Festival Report Card: Electric Forest 2025
Tucked away on a 2,000-acre ranch in the small Village of Rothbury, Michigan, lies one of the modern American festival scene’s most profound music experiences, Electric Forest.
Whether for its woodland maze of light and color, lengthy soundtrack of world-beating party music, or renowned experiential art, the four-day camping festival has built a decade-old reputation as the gold standard for stateside electronic shows, and the well-oiled machine behind it is constantly resetting the bar for what a festival can be in the scope of the U.S. live events landscape.
Even before we arrived at Rothbury’s Double JJ Resort for this year’s 13th edition, held from June 19-22, we had it teed up as an all-timer, featuring one of its most eclectic lineups in years and a less than sold-out crowd sure to be delightfully spacious for those attending, bolstered by feelings of redemption after a weather-cancelation-laden 2024 edition.
Now that our yearly time between the pines has come to an end, we’re happy to report on a largely easy, breezy, and beautiful weekend in the woods of western Michigan that we’ll be cherishing for a lifetime. Read EDM Maniac’s full report on Electric Forest 2025 below.
Vibes: ★★★★☆
Like magic, as soon as we arrived on the festival site—even in a torrential rainstorm in the pitch dark hours of early Thursday morning—we felt relaxed and at home, reconnecting with long-distance festival friends from across the country, and making plenty of new ones too.
With long-standing roots in the Midwest jam community dating back to its years as Rothbury Music Festival, but constantly evolving with the changing tides of EDM, Electric Forest brings together heady hippies and hardcore ravers for a no-holds-barred long-weekend party, but at its core are the values of inclusivity and acceptance that make its disparate cohorts so special, individually and together.
From returning attendees who have made the trip back upwards of six, seven, and eight times, to the dozens of Forest first-timers just beginning their journey, attendees came open and ready to connect with their fellow festivalgoers, and put extra special care into the weekend, with hilarious and expertly crafted totems, small gifts, kind words, and neighborly assistance.
In addition to making for easier navigation and more room for dancing, this year’s comparatively smaller crowds seemed all the more excited to be there for acts that have rarely, if ever, featured in the Forest—and they danced their hearts out accordingly. High fives were in abundance, and phone use was kept to a minimum. In short, it was the same charm we’ve come to know and love.
Though we found partygoers to be overwhelmingly respectful and responsible, folks certainly party hard at Electric Forest. It has been an all-ages event since its inception, and we’ve seen a range of peer groups that reflect that through the years. However, we were consistently shocked at the number of infant children we saw at this year’s festival in particular, and noticed at least one kid who appeared no more than 10 years old, right in the throes of Zeds Dead’s set at 3AM.
The exclusion of Electric Forest’s famous renegade afterparties at this year’s edition was a necessary change after they attracted large crowds that posed a safety risk and led to early shutdowns in 2024, but we couldn’t help but notice how it changed the dynamic of the festival.
In their place, extended venue hours and staggered stage closing times made getting in and out a breeze. However, we did miss the feeling of unity that comes with shuffling out of the venue en masse after the headliners and reuniting with lost friends on our approach to sunrise.
Production ★★★★☆
Though it may not have the production assault of other mega-raves like Excision’s Lost Lands or EDC Las Vegas, Electric Forest tailors its stages, lights, and lasers to complement the festival’s natural environment, resulting in a truly unique audiovisual experience.
In place of towering builds, hidden woodland stages and stunning ambient lighting embedded into the foliage invite festivalgoers to interact with nature like nowhere else, while vast clearings open up to monolithic main stages, packing top-of-the-line spotlights, strobes, lasers, and pyro.
We delighted in returning to Ranch Arena for festival-classic sets with artist-tailored production elements, such as Justice’s strobing live show and Zeds Dead’s new album set. Elsewhere, anticipated DJ sets and B2Bs at Sherwood Court and Tripolee were met with commensurate pyrotechnics, while smaller stages, like the Observatory, the Grand Artique, and Electric Forest’s 360-degree Honeycomb, offered a party oasis between the pines. Complaints about sound bleed and volume were minimal.
Beyond the standard run-of-show is where Electric Forest perhaps shines brightest in comparison to its counterparts, thanks to the dense network of expertly lit art installations, secret treasures, chill zones, and live performers that make the Sherwood Forest a living, breathing spectacle.
Music: ★★★★★
Coming in, we felt that Electric Forest’s 2025 lineup was one of its deepest yet, offering its trademark blend of EDM heavyweights, jam bands, and unique acts spanning indie, pop, alternative, and hip-hop, but also venturing further afield into more underground-leaning club sounds from Europe, high-octane techno, and the very best in drum & bass.
All weekend long, we were dazzled as both returning favorites and Forest debutants rose to the occasion. There were simply no misses.
Thursday’s hands-down highlight was a masterclass in sound and light from French electro titans Justice, who unleashed their larger-than-life live show one last time on U.S. soil before the globetrotting spectacle heads back to Europe this fall. Late-night delights came from Sara Landry’s headline redemption set, NOTION, and Liquid Stranger.
Insomniac’s Bassrush takeover at Tripolee on Friday was the place to be for bone-crushing bass from Jon Casey, YDG, Wreckno, GorillaT, INFEKT, Ray Volpe, Crankdat, and Tape B, ahead of a scintillating headline from D&B supergroup WORSHIP (Sub Focus B2B Dimension B2B Culture Shock B2B 1991), cut ever-so-slightly short due to approaching severe weather.
Elsewhere around the grounds on Friday, we dove into a multi-genre smorgasbord, featuring an intimate late-afternoon DJ set from renowned San-Francisco-to-Berlin selector Avalon Emerson and a picturesque sunset live show from Barry Can’t Swim, plus Cloonee’s gritty tech house, Tiësto’s new headline setup, and a monumental return performance from festival favorite duo Louis The Child.
We’ll die on this hill: there’s simply nothing like strolling around Ranch Arena while The String Cheese Incident is shredding on Saturday night, and the jam legends delivered yet again with their annual “Shebang,” joined by Michigan native and chart-topping singer-songwriter Mike Posner, who played an uplifting homecoming set earlier in the day.
Saturday continued with hotly tipped B2Bs from 33 Below B2B 1tbsp, Maz B2B Ahmed Spins, Avalon Emerson B2B Fcukers, Main Phase B2B Interplanetary Criminal, and Disclosure B2B Daphni, ahead of Guy Lawrence’s headline DJ set as Disclosure. Bassheads got their fill, too, with a surprise B3B from surging dubsteppers Levity, Crankdat, and Tape B, capped off by a closing headline from genre legends Zeds Dead, who showcased the new audiovisual show for their career-defining album, Return to the Spectrum of Intergalactic Happiness.
As the sun set all too quickly on Sunday night, we savored our last moments in the Forest with half-time garage sensations Taiki Nulight and Hamdi, D&B remixer extraordinaire 1991, and the psychedelic acoustics of Khruangbin, before burning it down with house heavyweights FISHER and Mochakk.
In the first edition in years without Forest’s famous renegade afterparties, we missed having the option to extend our night to sunrise, but were happy to find more intimate afterparty vibes scattered around the campgrounds and connect more deeply with our fellow festivalgoers in the process.
Most of all, after severe weather canceled much of Electric Forest’s 2024 programming, we were thrilled to experience the full breadth of the festival’s expertly curated music offerings once again.
Venue: ★★★★☆
Electric Forest’s expansive footprint on the site of Rothbury’s Double JJ Resort is a perfect match for the experiential behemoth the festival has grown into over the last 13 years.
Comfortable enough for 50,000 attendees in sold-out years, the site is home to three open-air main stages, offering a large-scale festival atmosphere, while up-close musical performances, trippy art installations, immersive activations, and blissful chill zones are tucked away in Sherwood Forest, the dense stretch of nearly 70-year-old lodgepole pine trees in its center.
Undoubtedly Electric Forest’s pièce de résistance, this shady retreat by day becomes a psychedelic wonderland of colorful lights and shapeshifting art pieces by night, this year accentuated further by high winds zipping through the trees on Friday night. Nearly every square inch is washed in light and color and deliberately designed to spark curiosity. The best part is getting lost.
Expand that radius wider, and the site affords amenities such as lakeside camping, full power RV hookups, access to a nearby water park, and enough space to house a myriad of activations. Among them: non-musical programming like panel discussions, arts and crafts, and weddings, as well as Electric Forest’s airplane-hanger-sized Dream Emporium, home to unique activities like roller skating, pro wrestling matches, and the festival’s famous scavenger hunt.
We didn’t encounter any major operational hiccups at Electric Forest 2025. Medical services were easy to access, and security checks were on par with what we’ve experienced at most legacy festivals, with metal detectors and firearm K-9 units
Portapotties varied in cleanliness, but were up to standard with what we expect at an event of this size. No horror stories this year. All the more important after heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday night, organizers responded quickly to dry out muddy areas with extra sand and soil.
Though intensely bright light towers placed throughout the campgrounds illuminate open spaces for around-the-clock arrivals, and are usually gone by day three, we’ve been consistently put off by their near-blinding power over the last two years.
When it comes to natural beauty, Electric Forest’s venue perhaps only falls short of the more rustic and remote festivals we’ve attended, but its ease of access makes it a gem to the Midwest festival community. And though it’s more bespoke art experience than renegade rave, the somewhat man-made wonder has a charming origin story all its own.
Lodgepole pines aren’t native to western Michigan, and former Double JJ owner Wally Wojack planted this particular patch in an effort to repopulate decimated ranch land in 1955. With Wally’s blessing, over 50 years later, they proved a perfect fit for the ambitious art of Electric Forest. Needless to say, the late festival legend is crucial to the festival’s story and is honored with a plaque among the trees at each edition.
Food & Beverage: ★★★☆☆
The food and drink offerings at Electric Forest were up to the standard we’ve come to expect from festivals of its stature. Select options—typically greasier fare—were available 24 hours a day on main street in the GA campgrounds, while more curated menus, ranging from wine and cheese charcuterie and lobster grilled cheese to time-honored festival traditions like chicken tenders and Island Noodles, were found throughout the venue.
The only lengthier waits we encountered were for healthier and allergy-friendly foods at the Health Oasis food vendors on main street. Bar lines remained short, and, other than dwindling beer varieties on the last day, well-stocked.
Common among major festivals these days, food and beverage prices at Electric Forest veered to the more expensive side of stadium fare, coming in at around $13 minimum for a sizable meal, between $15 and $18 for a 16-ounce beer, and over $20 minimum for mixed drinks. Free water stations were easily accessible, and canned water was sold for $2.
Overall: ★★★★☆
Electric Forest 2025 successfully redeemed any remaining woes from last year’s weather-stricken party, meeting, if not exceeding, standards set in previous editions.
Back for a full-speed weekend with extended venue hours and a performance roster filled with still-new musical frontiers for the 13-year-old festival, this year’s showing offered a little something for fans from nearly every corner of the U.S. festival scene. And for us, it’s that grand reunion of different partygoers and night owls from all over that makes Electric Forest so special.
Find EDM Maniac‘s complete Festival Report Card archive here.
