Motion Notion 2017

This year was the year of them all. It was my 7th one attended and my brothers very first one. A festival like this is no walk in the park as it consists of survival (like camping) and being able to party your hardest. The fine line of balance is always being questioned.... Should I stay up and see a new artist I haven't seen before or try get some needed sleep with some earplugs?

The calm before the storm, the final sunrise I would see from my bedroom window. We convoyed with my good friend I have been doing this with for 7 years and had "the last breakfast" at a local Denny's. We are all amped up to go and reminded our first timers we brought with us, that this is a marathon not a race. As much as you want to feel good and enjoy yourself mangled, the aftermath hits you hard for some reason. We took a group photo with our eager looks and smiles before departing towards the beautiful rocky mountains of British Columbia.

3 hours later, we arrive on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Greeted by security guards asking about our belongings (which is normal, no glass, weapons or anything that can cause harm). After the brief encounter, and the 2 hour wait to get in, we were golden.

We now had the opportunity to find us some prime real estate to set up camp for our group of friends we are with, and previous ones I have met along this festival journey that will be joining us. Motion notion is quite spacious so you have the freedom to have lots of room, yet still be close together with about 5000 people. We found the perfect spot hiding under a bunch of trees which will shade us from the scorching sun in the daytime, to allow us to sleep well through the day if needed to recover. The best times to go out and party/adventure are when its dark, so the most important thing is to make sure camp is set up proper and everyone has room. Once that was done, we took a tour to see what has all changed from last year and to explain to the fresh years where sanctuary, water, food, toilets, ect are. And each stage gets packed as the days go on, so a good rendezvous spot is also a good idea.

1st night, only the Temple (main stage) is open but it sure packs a punch with the new pk sound system they used. Pk gravity 30 bass bins and trinity speakers will definitely keep that sound crisp and heavy. My favorite acts of that night were LongwalkShortdock, Neon Steve & Maxx Ammo.

LongwalkShortdock

The 2nd day is when things really start to take off (Friday). Another 2 stages are opening up in the evening, and also 2 more indie stages which are allowed to operate with the cooperation from the festival director. These indie stages are individually funded by the promoters who set them up, and get no sponsorship from the festival itself. However, if they do good and get lots of support from the people at MoNo, they can get sponsorship from the festival itself and be allowed to stay for more years to come, and a bigger budget.

Anyways, the daytime is mostly used to re cooperate from the previous nights shenanigans, so we bring out some food each of us brought and start a community lunch/dinner. Once the food starts fueling our bodies, we venture on looking for new and old friends. I find this is one of the best parts of wandering around because you can run into a friend you haven't seen in 5 years, or make a new friend because they like your outfit.

The sun begins to set behind these majestic mountains, and the music and lazers are in full swing. The cabana stage, once made from bamboo, is kicking it off with some upbeat energetic glitch hop, drum & bass, and dub step. The ancient gardens has more of the down tempo bass chill out music. I liked them both! The temple has its main headliner tonight as well - The M Machine, which was one of the best performances of that Friday night in my opinion. But no matter what kind of music is playing, you have the choice to see something else if you don't like it. And it is usually a different energy vibe, something out there for everyone right!?

Day 3 (Saturday) we are exceptionally energetic still, but you can really start to feel everything wear down on your body. The amount of walking, dancing, drinking, food, water and sleep all playing a role. We are a little slower to leave our camp after breakfast/lunch as we are saving up the most energy we can for the biggest night of the festival. Psychedelic Saturdays, or Caturday if you will! All the sound systems get turned up just a bit more, the energy is more vibrant and more people are coming on the weekend as well. A big thing about Motion Notion is they play psytrance on main stage most of Saturday night. The cabana will have some heavy dub step artists and DnB. It is also the day my one camp mate is playing a set on an indie stage, he needs our support so I will support his habit.

We start the night off at cabana (btw, is video mapped like a giant tiki head) witnessing the most epic performance from a unique artist named KOAN sound. The range of genres, cool popping sounds and live drum Performance on stage is what really brought this DJ set to be my #1. The songs he chose to play really spoke to me as a story and the energy was so uplifting and happy. My rave squad also really enjoyed it when it was all said and done, but like everything good that happens doesn't last forever. We took ourselves to the Temple afterwards to check out Grouch for a psytrance set, which started the run of psytrance sets on that stage. To experience live psytrance is something surreal because it can make you feel something you never knew was there. The music really does move you in a trance like state and speaks to you unlike any other kind of genre. I believe goa psytrance originates back a couple thousand years in India, so it is cultured around it. And psytrance stems off from that. Moving on from the temple we went to see my camp mate DJ a set at the indie stage, which was phenomenal as always. Lots of good people everywhere loving all the different types of music. Now we head back over to cabana for a dirty Datsik dub step set. High energy, lots of bass wubs and headbanging! Shortly after that, we checked out the psytrance headliner at the Temple, Avalon. I really enjoyed that set of his too with the squirrely rhythm transitions. The one main downside of the Temple this year tho was the dust. It was almost unbearable even with a bandana. As we couldn't stop coughing, we all decided to take our own ways, and I jammed out to some Dirtyphonics on Cabana before calling it quits for the night.

Day 4 (Sunday, the final day) I can barely get up out of my comfy sleeping bag. The cold at night is starting to get at me and my everything is sore. I can feel my feet screaming at me for dancing so much, and my stomach rumbling because of the liquor/food balance I chose. Everyone else pretty much feels the same, but it's a glorious day out! So after some grub and water, we decide to have a beach day down by the ancient gardens stage. The river is super cold water as it is glacier fed. Its always good to get a quick jump in there to rinse off the dirt and sweat, and shock the system on a very hot sunny day. Nothing like some beach beers and conversation with strangers about how their night was. There is also people showing up for the last day super energetic, and then there is us people who have been here since day 1. You can definitely tell who is fresh and who isn't, just by how they walk and carry themselves.

The Ancient Gardens stage at night

Since Sunday is the last day and we leave tomorrow morning, I decide to take it easy because I am the driver for my brother I brought. I do not enjoy driving hung over or tired, plus it is dangerous to do so and we party responsibly. I spend all day at the beach until the sun goes down then venture with the squad, checking out a few headliner acts at the various stages before cutting the night shortly after midnight. Everyone else is pretty beat too, but the ones who don't have to usually drive party till the sun comes up. To each their own.

Monday, the tear down of the site is a chore, and none of us want to leave. We all had the time of our life and have become friends, or strengthened our relationships. We take one last photo together and say our goodbyes, only to see each other again here next year more prepared than the previous. But in reality, you can never prepare yourself here for the magic that happens and the friendships that last a lifetime.

Thank you for reading my story. This is my first published one on here and I did it all on my phone (which amazes me!)

I will have plenty more good reads like this in the near future.

-CConn!