Tag Archives: Lightning in a Bottle

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: 5 things to pack for the festival

Fans dance in the crowd at the Lightning in a Bottle festival at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester on Saturday, July 13, 2013. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)

Saturday, July 13 was my first experience at Lightning in a Bottle. I’ve braved the heat and hipsters of Coachella, the hip-hop heads at Rock the Bells and the metal onslaught of Mayhem, but this year is my first time at LiB, which is celebrating its first year in Riverside County at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester this weekend.

I picked up on a few things I should bring with me for next year.

1. Hula hoop
This is a must-have accessory for enjoying the music at LiB. Everyone seems to hoop and some of them are super elaborate.

2. Yoga mat
There’s yoga going on all weekend long in the Temple of Consciousness. Bring your own mat.

3. Bubbles
Unlike at other festivals, you can bring in liquid bubbles. Bubbles are awesome.

4. Parasol
A brightly colored parasol not only blocks the sun, but is a way for people to find you.

5. Something that lights up.
I should have brought my LED glowing Michael Jackson sparkly glove. Everyone had some kind of glowing dance accessory.

What are your must-have accessories for LiB?

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: Sustainability is key to festival

Festivalgoers walk past an art installation created from scrap lumber at the Lightning in a Bottle festival at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester on Saturday, July 13, 2013. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)

For a festival so focused on being fun and free, one thing that is taken very seriously at Lightning in a Bottle, which made its Riverside County debut at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester this weekend, is sustainability.

Even before you get to the festival grounds, on the long, winding road through the Lake Skinner recreation area, The DoLaB posted repeated signs about packing up camp and taking trash with you.

On the festival grounds, there are clearly labeled bins for recycling, landfill and compost.

There are stations for water set up throughout the festival, denoted by blue drops rising into the sky. You’re encouraged to refill.

A number of the stage markings and shaded areas have been recycled. A number of them have been part of The Do LaB area at past years of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Inside the festival program there is even a little bit about Lake Skinner with a note to the festivalgoers.
“Let’s show Riverside County how respectful we are and leave it better than we found it.”

Leaving it better than you found it is the ethos of the festival in general.

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: Festival is full of color

People jump rope over a light up string at the Lightning in a Bottle festival at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester on Saturday, July 13, 2013. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)

Everywhere you look at Lightning in a Bottle is a kaleidoscope of color.

Large swirling art installations mark stages and shade areas in bright hues of blue and purple, yellow and red. Rainbow hula hoops circle the waists of people of all races. And around the Lake Skinner Reccreation Area, artists work on portraits, sculptures and more.

The colors only intensify as the sun goes down and festival becomes “like a ball,” a man selling lemonade told me. The costumes get amped up, the face makeup gets reapplied and shimmery fairy wings and glowing dance accessories become more common.

Spread out among the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester, this weekend marks the first time the fest has been to Riverside County.

Ryan Kurlish, of Chino, attended Lightning in a Bottle for the first time this year. He attended because it was close by and he was interested in some of the artists.

“At night, it’s amazing,” he said. “There’s a lot of eye candy at night.”

He was impressed by Lucent Dossier Experience’s Friday performance. The troupe is a longtime Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival favorite.

“They just blew me away,” he said.

LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE: Festivalgoers create art

Yukiko Chavez creates an art piece at the Lightning in a Bottle festival at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester on Saturday, July 13, 2013. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)

Yukiko Chavez crouched under a canopy, adding pieces to a foam core tree she sculpted as part of her interactive art experience that will become a piece she is calling the “Lightning in a Bottle Tree” at the Lightning in the Bottle Festival at the Lake Skinner Recreation Area in Winchester on Saturday, July 13.

The San Diego artist attended the event twice before this year, just as a festivalgoer. A conversation with a presenter at last year’s fest inspired her to create art again.

“I’ve never done any live sculpting, ever,” she said.

Chavez said she followed Lightning in a Bottle artist Shrine on Facebook and saw he was doing a workshop in Los Angeles. She attended, and helped paint his piece that was shown at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and made a reprise at the Temple of Consciousness at Lightning in a Bottle.

For her creation, the idea fell into place and on her hour long commute each day, when she took advantage of the time to brainstorm. She had the idea that everyone would collaborate and mosaic pieces onto the found art.

“Everybody is going to mosaic those pieces,” she said.

People passed by and added items throughout the weekend. The highest point on a tree is a peanut added by a woman who was carrying a bag of them.

A child took some pieces Chavez had lying around the space to the creation station and glues them and hung them atop the highest branches.

As her seeds of creativity sprouted at Lightning in a Bottle, her interactive sculpture allows others to create, too.

“I’m paying it forward,” Chavez said.

The tree has a hole in the middle, ready for Chavez to put her last piece at the end of the festival, a lightning bolt in a bottle she wore around her neck, made from an empty nail polish bottle and a lightning bolt cut out of the metal that came from a tealight.