 4 of us that got an Uber had to give the Uber extra money to fit 3 more of us in. So now 4 of us are in the cold stuck at the fest and the rest of us are lapped up and in the trunk. Lol all of us didn’t get back till 5 am. 

I’ve never been so over being positive in my life. I was REALLY trying to have a good time but that was it for me. I can’t get a fucking ride home, my campsite was destroyed, and now I have to pay a $150 for an Uber lol. 

So at this point we are over it. Sunday we didn’t even go. Just chilled more. Really great day. More laundry and chilling. 

We did laundry for three days and I still have shit that’s wet lol. 

The communication was absolutely ridiculous. The organization was so bad. 

So some other things I read on Reddit: 

-They were deleting instagram comments, blocking accounts that were calling them out. 

-VIP/ Premium car camping amenities were not delivered as promised. They weren’t parked close and even their bathrooms were gross and a shit show. 

-No dance safe, bunk police, or end overdose. 

-Fent was present 

-A girl and her friend were followed back to their site. 

-People were walking around vibe villages with no wristbands on seeing what cars were unlocked. 

The energy there was stale. The people there are delusional. They are invalidating peoples experiences left and right. No accountability. And they are just being mean too. Some girl on FB told me basically I need to plan bc I was saying there was never toilet paper and said clearly I’ve never been to an NYC CLUB LOL. Like are you serious rn? First of all, I always bring wipes lol, I’ve been to a ton of fests. Second of all, did you really just compare an NYC club to a 15,000 person fest? And you’re okay w that? I met a girl who didn’t have wipes and had to go so bad, I literally went back to my group to get her some. 

We were positive in there. We made the best out of EVERY situation they threw at us EXCEPT the Ubers which wasn’t their faults. And I was done at that point. 

Like I said, there is no set that could have saved me Sunday. Being with my best friends Sunday, eating at the dinner table together, washing clothes, hanging out and doing our thing at the house, was my favorite set. My group was my headliner. We had SO much fun. I really would not change a single fucking thing from this weekend. 

But I’ll never even attempt that festival again. I’m goooooood on that lol. 

All in all, this is all my opinions. If you had a good time I’m so happy for you and if you didn’t I understand completely. I think this festival is overrated, overhyped, and the headliners are used to draw people to it. I don’t think it’s worth it at all, there are waaaaaay better festivals out there, small and large. 

Next up for me is Lost Lands so it’ll be refreshing to go to a festival that knows what they are doing professionally lol.