Shambhala Music Festival Makes Glorious Return After COVID-Fueled Hiatus | Recap

Shambhala Music Festival Makes Glorious Return After COVID-Fueled Hiatus | Recap

Over the last two decades, Shambhala Music Festival has gained a reputation for hosting one of the most respected festivals in the world. Curating many of the most sought-after DJs and producers in the world, the festival maintains an independent, non-corporate, family-owned, and operated type of environment. After a covid-fueled hiatus, this highly revered festival was ready for a major comeback. This year marked the 23rd annual Shambhala Music Festival and our third consecutive year of attendance. Once again, it was a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip out to the forest. 

As we made our way from Los Angeles to Salmo River Ranch in British Columbia, the RMR team encountered the usual trials and tribulations that come with traveling to a music festival in a different country. We got stopped and searched at the border, had to find cannabis in Washington State and in Canada, went to three different Walmart locations for supplies, plus for this year’s Shambs, we had to fly from LA to Spokane, WA, and then drive from there up into Salmo, British Columbia. It was truly an experience, to say the least. 

Photo by @pulsephotocanada

Shambhala Music Festival Overview

We are always impressed with Shambhala’s breathtakingly beautiful backdrop. Tucked away in the Kootenay Mountain Range in Eastern British Columbia is the Salmo River Ranch where the festival is held. Offering 500 acres of private land for festival goers to frolic in, this impressive 3-day festival offers visitors a marathon of music and a wide array of vendors and workshops – including morning yoga and water aerobics in the river.

While the festival didn’t officially start until Friday, many attendees arrived early to get their camp set up and start the celebrations. Pre-game festivities usually start on Thursday night, with music on two of the festival’s main stages. Attendees are also able to arrive at the Salmo River Ranch as early as Tuesday (for an additional fee). 

For RMR, we arrived on Friday afternoon and didn’t encounter much traffic or wait times getting through the check-in process and into camp. After setting up our space, we trekked over to our press and media area, rolled up some really great Bacio Gelato from BLK MKT, one of Canada’s best cannabis brands, and hung out and networked for a bit. Soon after we arrived, we got stir crazy and went to explore the festival grounds and each of the stage areas. 

Safety First 

Every year festival founders and volunteers set out to curate a safe and clean environment where music lovers can connect with one another. This alcohol-free festival lends itself to a similar demographic as Burning Man and prides itself on being a place “to play, to reinvent, revitalize, and return to the world fueled-up on the beauty of being alive.” 

Shambhala Music Festival offers visitors a chance to blow off creativity, stress, and steam in a psychoactive-supported playground-like environment you have to experience to believe. The lack of alcohol, in our opinion, helps Shambhala to maintain a level of intimacy and mysticism after all these years. 

Any festival returnee will tell you, that the love and connection you feel at Shambhala is real. Of course, one-off incidents still happen, however, it’s impressive – considering the size of the festival- how safe and controlled things really are. 

ANKORS (AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach & Support Society)

This focus on safety is intentional thanks to an excellent harm reduction system the festival has in place. Shambhala teams up with ANKORS (AIDS Network Kootenay Outreach & Support Society) to provide free on-site substance testing. ANKORS utilizes lab-grade equipment for drug/chemical analysis and reagent testing. There is no doubt that this service has saved lives. Simply provide a sample of the substance you’d like tested and wait for the results. 

This year we really wanted to utilize this service and see what the results would be. After asking around and sharing that we simply just wanted to test two different substances, we were able to acquire some illicit drugs. We spent maybe 10 minutes or so waiting in line before it was our turn to meet with the ANKORS team. 

Once it was our turn, they asked us what the substance was if we had taken any of it, and where’d we get it from. We shared that a friend had gifted us these two grams to test with them since he had never gotten any of his drugs out at Shambhala before. As we’re saying this, the woman put on a pair of gloves, opened the two baggies, poured a little bit of each substance onto their testing surface, and began the test. Moments later, her co-worker confirmed that both of the substances were what we thought they were and then they let us go on our way. 

The experience was incredibly easy and informative. 

Photo by @pulsephotocanada

Festival Grounds & Attractions

Festivals are supposed to be about the music, the experience, and the community. Celebrating with friends and connecting with new ones. Each year that passes is another that Shambhala perfectly executes a wonderful festival experience. This year, there were numerous stages that had been upgraded. Our favorite notable update was the colored light bars that were in Fractal Forest because they gave the forest more unique backlighting and depth at night. 

Each of the six stages provided incredible vibes and performances. 

The Village

Wonky bass and dubstep are really the style over at The Village stage. This is our favorite stage as you’re able to dance in the crowd, or above the crowd, or up above and around the main crowd. The party here is quite literally the dopest vibe in the world no matter who is playing.

 The Pagoda & The Grove

A variety of genres are always on display at The Pagoda, one of the most historic and iconic stages on Earth. This one features a massive Japanese-style house with the DJ performing in front of the house’s patio area with roughly 7-10 lasers going crazy throughout each set. This year Shambhala added in a little more rap and hip-hop too, pairing it with various experimental artists and music over at The Grove stage. 

Fractal Forest & AMP Stage

Another one of the most historic and legendary stages in electronic music is Fractal Forest. Here, you’ll catch a bunch of funky disco and a bunch of house. One of our favorite stages that features super grimy bass is The Amp, a massive amphitheater with bass that tickles your ears and body. Last but certainly not least, is the straight chill vibes over at The Living Room. This stage is right on the Salmo River and features some of the funkiest chill vibes at any given moment during the festival. 

Shambhala is all about providing a great experience. In addition to focusing on harm reduction, they also stay away from traditional corporate sponsorships. This means no big-name brands. This is an independent festival that works with local vendors to provide a variety of healthy food, popular merch, and community-based workshops for guests to enjoy. 

Soak in some psychedelic breathwork, find hidden puzzles, hide out in hammock gardens, write a note for the wishing tree, explore art galleries, and enjoy some burgers or sandwiches with meat from their farm! Shambhala prides itself on giving party-goers the opportunity to learn more about themselves, the community, and the world. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgyCYpGlzqQ/

Shambhala Stages & Sound

Everything at Shambhala is done with intention. In all honesty,  the level of detail that goes into turning this family farm into a magical utopia astounds us every time. The majority of the music at this festival is focused on energetic, wobbly, trippy, electronic tunes. The sound systems, visuals, and talent selection are always top-notch, and this year there was some added diversity to the lineup that had us excited. 

The festival spreads across 6 stages – each one managed independently. 

Every stage offers a unique atmosphere that has been handcrafted with the stage manager’s vibe in mind. This adds a personalized touch to an already intricate festival. While other festivals offer a variety of stages for viewers’ enjoyment, we have not come across another one that allows each stage to give off a vibe all its own. As you walk through Shambhala, you can’t help but feel like you are being transported between worlds. 

You can find a quick review of all of the Shambhala stages here.

Photo by @pulsephotocanada

Shambhala 2022 Daily Recap

Having attended two Shambhala Festivals in the past, we arrived this year knowing exactly what to expect. As we’ve done in years past, we hopped on a flight to Spokane, WA, and drove up i-5 across the Canadian border, then transcended into the beautiful mountains of British Columbia. 

Day 1 – Friday 

After checking in and grabbing our credentials, we made our way onto the permanent festival grounds for the first time in what felt like forever. We did a lap around the farm to get familiarized with any changes. As we were walking around downtown, we noticed a rock fountain had been added to the outskirts of the Pagoda stage. At 8 pm, we ventured to the Village stage where we watched Stylust Beats throw the fuck down. This was Joey’s second time visiting Shambhala and both times we walked up to Stylust crushing The Village Stage as our first set. 

After that set, we made our way to the Amp stage and made it just in time to see Of The Trees. Their set was quite rowdy and impressive, to say the least. Drop after drop, the crowd kept headbanging and cheering, and that really set the tone for the rest of the evening. Of The Trees set was definitely a highlight of the weekend for sure.

BBNO$ At The Grove

From there, we went to the grove to see BBNO$ – who put on an unbelievably entertaining performance! As a surprise,  BBNO$ pulled a fan on stage to celebrate her birthday by rapping the Yung Gravy verse to one of his songs.  In true Shambhala form, BBNO$ dropped acid on stage at the end of his set – kicking things up a notch and further setting the tone for a LIT festival weekend.

We wandered back to the AMP stage to see Apashe – who put on a great set. Delivering a combination of dope visuals and great music Apashe was on my list of artists to see before the festival, and dude definitely didn’t disappoint. After shaking our booties and smoking a few joints, we then made our way to the Village to end the night. 

One thing you can always count on Shambhala for is having Excision being included somehow, some way. We were hanging out numerous times up at The Village stage and X was seemingly there just enjoying the music with friends and other artists. For us old heads, right as Dion Timmer was finishing his set we wandered off and went to bed. Day 1 was a wrap and we ended it with a bunch of fire dubstep at our favorite stage. 

Photo by @pulsephotocanada

Day 2 – Saturday 

We kicked off day 2 of the Shambhala Music Festival at a press meetup in the VIP lounge behind the Pagoda stage. This festival does an amazing job at cultivating comradery on all levels, including between artists and media. At the meetup, we linked with our friend Jarrett Lopez, marketing director for EDM.com. Our friendship with Jarrett speaks to the vibe that is fostered at this festival. We met at Shambhala in 2019 and have been collaborating ever since. The reunions continued when we bumped into our friend Alex Dixon for some fun in-the-moment collabs including some interviews with artists and fans out in the campground.

At 9 pm we made our way to Fractal Forest – a legit dance party in the trees – and we hung there for a while soaking up the funky feels. Fractal Forest offers viewers a 360°-style stage that boasts unbelievable visuals. DJ Premier and DJ Jazzy Jeff put on an excellent show with spacey visuals that were otherworldly. 

We made our way to the Amp around 11:30 to catch a killer set from Truth. Joey had mentioned he’d seen Truth at Bass Canyon, a heavy dubstep and bass festival usually hosted at The Gorge in Washington State. Once again he threw down another incredibly heavy set and didn’t disappoint the crowd for even one second. Shortly after that, we found ourselves at the Village around 12pm where we caught Delta Heavy, another artist we’ve been fans of for quite some time.

You can always count on Delta Heavy to deliver a powerful set and now that DnB is super popular, the energy was really incredible. Ending the night back at the Amp stage with Shlump was also the right decision for us. This dude came through with some of the chunkiest, grimiest, wonkiest, and most wild flips from the entire festival weekend. If you’re unsure of what that even means, it would’ve blown your mind too.  

Day 3 – Sunday

On Sunday, we spent some time doing interviews and relaxing in the Artists Lounge before linking back up with our friend (and Shambhala performer) Just A Gent. Just A Gent, had flown in from Australia to perform from 11 pm-12 am at The Village Stage and is someone Joey had written about back when he was blogging more a few years ago. During the day, our friends and we took a dip in the river to cool down because the heat really started kicking in and taking a toll on our energy.

Soaking in the river vibes and partying with a gentleman who had a particularly big speaker and some bright short shorts really cemented the vibes on a historic 3rd day of the festival. Our friends decided Mythm was an artist we had to catch at 8:30 that evening so we hung out for a bit before we mosied over to The Sponges around 9 pm at Fractal Forest.

With Shambhala including Rap artists on the lineup for the first time ever, we went over to the Grove for Cordae at 10 pm and watched him kill it and do his thing. This was of course just days before the world was exposed to his beard, which he definitely didn’t have during his Grove performance. 

We briefly took in some of Clozee’s set at the Pagoda Stage before our friend Just A Gent went wild on the Village stage at 11 pm. His set was particularly dope because it was 20-30% different than the rest of the sets at that stage. What is normally heard is straight heavy dubstep, wonky bass, riddim, and trap, so it was a great change of pace to get a little bit of that infused with Just A Gent’s diverse sonic offerings. 

After he wrapped up his set, we stayed for about 10-15 minutes of Slander before catching Boogie T at the Pagoda. Slander did a really dramatic entrance and ultimately solidified the fact that they definitely bring hype and energy because of where their brand is at this point. Joey really put it best, “I don’t think they fit in with the whole Shambhala vibe.” 

After Slander finished up at Village and our guy Boogie T finished slaying The Pagoda stage, Subtronics came on and basically melted the crowd with wave after wave of bass. As a fan of bass music, I highly recommend doing whatever it takes to see Boogie T and Subtronics in your lifetime, and preferably sooner than later. 

To end the night we made our way to the Village to check out Culture Shock and Jantsen. We really didn’t know what we were getting into but it’s safe to say that Jantsen is a monster behind the decks. The songs and drops he picked were all 12/10 heavy whereas many of the artists were dropping 10/10s. Heavier than most of the other artists is really the only way to describe his set.

Already Planning For Shambhala Music Festival 2023?

It’s been a little more than a week since Shambhala ended and we are still coming down from the good vibes. We’ve been covering festivals for a while and still have yet to come across an event that is as welcoming (and unique) as Shambhala.

Yes, festivals like Burning Man come close – and share some of the same demographic – but Shambhala Music Festival truly is in a league of its own. 

As always, Shambhala Music Festival 2022 proved to be an adventure in pure electronic utopia. We can’t wait to be back in beautiful British Columbia next year for the 24th annual Shambhala Music Festival, hopefully, we will see you there! 

We want to take a moment to thank the hundreds and potentially thousands of volunteers and staff who helped to make Shambhala 2022 a smooth and memorable experience. 

Thank you to the strangers and artists that let us interview them throughout the weekend. 

We are always in awe at the deep and meaningful connections we are able to make at Shambhala Music Festival. 

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