If you often go to the same kinds of music festivals I've been going to and writing about, you've probably heard about 2023's Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge. I'd wanted to go to this festival for a couple years, and I certainly never expected it to be cut short by a deadly mass shooting.
I'd first found out about this festival and its venue during the lockdown days of 2020, when Insomniac was live-streaming virtual festivals, and I soon found out that this was one of the few Insomniac festivals that doesn't happen at their usual SoCal venue. Two years later, my Seattle-area friends who always get box seats at the Gorge had invited me there for this, but since it was the same weekend as Sonic Bloom I turned it down and joined them in August for Bass Canyon instead. But this year, I decided to skip Bloom, even though it was closer to me, and go to this because I'd wanted to experience it for so long.
Beyond Wonderland was only going to be the beginning of a long trip, and the first in a series of three music festivals in a row. After this weekend, I was going to spend a couple days in Portland, a city I'd wanted to see for years, then fly to Chicago where I'd meet someone else who I'd ride to Electric Forest in Michigan with. After Forest would be a couple days exploring Chicago, then flying home to Clovis, New Mexico, only to drive the following weekend for ten hours to Flagstaff, Arizona for June Jam.
It's definitely possible to overbook yourself to the point where you need a vacation from vacationing. We'll get into that more later in the trip.
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Rather than spend at least three hours driving over to Albuquerque for a direct flight to Seattle, I booked free Southwest flights with reward points (plus the typical $11.50 fee for using points) from Lubbock to Denver to Seattle.
This was going to be a long trip lasting nearly two weeks, so I had my larger rollaround packed tightly with clothes and camping supplies. The flight out of Lubbock was supposed to leave at 5:55pm, which was "really" 4:55 for me in New Mexico, and also 3:55 in my final destination. After an hour-and-a-half drive from Clovis to Lubbock, I discovered that the first flight was delayed, which in my experience was unusual for Southwest. But thankfully it wasn't delayed long enough for me to miss my connection in Denver.
In the Denver airport I had a green salad with chicken for dinner. Also, I got a dark roast coffee from Dazbog, which was surprisingly good; previously I've found Dazbog to be just barely tolerable.
The second and last flight took off from Denver at 10:30pm. Kind of late, but I would be gaining another hour by flying this far west. Since Denver and Seattle are much further apart than Lubbock and Denver, this flight lasted about three hours and I landed in Seattle after midnight.
My final destination of the night was going to be up in one of the suburbs north of Seattle, too far for the light rail (for now that is, they're extending it), which was probably shut down for the night anyway. So I paid for an Uber to take me up there, and I slept through part of the ride. The friend I was meeting up there had left the RV unlocked so I could spend the night there.
Friday, June 16, 2023
At the house on Friday morning I got to take the last real shower I was going to experience for a few days, ate some oats and eggs for breakfast, and helped pack up the RV before we left in it. Our first stop was in the same town, at someone else's house, to help them pack up their travel trailer and pick up more friends who would be riding in our RV. Then after one more stop at a Target we were on I-90 headed for the Gorge.
I had to get a picture of these massive evergreen trees. There's a reason Washington is the Evergreen State. But I also thought it would make a great contrast with the barren desert we were about to drive to, which was also in the same state. Not all of Washington is this green.
It was about a two-hour drive. Most of us riding in the RV passed the time playing card games, enjoying some strong drinks, and eating some of the food we brought. Eventually as we traveled eastward, the hills and evergreens gave way to flat land devoid of trees, and in the middle of the afternoon we were pulling into the Wildhorse campground, the RV and trailer parking next to each other.
Not much to do around the campground after hooking the RV and the trailer up to power and plumbing. Even though the festival was "really" just on Saturday and Sunday, there was a pre-party on Friday. We all got on a shuttle bus to take us to the festival.
For the pre-party, only part of the festival grounds was open. Only one stage was active, Cheshire Woods, while the whole area around the main stage was fenced off. We got there sometime between 8 and 9pm, while Kendoll was playing Cheshire Woods.
The bars were operating in the part of the grounds that was open. Like always at The Gorge's festivals, they were all selling beer in huge 25-ounce cans, with the only choices being Bud Light, Coors Light, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois, and Modelo.
There was a little bit of rain that night, just a sprinkle, but enough for a rainbow. And not just any rainbow but a double rainbow!
It was impossible for me to capture the whole thing, this was the best I could do, but it was indeed a double rainbow all the way across the sky. With such a thing happening on Friday night, you'd think this would be some kind of good omen.
When the party was winding down I, separated from my group, tried to find my way back to camp myself. Unfortunately I'd forgotten where the drop-off/pick-up point for the Wildhorse shuttle bus was, and spent way too much time following the wrong crowd in the direction of GA camping before I stumbled into the right place.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
The Wildhorse Campground's Corral Café serves some really hearty meals. For breakfast I got a veggie burrito, and even that was filling enough that I didn't need lunch.
After hanging around the campground making kandi bracelets and deciding what we were going to wear, we all boarded the first shuttle bus of the afternoon and did the usual walk from the drop-off points through the gates into the festival. This time, I made a mental note about what landmarks were around when we stepped off the bus, so I wouldn't get lost when trying to find my way back later. Once inside, we all spent some time having a few drinks at the Cocktail Garden, an area with a full bar, before I went off to explore the festival some more.
First I had to eat something, so I got a gyro with lamb from one of the food stands.
Now for some of the music. There were three stages. Queen's Valley was the biggest one, with the great view of the Columbia River and the canyon that river flows through. Unlike the other two stages, it's not a temporary structure; it's the venue's main stage, and during Bass Canyon it's known as the Canyon stage. The second stage, not too far from the Cocktail Garden, is the one that was open during the pre-party, Cheshire Woods. It was hosted by Bassrush and featured mostly dubstep producers like Ray Volpe, Kai Wachi, and Nghtmre. Finally there was Caterpillar's Garden, featuring artists signed to Insomniac's record label.
I mostly bounced around between Queen's Valley and Caterpillar's Garden while the sun was still up, taking in a little bit of San Pacho, Nitti, and Timmy Trumpet.
Queen's Valley stage while Nitti was on, with that wonderful view of the river and the canyon.
I eventually stopped for a while at Caterpillar's Garden for all of Martin Ikin's great set.
I could've enjoyed it well enough from back here, but I had access to VIP spaces and there was one to the right of this stage.
Martin Ikin playing his set, as seen from the VIP area at Caterpillar's Garden.
The VIP not only had the expected bar, but also a kandi station.
After the Martin Ikin set, I headed back to Queen's Valley for Slander. This is a DJ-producer duo who I wouldn't really call dubstep, but are kind of close. I'd caught the tail end of their set at Electric Forest the year before and since then had listened to them more and wanted to hear a full set. I wasn't disappointed here.
So you can't see Slander in this picture washed out with all the light, but you can see what a huge crowd was here.
I really liked what I heard from Slander. After they were done, I zipped over to Cheshire Woods for the last 20 minutes of Saymyname, which I can't remember much about, probably since I wasn't around very long. When that was over, I returned for the Queen's Valley headliners, Kx5.
Kx5 are actually Kaskade and deadmau5, who collaborated on a few tracks back in the late 2000s and just recently in 2022 and 2023 started working together again under this new name. I really liked this set. It sounded more dark and mysterious, and the visuals more subdued and less flashy, than the other sets I'd experienced that day.
The whole set is on YouTube and it's the only one from this festival that's been uploaded in its entirety.
After Kx5, the festival was over for the night, and this time I had no trouble finding my way back to the bus to the Wildhorse. But then it was while riding this bus, and also at the RV when I made it back, when I started hearing rumors that something tragic may have happened. One person said that someone was caught with a gun, someone else said that someone had been shot...at this point no one knew anything but rumors.
Sunday, June 18, 2023
I woke up late Sunday morning and immediately learned the disturbing news of what had happened the night before. There was a shooting in GA camping resulting in two dead and five injured. The rest of the festival was canceled. We were all stunned. This was the closest most of us had ever been to such a tragedy.
Everyone in GA camping had to pack up and leave early, while we weren't yet sure what would happen to us at the Wildhorse. For most of the morning, we didn't know if we were going to have to pack up and leave too.
Soon enough we found out that the Wildhorse was letting everyone stay until Monday morning just like originally planned. And not only that...
With the festival canceled, all of us at the Wildhorse made our own DIY festival. So many people here had brought their own DJ equipment, and so not only were some of them turning the field in front of the stage into a dancefloor, but there were many more playing their own sets by their RVs and cars. It started at noon and continued all through the night and well into early the next morning.
The party just getting started in the early afternoon.
Monday, June 19, 2023
There wasn't anything to do at this point but pack up and drive back to Seattle.
Crossing the Columbia River while driving west.
Back in the Seattle area, at one of the houses we stopped at to drop people off, I also left the group, riding with someone to the Northgate light rail station. On the light rail it was an easy ride to King Street, and a short walk from there to Seattle's train station, King Street Station. My train to Portland, a southbound Cascades, was scheduled to leave at 6:10pm, and I got there about a half hour early. Being at the starting point of its journey, it wasn't going to be leaving late.
The trip would continue with a day in Portland...
Beyond Wonderland & Electric Forest 2023 Trip:
- Beyond Wonderland at the Gorge 2023
- Stopping for a Quick Look at Portland
- Electric Forest 2023, and a Chicago Restaurant Recommendation
- Getting a Look at Chicago after Electric Forest
