Northern Nights Music Festival 2023 Photo Recap

Northern Nights Music Festival delivered another amazing event in Northern California’s iconic Redwood Forest this last July 14-16. The lineup included Big Gigantic, G Jones, TOKiMONSTA, Netsky, MiMOSA, KR3TURE, NotLö, ION, High Step Society, Spüke, Truthlive, Naughty Princess, Mura Masa, Dr. Fresch, our host Klyce and more.

The festival continues it’s dedication to helping fans discover new artists. Often I don’t recognize most of the projects on the lineup, however, in the coming years I see them pop up on more and more festival lineups. Festival favorites like G Jones and TOKiMONSTA gave phenomenal headliner worthy performances on the main stage. I was also very entertained and impressed with one of the support bands, Elephant Heart that graced the main stage Friday before Netsky and G Jones. Their sound was fresh and their performance and bright flashy outfits were fun to photograph. On Saturday during the day the River Stage presented an unforgettable performance by Steamy Windows with sax solos by my friend Jeff Straw. (DJ F) While the Grove Stage had a late night performance by High Step Society, described as dance party from another dimension, their big band energy did have everybody jumping around. Additionally, it’s great that NNMF has such an intimate layout it makes it very easy to quickly see what’s happening at the Grove Stage or Bunker and come back to the main stage again with minimal effort. The organizers also do an excellent job controlling each individual stages volume and actively work to reduce sound leakage between stages. Another thing I appreciate is the amount of effort made my NNMF staff to keep areas like the persimmons camping and artist camping quiet and peaceful for those that want to sleep.

G Jones

Netsky

Elephant Heart

Tokimonsta

For its 10th anniversary, Northern Nights continued its reputation as an innovator in the festival space by delivering a fully integrated cannabis experience powered by Weedmaps. Sadly, this activation replaced the cannabis garden model pioneered by NNMF. I have to admit I was very disappointed with the new 2023 layout. However, one of the managers explained that the intimate layout of the previous activation, although very artsy and well crafted, was hard for festival goers to find. The new model reimagines how cannabis sales can be merged into the festival experience. The manager said they saw a major increase in the number of people that partook in the new cannabis lounge. She also said that the increased participation means they can continue to make the activation better.

If you attend more than one NNMF you start to feel like the people that attend become your festival family. I’ve made many friends that I only see at the festival. Additionally, I’ve made new friends that have snuck into my none festival real life. Also, looking through this years photos of fans I’ve also noticed a lot of front row fans that have made it into photo recaps from previous years of NNMF photo recaps.

Those that may have expected a blowout celebration for NNMF’s 10 year anniversary may have been disappointed. There were no special events planned to highlight the landmark moment. While it was another amazing weekend, there were murmurs questioning why elements of the festival were cheapened compared to previous years. No VIP bathroom was one thing I very much missed. However, NNMF is still my favorite camping festival … and I highly advocate attending in 2024.

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