At BASS COAST 2013, it was the year of the zebra, of black and white stripes; suitably so, when you try to bring people together through duality you are bound to experience some polarity.

Of the people I talked to post-fest about their experiences, it was only natural to hear conflicting reviews. Besides the common complaint about the toilet paper shortage, some also accused the festival of being ‘disconnected’, ‘superficial’, and ‘escapist’. However, there were many who couldn’t stop raving about Slay Bay’s way of playing the best beats ALWAYS, with a lineup that started on Friday with names like Goosebumpsz, Alphabets Heaven, Dan Solo and Wax Romeo, and ended on Monday morning with the silky smooth Michael Red, Random Rab’s famous sunrise sets and Adham Shaikh’s uplifting world beats. Mainstage (aka Bassment) was dark, cold and ominous, featuring Taal Mala, Goth-Trad and the Librarian; while Radio was a proper mashup of everything from the tuned-in Desert Dwellers, to the dialed-up Fungineers – who were F-ing AWESOME, by the way — pure entertainment!

For those looking for a badass good time, for a party for P.A.R.T.Y.’s sake, BASS COAST is where the best of the best party together. It’s a festival for those who live bass culture, and take their good times seriously; these peeps know how to throw down. BASS COAST’s beauty is an “in-yo-face!” kind of cool. Largely made up of organizers, artists, vendors, eager volunteers, dancers, it-kids, and scenesters, the crowd is a ‘this is what I do’ group, living out their lives as festival professionals. This tight-knit crew of professional partiers was interpreted by some as clique-y, but was more likely evidence of festival families, of groups of close friends … of tribes. As it always has been, a festival is what you make of it, so roll in with your posse of favourites and let the bass rain down!

For those seeking a deeper consciousness, a sense of connectedness and community, a spiritual experience facilitated by sacred sounds, BASS COAST requires a bit of careful exploration and sensitivity to detail— its depth is not an in-your-face kind of beautiful. The more conscious elements of the festival could be found in the art installations, with their sacred geometry and careful construction, communicating archetypes and channels of energy, having the power to touch each of us as we need, when we are open. The shrines were there to center us, if we felt inclined to find them and give of ourselves for a moment in feeling their subtle energetic influence on passersby. Pretty difficult to deny the power of a carbon-atom pyramid made of wood, a geometric double-helix lit from inside by a rainbow of light, and a cocoon-esque pod that very well housed real-life fairies … not to mention the magic of static in the air during lightning storms, and a double rainbow that painted the sky orange. Mystical, moving, powerful.

What made BASS COAST so special was the combination of these apparently opposing elements, the heart and the hard-on, the dark and the light, the black and the white… the BASS COAST zebra! BASS COAST taught me that it’s all about meeting in the middle.

Quite the mix of cool and conscious, BASS COAST boasts of fun times and lots of room for growth. I would highly recommend, to those in-the-know, GO! … and hope that they have the toilet paper situation smoothed out for next year’s shenanigans 😉

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All Photos By Vonlukester

Planning on attending Bass Coast 2014? There are currently still tier 2 tickets left at $200. Be sure to buy yours today. Festival tickets also make excellent gifts!! ‘Tis the season!  😉

Bass Coast 2014 Tickets