Symbiosis: The Connection Between Oregon Eclipse and Texas Eclipse

The Texas and Oregon Eclipse music festivals share more in common than meets the eye.

In 2017, a creative team named Symbiosis produced one of the most heavily discussed music festivals on the internet, the Oregon Eclipse Festival. The event was marketed as the Burning Man of the Northwest but centered around a rare solar eclipse. During the day, there were wholesome activities (e.g. yoga, art, herbalism, ritual performance, and water games on a neighboring lake) and music at night. Although the festival continues to be a topic of glorification on Reddit for attendees who swear that it was “the best music festival of all time,” the event did present challenges.

According to Reddit subthreads, the festival gates were besieged by roughly 40,000 hopeful attendees, many of whom were counting on buying tickets at the door. The surge in traffic was unexpected and created hours of painful stagnation. Some campers swore it took roughly 24 hours to gain entry. Due to the traffic and miles upon miles of car piles, festival leadership supposedly told security to allow everyone entry and to stop checking wristbands for the sake of expediency. The sheriff’s department was on the verge of shutting down the entire event if the traffic did not subside. Since the festival was counting on ticket sales at the gates, the production team lost out on significant revenue, which eventually perpetuated financial problems. Allegedly, much of the festival staff, mainly security, was never paid or paid inadequately.

Festivalgoers also complained that the event was poorly organized. Supposedly, the porta potties had lights – which inspired campers to spend an inordinate amount of time in the restroom doing lord-only-knows what – and there were not enough of them. People couldn’t locate porta potties or walked miles only to find ridiculous wait periods. The festival promised Wi-Fi, yet the entire weekend lacked cell service. The stages faced inward, toward the camps rather than outward toward the woods, which resulted in painful and incessant noise pollution.

Despite the complaints, the consensus remains that the festival was epic. According to Symbiosis’ recap on their website, the festival was ineffably magical. “The Solar Temple hosted an unprecedented collaboration of indigenous peoples from the territories of the United States and… around the world. A grand ceremony of communion and togetherness drew to a crescendo as the moon overtook the sun and the wall of shadow raced across the prairie, enveloping our entire community…”

When Symbiosis partnered with the creators of the Texas Eclipse Festival for their first event since the Oregon Eclipse, the internet was enraptured. The event was highly anticipated but it fell short due to unforeseen circumstances: a declared state emergency due to heavy rains, hail, and possible tornados. Disappointed campers were forced to exit the grounds early, completely missing the eclipse.

If the extreme weather weren’t enough of a catastrophe, a man experienced a seizure while hiking and eventually passed after being taken to the hospital. The organizers of Texas Eclipse posted a statement narrating the chronological order of events, addressing wild canards. The statement assured campers that there was no foul play, but Reddit recalled the ghost of Oregon Eclipse and provided eerily similar example after example of malpractice. According to Reddit, the most concerning issues stemmed from a lack of ADA staff and resources for disabled campers and limited medical staff.

Although rumors continue to foment online, the fan base that attended Oregon Eclipse faithfully pulls up to every Reddit thread, insisting that Symbiosis organized the best music festival ever. Were those Reddit users also the same attendees taking inordinate amounts of time in the porta potties doing Lord-only-knows what? Perhaps… but Lord only knows!

Saracha

Heralding from sunny South Florida, I am a proud Florida Woman. In my free time, I surf the swamp, wrangle gators, open fan mail, and tend to my pets. In the wild, I’m most often spotted at immersive art spaces, step tappin’ in a shadowed corner of the club, hater blockerz on, totally incognito as your resident EDM spice girl. Although I generally tout my spicy side, if there’s one thing I’d love to impress upon the world, it would be this: it’s not a waste to give love to those who do not deserve it – it’s a gift. The world would be a better place if we gave, in kindness and in mercy, to those who need it most with no expectation in return.

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