Review #9: Sol Fest 2023

SOL FEST REVIEW

WOOOOOOW. Sol fest is for the soul!!! What an incredible festival with such a magical energy attached to it. 

As always I’m going to be transparent and give both good things and what can be improved. 

Keep in mind this was a second year festival and it did really well for being that. 

Let’s start off with camping, they have you a 20 x 20 space which was amazing to have vs the stupid 10 x 10. You actually had enough room to have a decent camp site. We brought two cars with us and had more than enough room for 5 of us. 

The walk to the festival was far at all, I would say about 5-10 minutes or so. 

Restrooms were always clean and had toilet paper most of time. I think I went in one with none which is incredible. 

The attendance was anywhere between 5 to 7 thousand, they were unsure of the exact number when I asked. 

Searches were smooth for car and inside. Day 1 was a little rough with the line taking over 30 minutes but day 2 and 3 they got it together pretty quickly and we didn’t wait again. 

I will say that it was one of the dirtiest festivals as far as the clay and dirt in the air. I wish they would have wet it down or something. You could feel it in ur throat. 

The production was amazing. The lasers were incredible and they hit the back it the trees so nicely. You could see the lights in the air and from ur camp site. It was so intriguing. The sound was powerful and was very loud to fill the space. Every DJ brought it, and it was incredible to see all this talent. No overlaps in sets so that was also awesome. All of the stages were super cool. I loved the beach stage while you were swimming they had music which was sick. The Saloon stage was such a great vibe and the production in there was amazing as well. They had flow artists preforming on the side of the stages and it immensely added to the sets. They were on the side and also had fire performers. Overall really incredible job. 

Medics was ON it, the med tent was in blue that threw me off but they had one in the campgrounds and one inside the festival as well, love that. I ran to direct someone coming out of camping that needed medics and they were on it in under a minute which was awesome to see. I hope everyone is okay.

The water park was INCREDIBLE. they had a rope swing and a zipline, they had an obstacle course and the water was so cold which I love!!! Great way to start your day and boost your confidence! Especially jumping off the high jump. Holy shit I definitely faced a fear or two lol. 

There was a decent amount of food vendors and the food was pretty good! I had a chicken teriyaki bowl day 1 and it was a great amount of food for the price. I had tacos day 2 and 3, they were delicious, not too heavy on the stomach! The Grilled Cheese Incident was there as well. The taco stand had the best smoothies I’ve ever indulged in at a festival lol. 

The art was profound and brought life to the festival. They set up the most beautiful art gallery for the art vendors there. They had a hang out spot inside and everyone had space in an art gallery style. I loved it so much. I could have been in there for hours. The vendors had a lot of space to freely have their shops more open. Outside of the entrance to the venue they had a bunch of vendors in a market place set up. There was also food out there as well which included pizza and burgers, and a couple of other things.

The decorations were well thought out. They had a big screen projecting visuals. They had projections on the lake, they had live painters everywhere, it was just such a vibe. AND WHAT A MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL SHOULD BE!!!

Wristbands were soft and pretty, they twisted off with the twist method! 

Showers were clean at all times. The people working the showers were from Orlando and were telling us that the festival was a memorial festival for someone who was murdered the people that through the festival for the faucet for not only that person buy another one of their friends that passed away as well. They made sure the showers are clean at all times has them down and the showers were very nice. It was inside an actual bathroom so the water pressure was on point. You could make the water hot or cold. I took a cold shower every day to wake my body up. I have been doing this lately due to my interest in the Wim Hof method! Check him out if you want to dive into meditation and cold water therapy :) 

The weather was pretty cold the first two days we got there, especially at night during the day it was a little on the warmer side during the day. Days three and four was super hot. At night day three and four were chilly, but not enough to bundle up. Overall, the weather was very nice.

Staff and security were very friendly. They were doing their jobs thoroughly without being on a power trip. I saw staff and security walking around, making sure everybody was safe which was really cool to see.

Water refill was accessible. The only thing that I would say wants to maybe have sign saying where the water refill were because they were pretty much little hoses coming out of the ground. They did let you bring water in your Camelback from your campsite into the first one which was a huge plus, so I was able to bring 2 L in with my lunchbox! If you don’t know what a lunchbox is, it is probably the best Camelback out there. It is that’s proof, and it is made by some of the coolest people. They had a booth outside of the festival where Lizzie Jane hosted her podcast and we were talking to them for a while about the product. I’ve had mine for a while and I convinced rave fam to all by one. They just came out with water filters for the Hydro-Pack so you can hook it up and it will filter the water when it taste disgusting which is awesome.

Dance Safe was on site, which is always such a blessing. They provide valuable information and sell test kits.

The energy of the festival is a profound vibe, I was told that this festival was to be created and ran like the good old days, and they delivered that outstandingly. Everyone was having such an amazing time and really Vibing with everyone around them. We went with a few of us, and by the end of the first war, we were a huge squad, and we’ve made some incredible bonds. Truly amazing to experience other groups energies and merge them into one.

All in all, this festival was definitely one for the books. I would advise you to try it. It is definitely one of my favorites and I can’t wait to see how they continue to improve and create. I will say I do hope they do not over sell it because due to the space not being that big over selling it would be unfortunately not a good time. I think that comfortably 10,000 people would be enough. If they ever wanted to do a bigger they would definitely need to incorporate a bigger venue with a bigger waterpark to accommodate the size. Right now it is the perfect amount of people I don’t know if it was 5000 or 7000 but whatever it was was perfect. I can’t wait to go back next year! As always thanks for reading! 

Also, I did vlog my whole time so if you wanted to dive deeper into how i experienced this festival, lookout for my YouTube post :) 

Next up: Forbidden Kingdom! (Pray 4 me lol)