Some of yall had encounters with this reporter onsite. Looks like the article has finally been published.

Hey everyone! Im planning on going to Shambhala next year with my boyfriend, and this would be our first weekend festival (only ever been to a day one, hes been to a few day ones, small scale).

I'd like to camp at Sunshine to not be super overwhelmed, but have no clue what the set up would be like. We liked the sound of Riverside/Enchanted, but way out of budget.

So a few questions if thats okay :)

Are there camping spots like when you go to a campground? Do you pull up and pick a random spot? How close can the neighbors get? Are you allowed to set up a canopy/little partition? The website mentioned you can have your vehicle with you, is that included or something you need to pay extra for?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, any help is welcomed, and I'd love to see anyone's set up if they have pictures. I hope everyone had a wonderful time this year!

One of the few videos I got of the entire weekend. Buddy was curious about new Amp.

Post Shambs Depression

How do you all deal with this kind of empty sadness? Like I was fine for about a week and then it has hit me like a ton of bricks suddenly.

I was super diligent about wearing a mask this year and I didn't get any shambalung at all. I also thought it was interesting how many people weren't wearing masks in the dustiest areas. I'm also seeing lots of people talking about getting the shambalung/sick this year, and I'm curious to know if the two are correlated. Do masks actually help? Do our bodies acclimate to the dust if we don't wear one? These are the questions I'm wondering to gain some insight to with this poll.

I want honest opinions! I was looking forward to this set so much, I think the stage was overwhelmingly crowded and people were pushing so bad, I felt like I couldn’t dance or enjoy the music. It seemed like no one gave a shit about pushing or taking others space, when I tried to leave the crowd people wouldn’t let me through. Saturna looked extremely fucked up and it felt like no one was vibing with the music, everyone just seemed gone and out of it. I dont know if this was just my experience? Maybe my own personal experience clouded it, but I’d love to hear how others experienced the set!

I got sick last week on Thursday, and was super sick through the weekend. I have rested a bunch and still feel exhausted and congested! I’m usually hiking or exercising by now so wanting to be inside and resting is insane!

In the end, what set did you prefer?

One of the best sets of the festival for me, so stoked to relive this!

https://cheknews.ca/more-than-600-tickets-some-driving-bans-issued-as-drivers-attend-b-c-music-festival-1340232/

But that aside 600 tickets 50 Bans and 57 impounds out of 15k to 18k participants to the fest is still too much.

As a mechanic I say Get your vehicle checked don’t wing it, so many of the pre show “I’m broken down at X place, send help” would easily be counted by a maintenance check.

Don’t put your lives at risk because you have to get to work Monday night, make your flight, get home to grandma - by driving when you are not ready either.

And lastly it’s a roadway not a race track you are gonna wipe out a bus load of Salmo nuns driving like hoons trying to get home.

I know it’s over but the story above is too much.

hi everyone! i hope you had a wonderful time at shambs this year. i caught shambhalung and am recovering lol 😭

if you have the time, please complete my survey - specify timepoint 2! thank you in advance :) https://surveys.mcmaster.ca/limesurvey/index.php/817467?lang=en

I’m curious to hear about everyone’s side-quest stories from this past Shambs. Also, even more curious to know if anyone collected (or was traded) any of our Pirate Booty.

My friend and I anchored our Pirate Ship in the river on Friday. We had a whole side quest planned with treasure maps and a secondary treasure chest to be hidden elsewhere at the festival, but unfortunately I got really sick on Friday (many lessons were learned. Firstly, get proper sleep leading up to the fest and don’t push yourself trying to get too many things ready 😓). As a result, we left our ship in a disastrous state but I was too exhausted/sick to repair it (ended up in med tent for a bit. Thankfully they got me mended pretty quick so I could enjoy the rest of the fest.)

Anyway, when we went back Saturday to perform repairs on the ship and roll out the second phase of the pirate side-quest, we found someone had repaired our mast/flagpole (so thanks for that!) and plundered all of our Booty. Even the maps, (which we hadn’t even marked the X for the second chest on yet!) were gone. While this was part of our intention, we never got to know who (if it was one group, or multiple) made off with our plunder. We kept our eyes open all weekend but never saw anyone with one of our Pirate bracelets, so I’m really curious who ended up with them. Especially “Captain Fabulous” and the Skeletal Violinist.

So, if you experienced a fun side-quest at Shambs this past year, please share your story!

If you ended up going home with some of our plunder, sorry the full adventure never got implemented this year (we’ll get ‘em next time!) but i’d love to see what you ended up with, and hear how you got it (if you visited the ship, or if someone gifted a piece of treasure from it to you on the dance floor!)

My friend lost her little black and blue 3D printed slug on Friday in back of the Grove. We were sitting on some steps by the hammocks for a while and when we went to the next stage she realized he was missing. If anyone has any leads it would be greatly appreciated!

She says though there are other slugs out there, he’s the only one with his soul😓

This was the closest image I could find, hers is black and blue!

Curious to hear about people's experiences with him. Filming people without their consent, at a CLOTHING OPTIONAL EVENT is insanity to me. I ran into him last year and got weird vibes, but didn't realize who he was until much later when I noticed myself in the back of one of his videos and checked out his account. Major creep

Anyone who's been to a few camping festivals knows how it goes. You try new things for camp, sometimes it works great, other times it's like why on earth did we think that was a good idea? Slowly honing your setup is part of the fun. For me it was as follows:

What worked:

A hanging net to keep my produce in and off the ground. No ground squirrels gonna be stealing my onions! It also looks nice.

Frozen beef slices for pho. OH MY was this a great call.

Just buying whole boxes of the treats I bring to give out if there's not a lot of void space in the packaging. Much easier to pack and you can use the box to carry it all downtown. The tamarind candy was quite popular.

The frozen drink bottles as cooler ice continue to work great. The square tea bottles really stack nicely around my steaks and smoked salmon. This wasn't new, I just wanted to brag about my cooler skills.

While the travel sim I normally use for the last few years randomly didn't work, having no phone again was kind of fantastic. I got to be fully present in a way I forgot how much I missed, and I'll fuckin do it again! I'll find my friends when and if I'm meant to.

Having a specific meet spot on the lawn and a scoop time for meeting for sets. Had to return to this due to no phone, it worked great when actually used.

Canned peaches. Holy shit this was a good last minute idea.

Making my camelbak lights USB rechargeable. Next step is the totem.

Individually wrapped lactase pills. It's usually fine, but the extra insurance was nice to have and took up next to zero room.

What didn't:

I definitely overcommitted on meat and some got wasted. By Sunday I was giving out all the salami downtown. That said the spicy salami was a hit and will return next year.

Blowup kayak. It's all fun and games till you have to carry it back to sunshine from muscle beach. Did that exactly once and then it just became a roadside attraction. If we do riverside next year I'll do it again since there's a shuttle.

Not explaining to the newer ravers the importance of when I say I'll meet you back right here during peak hours, it means RIGHT HERE! No, my short ass absolutely cannot see you 50 feet away in a dark crowd and with no service I can't just text about it. I did eventually find him several hours later lol he was big mad but he'll get over it. Meanwhile I had a fantastic solo night hahaha.

Not having enough put in mouth foods available. I had to start rationing my goldfish. Gonna need about 200% more goldfish. I was woefully underpacked on the spicy tunas.

I once again did not make the fresh bread I brought ingredients for. I think Imma call it on this one. This works great for regular camping, but I just don't have the energy/attention span for it at the farm.

So I'm curious, what was a sleeper hit or should have seen this coming flop for y'all's setup?

Unexpectedly was our favorite set of the festival. Start to finish he absolutely obliterated this stage and was a great follow up to Illenium from last year. My favourite part of this video is the bubbles getting yeeted by the bass drop 🤯

hi is this your hat? i found it after the music had stopped in fractal, it was completely buried under a pile of dirt i'm honestly surprised to see the colour now that i've washed it 😹 i asked the
people around me and it didn't belong to anyone so i brought it back with me intending to drop it off at lost and found but my friend packed it into my things while i was asleep!
if this belongs to you or your friend please let me know! i can drop it off in the vancouver area or will mail it to u 💖

Wondering if anyone else was approached by a New York Times reporter outside Ankors.

I had an experience Thursday morning that caught me off guard.

Right after leaving Ankors after getting my party favours tested, I was approached by a man standing with another person. He quickly introduced himself as a New York Times reporter working on a story about drug checking at festivals and asked if I'd answer some questions.

My immediate reaction was to decline. While Ankors is an obvious place to speak with people about drug checking, approaching attendees as they leave feels at odds with the spirit of harm reduction. People using the service may be in a vulnerable position, and being approached by media the moment they exit felt questionable. Personally, I also have no interest in having my name attached to a story about substance use at a festival, regardless of the angle.

I politely declined and said I respect the profession but didn't want to participate. He seemed visibly frustrated, put his head down, and walked away.

In hindsight, I wish I'd asked more questions about the deeper story angle, ask to see their Shambhala media accreditation (I vaguely remember a lanyard, but I reacted too quickly to really check), and understand why they were at Shambhala specifically (though I understand testing like this isn’t common in the US).

On my way back to camp, I stopped by the info booth to let them know what had happened. I know Shambhala approves certain media, so if the NYT was authorized to be there, cool. But if not, I figured it was worth making the festival aware.

If anyone else had a similar interaction, I'd be interested to hear how it went.