Electronic Jams at Imagine Fest
If you and your friends were going to hang out, listen to music, and get weird, wouldn’t you want to do it in the woods at night? Well if you like electronic music, Imagine Music Festival is probably the place you’ll want to go. Tents, barns, fields, trees, a river, pool parties, three days straight of electronic music, and 30,000 other people wanting to have a good time too!
Imagine is a camping festival, attempting to be something similar to Bonnaroo or Electric Forest, but taking place instead just outside of Rome, Georgia at the former horse training grounds of Kingston Downs. 2023 is the second year at the new venue, formerly taking place in Atlanta at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Now I mention those other festivals because it seems like that’s what Imagine wants to be, not what it is. Not yet, at least. Imagine is, to be fair, almost exclusively electronic music and DJ acts, which does limit your potential attendees to an extent so the festival is not as large as the others. But between the four stages inside the venue, there’s something for every electronic lover. The lights and LED boards on each stage made the visuals interesting for the eyes. Combine that with the smoke, fire, lasers, and confetti, all of your senses begin to fill up! I was a bit disappointed after seeing past years’ stages à la Tomorrowland but the production quality sure didn’t suffer, it just took longer for me to remember which stage was “Oceania” and which stage was “Amazonia” when neither were decorated with waves or trees.
The biggest thing that I hope to see at Imagine in the future is for the attendees to give it a better sense of community, not just on site, but year round. That unique vibe that can’t come from the producers or the stages or the art or the food or anything else that can just be placed in the middle of a field. It’s got all the Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice that it needs to be a great festival. All it needs now is a little Chemical X to take it above the average. Or for the “Wizard to give them a Heart,” if you prefer Oz over the Powerpuff Girls.
I had a great time getting access in the photo pits and backstage at the festival, it was a great experience for a photographer like me who is trying to break into the concert and festival worlds. Hopefully this will help lead me toward even more gigs like this. Big thanks to Iris Presents for hooking me up with the credentials! The full Imagine Fest gallery is live NOW, right here on journeywithryan.com and as always I’ll be posting the highlights on my instagram, @journeywithryan. Now I’m off to another adventure, I’ll see you there!
-Ryan
