Sonic Bloom, the Unified Field, lit up the pinky blue sunsets and late-night starry skies in the snow-peaked mountains of South Park, Colo., June 19-22, with high-caliber downtempo as well as uptempo transcendental music that had everyone bobbing and waning: the relaxing rhythmic undulations of a “grooving hippie.”
The peaceful, trance-like fields of South Park, alongside an encompassing background mountain view, set off some of the biggest stages set up in Colorado, rife with futuristic stage visuals, onstage fire-spinning, trapeze artistry and more. New-age, hallucinogenic beats from Tipper with Android Jones visuals, Opiou, EOTO, Shpongle, Random Rab, Kalya Scintilla and more brought the love and personalized stage performances throughout the weekend. As to be expected from a smaller, transformational music and art festival, Sonic Bloom possesses an environmentally conscious “leave no trace” policy where everyone picks up their own trash and the festival does not sell or encourage plastic water bottles. The community that Sonic Bloom brought featured open-minded, evolutionary, earth-friendly hippies of today who picked up their cigarette butts and brought only positive energy.
Sonic Bloom was a small festival where it was easy to find friends, but big enough to wander around and see spectacular, one-of-a-kind art and craft vendors like Third Eye Pinecones, live art installations, Android Jones art and more. I enjoy smaller festivals, because you can speak to vendors and artists, and it is more personal because they have the time and space to communicate and remember you. I enjoyed a few minutes in the peaceful, powerful vibrations of the gong circle by The Sonic Portal, talked to The HeadSpace people, met Jarred Trantham of Lost Sailor Designs, offering wonderful hand-made leather wallets and notebooks, talked to the Grassroots “homies” who are never anything but nice, and saw the magnificent golden wire wraps from Jason Burruss and others. Conscious Alliance brought their beautiful large, Art That Feeds, felt Sonic Bloom poster by Michael Divine. I also enjoy seeing attendees walking around selling their own personalized art such as wire wraps and posters.
The campsite was spread out enough so that there was plenty of room, and it was never too far of a walk to the venue. The main stages Bloom Stage, CO Dome and the Hummingbird Stage all had positive energy, eccentric visual, trippy lights and great quality audio. The weather changed a lot during the day, from hot to cold, and the nights were extremely cold. The altitude was so much higher than in Tennessee that we all got out of breath easily and could not stay up as late as we normally would. It was almost too surreal to be in the midst of such a beautiful place experiencing one of the country’s most beautiful music festivals.
There were about seven food vendors in one area including Rocky Mountain Slices and THIA B.B.Q. Most of the vendors ran out of food the last day, but everything on the food menu was delicious and full of juices, vegetables and good meat. Beautiful Colorado harnessed a clean festival that did not want outside glass, aluminum or plastic inside. These limitations kept the festival free of a lot of trash and clutter. Small festivals like Sonic Bloom are nice because the people that come to transformational festivals are looking for a community-oriented festival where everyone is conscious of the environment, good music, family love and “heady vibes.” Bigger festivals can get run down with people who are trying to purely go to a festival for the first time and “party.” Transformational festivals can offer a huge learning experience for those looking for enlightenment, connections with traveling festival vendors and/or to get their own art out there and experience a special musical moment with a lineup that is not as common or mainstream as seen at most other festivals. There is something about the smooth tribal beats and flowery, colorful attire of the attendees that provides the ultimate sense of freedom and pure relaxation.
There was a lot of beautiful art sold inside and outside the venue, including crystals, and I was gifted many rare, beautiful stones from mines from all over the world. It never ceases to amaze you when someone so kindly gives you something from their heart. Sonic Bloom was the most fun because I met some of the best people, got to see many friends who now live in Colorado, and best of all be in the beautiful mountains. We were all unified under the same stars and came together as one to help complete the magical, four-day festival that is Sonic Bloom.
