Editor: Stefani Dias • Phone: 395-7488 • Email: sdias@bakersfield.com • Online: Bakersfield.com/Entertainment
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This keepsake tea tin commemorates the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. If you were cleaning the pantry, would you keep it or toss it?
When it comes to cleaning up, there’s no loyalty except for royalty
I
hit the royal wall when I uncovered a purple tea tin commemorating “The Marriage of Prince William of Wales & Miss Catherine Middleton 29th April 2011.” I was cleaning the pantry and tossing old bottles of fish sauce, dusty bags of cinnamon sticks and half-used packages of spaghetti when I came across the purple tin with a dashing photo of William dressed in his red uniform emblazoned with a blue sash and Kate in a surprisingly modest wedding dress holding a bouquet HERB BENHAM in her left hand and WilTHE CALIFORNIAN liam’s hand in her right. Keep or toss? Some jobs are only possible when your spouse leaves. Thinning the herd of vases is one. Cleaning the pantry is another. Women don’t like getting rid of vases. Vases hold flowers. Women love flowers and vases remind them of bouquets from neighbors, children and adoring husbands, when adoring husbands remember. I have a vase strategy. First eliminate the vases she’ll never notice, starting with the goldfish bowls, and then fill a wine box with the vases she may or may not miss. Put that box in the garage. Then wait. If, after a month or two, the missing vases go unmissed, heave the box into the blue recycling bin. I’ve never had a vase make it back into the house. It reminds me of Charlie Dodge, the former sheriff, when he cheerfully announced that he and his wife, Mary, were going into a retirement home. “We’re going from Glenwood Gardens to the Great Beyond,” he said. “We’re going in but we’re not coming out.” Charlie understood vases. Other stuff too. The vases weren’t coming back and neither was a jar of my homemade apricot jam. I had two jars in the pantry, but it’s important to exhibit a spirit of fair play: Throw away one of yours for every four of hers. Tossing the apricot jam was easy because the jam was tart. I had halved the sugar, something I’m going to blame on California sportswriter Mike Griffith because he suggested it. “I used less sugar and mine turned out great,” he’d said, probably because he caught the apricots as they dropped ripe from his tree. My apricot jam was tart and no one wants tart apricot jam. They can say they want tart jam but when they spread it on a piece of toast it is as if the apricot sunshine has gone behind the clouds and a bitter cold, rhubarb wind has blown in. “Put your foot down hard on spent candles and empty cookie tins,” texted friend Eric, when I told him I was cleaning the pantry. Please see BENHAM | C2
COURTESY OF JULIANA BERNSTEIN
Several art installations will be put up at Buena Vista Recreational Aquatic Area when the grounds are taken over for the Lightning in a Bottle festival.
Ride the
Lightning
Popular music festival heads to Buena Vista on Wednesday BY MATT MUNOZ For The Californian
After months of hype, talk and debate, the Lightning in a Bottle festival is ready to strike. Kicking off Wednesday at Buena Vista Recreational Aquatic Area, this cavalcade of music, food and wellness has big plans to elevate Lineup a mix of beat the dancing makers, newcomers, feet and conC2 sciousness of More than music on Kern. tap this week, C7 At least Organic, fresh bites that’s what top the menu, C7 festival cofounder Dede Flemming is hoping for when gates open for thousands of festival-goers, many of whom will have traveled from across country — even the globe — to camp and chill in Kern County. “We came into the county with a pretty good track record,” said Fleming who, with brothers Jesse and Josh, founded the festival from their Southern California-based art/music event company Do LaB in 2006. “We’ve been at this for 15 years. We’ve had a lot of success with our events and we are really good at what we do.” Confident words for such an ambitious undertaking that just a few months ago was under intense scrutiny from county agencies. Not to mention resident critics and the initial scourge of social network-
INSIDE
COURTESY OF JULIANA BERNSTEIN
Lightning in a Bottle is all about the good vibes, which in a previous year included hammocks perfect for a mid-day rest. The festival will come to Buena Vista Lake starting on Wednesday, the first time it will be held in Kern County.
ing trolls who jumped at the chance to blast the remote possibility of it relocating to Kern County after being informed it would not be welcome back at its previous site: the San Antonio Reservoir Recreation Area in Monterey County. Flemming said the requirements put forth by the county were nothing the team had not experienced putting on past festivals. He said, “There are no surprises for us. We over-prepare, over-produce and we want the best show, not just for our attendees, but for the people putting it together, public safety teams and everyone involved. I think they were very surprised
LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE What: Independent music and art family-friendly festival, includes live music, food vendors, yoga classes, educational workshops, swimming, camping and games for kids When: Wednesday through Monday Where: Buena Vista Recreational Aquatic Area, 13601 Ironbark Road Cost: Admission $185-$430, free for children ages 5 and under; vehicle/RV camping $150-$1,200; on-site camping $1,500-$3,030 Information/tickets: lightninginabottle.org
Please see LIGHTNING | C2
DINING OUT
El Capitan Mexican Grill sails the sea of adequacy Service, specials stand out, but food is a mixed bag
I
n the restaurant review world, readers seem to love the extremes: raves about a new place, particularly if they didn’t know about it, or the painful evisceration of a wretched restaurant that is stealing people’s money by offering swill at outrageous prices. Reality is most places fit somewhere in the middle on the spectrum. And then there are those places that are frankly right there in the OK middle — not awful, but not soaring either. Kind of like El Capitan Mexican Grill, the third name given to a California Avenue location that has been going for 22 years. Editor Robert Price messaged me
recently when he visited, wondering ordered the mango glazed salmon how long it had been since I visited. dinner ($19) and I selected the I had written about it when it was carnitas platter ($13) with a house named Anita’s and later Valentina’s, margarita ($5) that was not polluted and now on the window with excessive tequila. (It it read “New Name, New was weak enough for me PETE TITTL Owners,” but used an old to handle it.) The carnitas FOR THE CALIFORNIAN Valentina’s menu. Price, was fine: chunks of fried a former Orange County pork, not stringy, different restaurant critic, did not walk out sizes, different degrees of crunchraving, emailing me “Nice clean iness on the exterior. The refried place, good servers, friendly owners. beans were, uh, OK, but the thick With Mexicali West closed, there’s a layer of cheddar and jack cheese on void in the area. Our seafood fajitas top can make something like that were decent but too greasy and the seem far more dazzling. My comflan was way overcooked. But I want panion loved the fried plantains and to give them a second chance.” black beans served with her grilled Sounds like an OK to me, so we salmon, which had been topped with went twice and found similar mixed a fresh chopped mango salsa, but results, some good, some merely she thought the fish less than fresh, acceptable. On our first visit my companion Please see DINING | C2
COURTESY OF PETE TITTL
The carnitas platter at El Capitan Mexican Grill.
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The Bakersfield Californian Sunday, May 5, 2019
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not up to the standards set by a recent visit to Hungry Hunter. Taste memory is a funny thing like that. It can ruin subsequent meals. The salsa with the chips seemed pedestrian to her too, and the steamed vegetables served with the salmon (carrots, pea pods, cauliflower, grilled zucchini) were overcooked. On a second visit I was most impressed by the chicken fajitas ($15), with some qualifications. The sizzling platter had lots of onions and they were darkly cooked, but maybe too many green pepper strips and only a lonely strip or two of tomato in the mix.
LIGHTNING Continued from PAGE C1
at our responses and concerns, and our preparedness. I think that’s what gave them the confidence that, ‘OK, these guys are for real.’”
FINDING THE VENUE Traveling all over California for the past 10 years scouting potential event venues, the brothers were still surprised happening upon Buena Vista, the man-made aquatic park 10 miles west of Interstate 5, between Taft and the outskirts of southwest Bakersfield. Flemming said, “To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even know this (lake) was here. I was really surprised that we didn’t know when we started our search. I started looking at maps of county parks, and I saw this little blip, pulled it up on Google Earth and I was like, ‘(Expletive), we passed it a trillion times.’ So, my brothers and I jumped in the car and headed over and found that this was quite a spot.” Although they happened upon Buena Vista, the brothers were not entirely new
$9-$14, Salvadoran favorites $8-$10, fajitas $15-$32, steak chicken and pork $13-$22 entrees, seafood $16-$19, shrimp entrees $17. Child’s plate $5-$7. Payment: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover Dress: Casual Details: Full bar service, some vegetarian options, takeout-friendly, family-friendly Food: HH½ Atmosphere: HH½ Service: HHH Value: HH
was disappointed again. Service at El Capitan was more than OK, including from a man who on one visit was wearing a captain’s hat as he wandered around. Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan. And the specials do need to be mentioned. Happy hour is pretty long (until 8 p.m.) and available six days a week, and you can get the beer prices in the dining room (a large Modelo on tap is $6). Monday night means a free margarita with beef or chicken fajitas, children eat free on Wednesday nights and combo dinners are buy one, get one free on Thursdays.
The kitchen did not use a whole wheat tortilla to create it as the menu promised. She
Pete Tittl’s Dining Out column appears in The Californian on Sundays. Email him at pftittl@yahoo.com.
EL CAPITAN MEXICAN GRILL
COURTESY OF PETE TITTL
The mango glazed salmon at El Capitan Mexican Grill.
On an A to F scale, I’d grade it a B. My companion ordered the muscle burrito ($9), a natural menu
item with an In-Shape gym nearby, but it very closely resembled the classic chicken burrito sold by Del Taco —
4240 California Ave. 328-0500. facebook.com/elcapitanmexgrill18 or www. el-capitanmexicangrill. com Hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Happy hour 3-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Prices: Appetizers $5$16, soup $7-$14, salad $10-$13,sandwiches $10$12, Combination platters $8-$13, burritos $9-$13, taco plates $12-$13, enchilada plates $14, vegetarian
lean chicken, guacamole, finely chopped iceberg lettuce.
to town. Dede covered the Volkslauf run for a reality TV show while working in television production, and Jesse was in an L.A.-based band that played gigs in Bakersfield.
BUILDING THE EXPERIENCE After being given the green light by the Board of Supervisors to proceed with plans, Flemming and his team went to work transforming the recreational area into a full-blown festival similar to Coachella — where the Do LaB installation area has become a featured attraction. “We are going up the property line and in some areas beyond it. We’re working a neighbor just north of the park and we’re leasing his land for additional camping, parking and whatnot.” According to the festival’s website, attendees of every experience level will find what they need to curate their own experience between seven main entertainment stages and areas. Among this year’s headliners: electronic music groups Disclosure, Big Gigantic, DJ/producer Flying Lotus (perform-
COURTESY OF AARON GLASSMAN
Several stages will be set up at Buena Vista Lake for Lightning in a Bottle, an electronic dance music festival that also Please see LIGHTNING | C7 includes art, seminars and workshops.
Disclosure, Santigold, G Jones and more on festival lineup BY MATT MUNOZ For The Californian
The list of world-class artists at this year’s Lightning in a Bottle is an exciting and exhaustive mix of household beat makers, up-and-coming newbies and virtual unknowns. Festival co-founder Dede Flemming said part of the event’s mission is new discovery. “We’re definitely not Coachella,” he said. “We’re somewhere in the middle. We’re not trying to go after those types of huge acts; we’re trying to introduce new and up-and-coming artists.” But along with lessthan-mainstream acts like Cautious Clay, Manatee Commune and Papa Bear and the Easy Love, there are performers whose names ring an electronic bell. Those eager to check out as many artists as they can in one of the six non-stop music areas will need to start a “can’t
miss list.” Here’s a sampling of what’s hitting the stages next week.
Ambassador, is funky, weird and welcoming. Donning spacey, glittery outfits of every kinds, his music will please the casual groover and diehard barefoot dancer. Check out some of his live Youtube sets to see him in action.
LIGHTNING Disclosure (DJ set): English electronic musical brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence are responsible for producing some of the genres biggest crossover pop hits while retaining their dance credentials. Among some of their biggest hits are “Latch” with singer Sam Smith, “F For You” with Mary J. Blige, and “Holding On” with Bakersfield’s very own Gregory Porter. For their LIB set the group will be performing a DJ set rather than with guest appearances, but you never know. Whatever they bring to the stage is guaranteed to be a highlight of the festival. Big Gigantic: If you’ve ever caught a glimpse of the Big Gigantic live show, you know the sound fits the name. Producer and
GRAND ARTIQUE
COURTESY OF SANTIGOLD
COURTESY OF BIG GIGANTIC
Instrumental electronic duo Big Gigantic will perform on the Lightning stage at Lightning in a Bottle.
saxophonist Dominic Lalli along with drummer Jeremy Salken combine the booming beats of hip-hop, mixed
with electro jazz, house music and more with an emphasis on big rumbling beats that make festival crowds jump for hours. Santigold: The Philadelphia singer/songwriter and all around entertainer Santigold transforms any stage she graces into an electric new wave Jamaican dancehall. Her 2008 debut “Santogold” helped her make a mark on the indie charts, but it’s her live show where she really shines. She’s been a familiar face at countless big-name festivals joined by her amazing backup dancers and never disappoints. Her set will be hard to beat at LIB.
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I lobbed a Christmas cookie tin in the trash and then backed it up with a handsome red cookie jar from Costco that had previously housed chocolate cookies and was awaiting future deployment that never seemed to come. To show I wasn’t playing favorites, I threw away one of my four bags of chips and combined the other three — Ruffles,Kettle Chips and
Singer/songwriter Santigold will perform on the Lightning stage at Lightning in a Bottle.
THUNDER G Jones: It’s all about bass, bass and more bass in the house of G Jones, who has been rumbling sheds and festival tents all over the Bay Area and now does it all over the country. His sound is definitely an acquired taste if you’re not familiar with these sub-genre sounds that include dub step, another bass heavy sound very popular at these types of outdoor dance fests. The Polish Ambassador: Another Bay Area native and electro dance authority, musician and DJ David Sugalski who performs as The Polish
corn chips. Who doesn’t love a chip mix? Before long, I’d filled the recycling basket and kitchen trash can. This was fun and no time for Sue to walk in should she have decided to cut her weekend short. Cleaning the pantry is best when it’s a conversation-free experience. I was talking but to myself. What to do with the purple tin that now housed 13 8-year-old English breakfast teabags? If I had my druthers, that tin would have joined the Christmas cookie
Ozomatli: What is there about Los Angeles’ veteran mish-mashers of world beat, Ozomatli, that hasn’t been said already? These guys know how to bring a party to any stage whether it be the cozy confines of an East L.A. warehouse to the Hollywood Bowl, the Coachella main stage, and now Lightning in a Bottle. Combining Latin, funk, reggae, salsa and hiphop there’s nothing quite like an Ozo show in the great outdoors among the masses. Considered the quintessential L.A. band, they were named after the Aztec god of dance.
THE STACKS (FKA PAGODA) Abelation: With so much great electronic dance to choose from, it’s tough to pick one artist over the other. In the case of Reese Downes, who performs as Abelation, the young beatmaker makes dub style bass music with trap drums and incorporates a mixture of otherworldly sounds. Close your eyes and move to the music. Check out the full list of artists and make your own schedule at lightninginabottle.org.
tin, the vases and Charlie Dodge, but Sue, along with all the other royal watchers in America, had gotten up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding. I should be grateful they didn’t put out a line of royal wedding vases. I made a decision. Keep the tin. That’s what kind of royal husband I am. Herb Benham is a columnist for the Bakersfield Californian and can be reached at hbenham@bakersfield.com or 661-395-7279.
Sunday, May 5, 2019 The Bakersfield Californian
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STARGAZING
Some beliefs fall Flat for those who trust science G oing more philosoph- my parents. But Antarctica ical than the usual doesn’t exist because no one column, although it I trust has been there. is about the science process, That’s what it ultimately let’s look at the Flat Earth comes down to: Who do you idea. trust to bring you informaA student asked me why tion about things you haven’t it was now getting so much seen yourself? The Flat Earth traction and I told him leaders say we shouldn’t that 1) it’s easy to lock into trust anyone and not to bea position and screen out lieve experts in our research contrary views with today’s and education institutions social media (I because they’re wrote a Commuall in on the nity Voices piece conspiracy of a about that); and spherical Earth. 2) for the Flat I scratch my Earth people, head and wonthey have to see der then, why it for themselves. should I trust They don’t trust the Flat Earth science experts. leader? To that second NICK STROBEL My computer point, rather than FOR THE CALIFORNIAN uses results trying to debunk from quantum all believers’ claims, let’s use mechanics theory to work. their reasoning in something No one has seen an electron. else. I could say that New Electricity exists but how Zealand and India don’t exist do we know that that spark because I haven’t seen them is made by electrons and myself. Other people say the exchange of photons those places exist and have between them? That same shown me pictures. Maybe I quantum mechanics theory can agree that those places also talks about electrons exist because the people tunneling through solid matI’ve talked to include good ter. Nuclear fusion in the sun friends, work colleagues and and stars works via quantum
tunneling and so does alpha decay. However, doesn’t quantum tunneling seem a bit much to swallow? I haven’t seen anything do that, so it can’t be right. No one has seen a piece of matter go through a wall, so it can’t be right. However, the predictions of quantum mechanics theory have been proven correct over and over again and we have developed devices such as the scanning tunneling
microscope and flash drives that use quantum tunneling to work. Quantum computers will also use quantum tunneling. I guess I’ll have to accept that quantum tunneling and the other bizarre stuff in sub-atomic realm is possible. When I look at the planets and the sun through a telescope, I see that they are spherical because gravity crushes things into the most compact shape possible in
3D space: a sphere. A flat Earth with as much mass as we see it has would also compress itself into a sphere. Gravity simply would not allow a flat earth to exist. The night-day boundary on the moon is a curve just as it would be if the moon is a sphere. Small asteroids aren’t round because they don’t have enough gravity to overcome the material strength of the rock they’re made of. Earth is big, asteroids are not and besides, there aren’t any flat asteroids out there anyway. Although what I’ve written won’t convince a true believer — because I’m part of the conspiracy — I do hope that most readers will see that science is a human endeavor relying on the experiences of many people to build up the picture of how the universe works. No one person can figure it out all by him/herself. Even Einstein relied on the advice of his doctor for medical issues, for example.
IN OTHER NEWS On spherical Mars, the Mars InSight lander team
has made its first confirmation of a mars quake. The seismic tremor was too weak to probe Mars’ interior. Hopefully, stronger ones will happen. Three other possible tremors were seen in the first couple of months but the jiggling of the seismometer could have been due to winds or thermal flexing of the equipment. The small number of tremors so far tells us that Mars is less active than hoped. See mars. nasa.gov/insight for updates. On the larger scale, a team led by Adam Riess using the Hubble Space Telescope has shown that the universe is definitely expanding faster now than expected from observations of the afterglow of the Big Bang. The new result seems to show a third stage in dark energy’s push on the universe. More details at nasa.gov/feature/ goddard/2019/mystery-ofthe-universe-s-expansionrate-widens-with-new-hubble-data. May 11 is the free public star party at Barnes & Noble with the Kern Astronomical Society. See kernastro.org for details.
Lightning in a Bottle is more than a music festival BY KELLY ARDIS kardis@bakersfield.com
With less than a week until Lightning in a Bottle, locals probably know whether or not they are going. Getting festival ready requires just a little more time than a spurof-the-moment decision allows. But they might be wondering what exactly is going on at the festival at Buena Vista Lake this week. Sure, there’s the music, and with it certainly lots of dancing. And there will be food to help fuel those dancers. Lightning in a Bottle is more than just an EDM festival, though. For its attendees, it’s a spiritual experience. “Our focus is on the art,
wellness and more of the human experience,” festival co-founder Dede Flemming told The Californian. “Not just, ‘Who did you go see?’ ‘Who did you get an Instagram photo in front of?’ ‘Did you see what she was wearing?’ “We’re here for self-expression, creating community, setting up a tent next to someone you don’t know because you don’t know where your friends are because your cell battery died. If you get lost, make some new friends.” Each day is filled with various activities, from art workshops to yoga to seminars like “Bee Magic Medicine and Alchemy.” The festival is big on re-
COURTESY OF LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE
Lightning in a Bottle is more than a music festival. Each day will have a full schedule including yoga sessions, art workshops, seminars and more.
spectful cultural learning, with several discussions planned on topics by diverse speakers. Desirae Harp and Niria Alicia will speak on “In-
Dine and dance with festival’s lineup of food vendors, Dub Gypsy Kitchen BY STEFANI DIAS sdias@bakersfield.com
Sure, Lightning in a Bottle is a music festival first, along with a number of workshops, informational sessions and art activities. But along with feeding your soul and mind, this event has plans on addressing your most basic hunger with an assortment of dining options. The simplest way for revelers to chow down is a collection of food vendors, which will emphasize menus featuring organic, sustainable and locally sourced options. And you can’t get more local than Vida Vegan Co., the only participating vendor from Kern County. Earlier this week, Alejandro Ocampo, restaurateur and one of the partners in Vida Vegan, said they were still finalizing the menu (along with opening their storefront on Stine Road). He did say they would likely be serving brunch purepas — a hybrid of the Salvadorean pupusa and the Co-
LIGHTNING Continued from PAGE C2
ing in 3D), alternative dance icon Santigold, Slovenian EDM producer Gramatik, chillwave pop star Toro Moi, Latin funk mish-mashers Ozomatli and many more. From the EDM (electronic dance music) world straddling pop and experimental music and DJ sub-genres, if it’s been invented chances are, you’ll hear it here. “Attendees know they are going to see some of their favorites along with new artists,” Flemming said. “So, there’s a lot of value in knowing that you get to go back and there’s a sense of home, a familiarity with it all. And at the same time, there’s the element of surprise.”
COURTESY OF VIDA VEGAN CO.
Vida Vegan Co. will be the only local food vendor at the upcoming Lightning in a Bottle music festival at Buena Vista Recreational Aquatic Area.
lombian arepa, topped with soyrizo, potatoes and a tofu scramble. The business, which is known at the Kaiser farmers markets, makes a mean street corn but fellow vendor Senor Corn has that covered along with breakfast burritos, street corn and more. Also in the lineup is Dump City Dumplings from Bend., Ore.; Poutine Your Mouth, featuring fries smothered in gravy and cheese, including vege-
FOSTERING COMMUNITY For those concerned with safety at the event, Flemming said respecting your fellow festival attendee is a common theme stated in detail at the festival website under the “6 Ways to LIB.” “We always try to communicate directly with our audience about real issues and concerns that come up,” he said. “We’re talking about looking after each other, substance abuse, boundaries, respecting each other, ‘No means no,’ we’re bringing these issues up. This isn’t just a music festival; this is a city. “There’s a way to have a great time by obeying the rules of the park, the fest, local and federal laws. Not just for their safety but for us and our longevity. We wanna
tarian and vegan options; Not-Cho Fish Taco, which offers a Baja cauli-fish taco as well as “not-chos” with nut-based vegan queso; and Get Fried Rice, serving up organic stir fry. For a full list, visit lightninginabottle. org/lineup. Those staying multiple days can dine at the Dub Gypsy Kitchen, which will offer both breakfast (9 a.m. to noon) and dinner (6 to 9 p.m.) through Sunday. Plans range from $150 for dinners only to $245, which includes meals starting with dinner Wednesday (early arrival) through dinner on Sunday. Some menu selections include: veggie scramble with cheddar or tofu and spinach scramble served with deep playa potatoes, smoked bacon and gypsy fruit salad; grilled Moroccan chicken or roasted eggplant with tzatziki sauce and hummus, served with North African couscous with cauliflower, red bell pepper, garbanzo beans, zucchini and green onion;
digenous Women Spiritual Rights and Responsibilities,” while Vandana Shiva will lead a talk called “Earth Democracy.” Roger McNamee tortilla Espanola, a Spanish omelet with layers of onion, pasilla peppers, potato, Manchego and Fontina cheeses; and porcini mushroom-crusted filet mignon with red wine sauce or sautéed garlic tempeh served with sautéed broccoli rapini and roasted baby potatoes. There is also a boutique camping couples package ($550) including two full meal plans along with breakfast and two 12-ounce mimosas delivered to their tent daily. (Note: The boutique camping package for accommodations must be purchased separately.) For those observing, there will be a shabbat dinner in the Shabbat Tent, offering a free kosher dinner with challah and refreshments. Attendees, who are asked to register at eventbrite.com, may alos recharge at the Oasis of Chill for kosher food and hydration. All meal plans are available for purchase on eventbrite.com.
will lead a distinctly modern talk called “Zucked: How Facebook Has Upended the World We Live In.” (McNamee is more than just a critic of the social media site; he was one of its first investors.) If online forums are anything to go by, guests are especially interested in Paul Stamets’ talk “Into the Mycoverse: An Immersion Talk on Magic and Medicinal Mushrooms.” While less-than-legal recreational enhancements are likely to be part of some guests’ experience, that’s not the only way they will be seeking enlightenment. Art workshops and demonstrations include one called “Crochet your way to happiness” and another on book binding to create a festival journal. There will also be a live painting and artwalk. Other activities are how-to workshops, like ones on “dream hacking,” mead making and improv. There are also workshops on wellness and healing, like “herbs for sleep” and another on managing stress and anxiety. There will also be yoga.
Lots of yoga, in lots of places, led by lots of different people. In The Learning Kitchen, there will be classes on plant-based keto diet, raw chocolate aphrodisiacs, edible flowers, fermentation and more. There’s even an area for kids and families, which will include art, music and games, among other activities. According to the festival’s website, the six ways of Lightning in a Bottle include celebrating life, creating community, respecting yourself and others, actively participating, honoring the land and being a citizen. Its “Ethos” section includes information on its sustainability mission, harm reduction and cultural respect. We might not be joining them out there, but we hope the Lightning in a Bottle guests have a safe, fun and transformative time, while leaving Buena Vista Lake better than they found it. Kelly Ardis can be reached at 661-395-7660. Follow her on Twitter at @TBCKellyArdis.
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keep on coming to beautiful places like this.” To stay within county sound codes, Flemming says steps were taken to keep decibel levels within legal limits. You may hear a little bass in the far distance, but unless your residence is a houseboat on the lake, expect to sleep soundly. “We’re a 24-hour show. Unlike a lot of other festivals, where people get flushed out by security after the music is over back to the parking lot. At nighttime it quiets down to non-noisemaking activities, but we’re constantly going. Then it fires back up at 7 a.m. and starts all over again.” And unlike facing the extreme, 100-plus desert heat of Coachella and Burning Man, regulars and newbies
can expect a comfortable five days with a forecast of mid to high 80s. “Our audience is well prepared, they know what this is. They stay hydrated, they know how to take care of themselves, building shade in their camps. The beauty out here is they don’t have to go far to find a tree to lay under, or a lake to jump in.” Along with returning attendees, Flemming is looking forward to the locals checking this out. “This is a one-time, oncea-year event. We hope people get to see this and be pleasantly surprised with what we do and what we’re trying to achieve. Broaden your horizons, get away from the norm, and just throw your hands up and go with it.”
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