#festivalseason - Atmosphere Gathering 2017 might have been the most joyful festival of the year.

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The people behind the Atmosphere Gathering have built something truly special and unique in the increasingly large and saturated festival world. In the heart of Vancouver Island, nestled in the midst of the Comox Valley, they've built a festival that is part folk festival, part rave ala Bass Coast or Shambhala, part yoga/health/body festival ala Blessed Coast, an interactive arts festival – the breadth of art contained in the relatively small park is astonishing. And on top of everything, Atmosphere Gathering is all-ages to boot. Maybe more than ever in my life, I thoroughly enjoyed the presence of children, running around oblivious to everything but the immediate need for more fun, more dancing. Their energy was absolutely infectious and helped to power me through an incredible weekend in the soft, grassy embrace of Cumberland's Village Park.

The creative spirit of that youthful energy was on display everywhere you turned in the small, but never crowded (!!!) area. Paintings were on-going works of art, changing each time you passed by. The Elixir Temple was dispensing all variety of remarkably healthy beverages, created with a seemingly-endless array of fruits, veggies and spices. People of all-ages, suited up in a harness to help them climb safely, piled milk crates impossibly high throughout the day. There was a misting station that looked like an octopus! A strong selection of local vendors brought their most colourful and creative wares. And the musical performers all brought their best stuff, delivering some of the finest sets I've seen this summer in by far the most intimate festival environment I've experienced. Each provided highlights that hold up to anything else I've seen this year. These are some of those highlights.

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#festivalseason - An in-depth musical review by a Groove Rider at Shambhala.

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There is no experience like Shambhala. The mountain setting, the Life-giving river, the PK Sound, the hoards of beautiful people, the ridiculous stage designs, the colours, the art...all of it combines for one of the most unique experiences any of us are likely to find on this planet. But all of this pivots on the music. The best Djs, spanning nearly every genre of dance music you can imagine, provide the soundtrack for all the ridiculousness and that soundtrack is the thing is thing that keeps me coming back year in and year out. There are many places to read about the people and the culture of Shambhala, albums of photos by people far more qualified than me documenting the bliss (Check the Shambhala FB page for a cornucopia of said photo albums). So with that, here is my overly long, in-depth look at the way I spent my musical time on the Farm this year.

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Slynk, your older brother's favourite DJ. The unedited interview.

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This past summer I ventured to my first Shambhala Music Festival and ran into the force that is known as Ghetto Funk and one of their biggest ambassadors, Slynk. Built on a real organic-sounding foundation funk, soul and hip-hop, Slynk became one of my entry points into the world of electronic music. It's a rabbit-hole I sometimes regret going through, not for the music but just because of the sheer immensity of the hole. I don't think it will ever end now, fuck it. In any case, Slynk came through my hometown Victoria last month (December) for an epic night with Featurecast and Neon Steve and I took the opportunity to get ahold of him for a little talk. Read it up. We chat about his musical beginnings, his love of his adopted Vancouver and the fellow DJs that get the thumbs up from the man himself. Big ups to Slynk for bringing funk to the people and, less importantly, taking some time to talk some words at me. Respect.

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The Shambhala Journals - #3.5 in which I get to share one of my new favourite dudes with you all.

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By far one of my favourite parts of Shambhala was the Fractal Funk Jam. I like funk music. I like bass. Straight-up. Pure and simple. And because of the good times that was the Funk Jam I was able to see Slynk, in some form or another, twice! (I caught the first portion of his own set at the slightly exhausted hour of 4am before crashing to Earth in a funked-out stupor.) Let me tell you all this - Slynk is a bad, bad man.

To clarify with those of you who may not be down with the parlance of our times (Or the parlance of 1974), he's a bad motherfucker in that good way where you wanna ride with him on a sunny Saturday afternoon, blasting a chonger and rocking the sub woofers at an ungodly level.  

And because he's such a bad, bad man, Slynk has bestowed upon the world this - his funktastic, highlight-reel set from Shambhala's 2013 incarnation. Don't listen to this unless you have some space to stand up and shake your ass. Because no matter how, where or when you attempt to listen to this you will end up shaking your ass. There's no question about it.

Stream it. Download this sumbitch, Just make sure you do it up.

Much love and respect to Slynk!  

Hey guys! I'm really excited to finally upload my Shambhala Fractal Forest mixtape this year. It was by far the best year this year at Shambhala. I had so much fun and it was great to see old friends and meet new ones. Thanks to EVERYONE who made it to my set at 4am.