The Lucky Lake Campground was filled with exuberant energy this past weekend for The Midwest Regional Burn known as Lakes of Fire.  As with Burning Man, there were no official stages, vendors, money, or artist lineups. What was present was plenty of imagination, creativity and generosity. Our camp, SolarBeatz arrived on Thursday morning and joined Captain Nemo’s Flaming Carnival to create a musical fire-y masterpiece with over 4,000 watts of pro sound and 250 gallons of propane delivered daily.

I was able to take a walk around the lake on Thursday night to see the art installments as they began to take form. It felt like a whole city was being built before my eyes. So many amazing places offering unique gifts. The Funky Tussy Tea House provided daily yoga sessions and nightly house music, there was The No Drama Pancake House, there was a camp that offered an open mic situation for comedy, The Not Bob Evans Camp & of course the Stay Home Ravers Camp. The Lake was surrounded by plenty of open bar camps and food camps to eat, drink, mingle and offer gifts at. I have to say all in all, the community at Lakes of Fire was more approachable than The Big Burn. With more digestible layout, you were able to see more and actually appreciate the art and love around you, whereas, if you spent every waking moment at Burning Man trying to see everything you might catch 20% by the end of the week. The community here was a real tangible entity. You could count on your neighbor to keep an eye out while you were gone. News was spread camp to camp efficiently and quickly when information needed be passed around. Everyone had a baseline integrity you could sense after the first moments of meeting them. I felt at home.

The other aspect of Lakes of Fire I was given the opportunity to experience was sharing my music for 20+ hours from the solar powered interstellar beast itself SolarBeatz. As the crowd grew night after night Captain Nemo’s Flaming Carnival became the biggest sound camp on the lake. I thoroughly enjoyed playing every minute of GoodSex music, from the daytime tropical house sets to the banging trap and of course bringing it home with some good ole house music. I felt positivity coming from every pore of the audience and right back to them from me. What amazed me was the ability for this crowd to adapt to different styles of music and appreciate them as much as I did. It is safe to say that I truly connected with the Lake and the people surrounding it this past weekend and can not wait to be back again! Below I have attached a link to the first of many mixes to come out of The Lakes of Fire SolarBeatz live recordings.

While the majority of this weekend has been filled with joy it brings a heavy feeling to my heart to have to report the loss of a precious soul at Lakes of Fire this year. Around midnight on Saturday night Matthew Vo went missing. While his worldly vessel was discovered by authorities a few days later, his soul remains with each person he touched during his time here. Rest in peace, fellow traveler.

480

Add to the story...