2015: Camp-outs won the North American festival circuit

If you went down to the woods in 2015, you'll probably have encountered a fat soundsystem and a euphoric bunch of dancers and DJs willing to push the good vibes all weekend long.

This was the year of the camp-out. Festivals held at lush camp grounds popped up everywhere and provided way more fun than their parking lot equivalents. California was a hotspot: the Dirtybird crew put on their first camp-based festival and Lightning In A Bottle spin-off Woogie Weekend made its debut. Symbiosis Gathering returned after a one-year break and Desert Hearts threw two festivals that were their largest and most hyped yet. There was also Sunset Campout and Northern Nights, meaning West Coast festival goers really do deserve a medal this year.

Elsewhere, Robot Heart launched Further Future in Las Vegas, What The Festival landed in Oregon and Shambahla returned to Southern British Columbia.

You'll only camp at giant fests like Coachella, TomorrowWorld and Bonnaroo if you're trying to avoid spending $600 a night on a Motel 6. That means that only half of the attendees get caked with dirt while the other half are as dolled-up as The Kardashians, meaning there's going to be a clear divide.

As you can probably tell, camping is kind of a requirement at these festivals. For the most part, once you're out there, you, your friends and everyone else are all in it together. Not everyone requires access to cold-pressed juice and hot showers; some just desire a really unbelievable experience with high quality dance music to keep them fully locked in to a weekend marathon. And this type of boutique experience is so incredibly important to the scene, because there are so few major festivals that leave attendees with any room to breathe and, most importantly, relax.

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Desert Hearts, which happens bi-annually, and Dirtybird campout, are unique as the whole of both events takes place around one stage – revolutionary given the multi-arena bonanzas going on elsewhere on the US circuit. And one stage makes everything way more intimate: Desert Hearts, inarguably for the more advanced partier, went for 100 hours of non-stop house and techno around a single DJ booth. You can't really experience that anywhere else because, well, you'd have to be off the grid on an Indian Reservation in order to pull that off. As the Hearts crew do.

As this season showed, every year more and more people are popping their dusty festival cherry, which means that with every future camping festival, we can predict a growing number of experienced attendees. They'll be better prepared for the elements, and stronger, fully contributing members of the community. Because that's what makes one party better than the next: how well everyone works together to make sure it's the best fucking time.

Where the greatest city festivals such as Movement in Detroit feature some of the most lawless afterparties where you can lose your shit for the whole weekend, it still doesn't rival the bizarre families that form over the course of a three day, off-the-grid experience.

For instance, both Desert Hearts and Dirtybird crews passed out necklaces and buttons and weird memorabilia at their camp-out events. Now, every time you run into someone in the 'real world' with a Desert Hearts or Dirtybird necklace, you feel like you must know each other somehow because those parties were so intimate. Maybe that's because you can bet that at these small festivals, attendees will have positive, shared experiences.

The festivals are also crossing over, continuing that intimacy: The November edition of Desert Hearts was affectionately referred to as 'Dirtyhearts' because Claude VonStroke and J. Phlip headlined and Mikey Lion played Dirtybird campout before that.

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Both Desert Hearts and Dirtybird hosted stage takeovers at Symbiosis which, judging by the title, might seem like a festival full of hippies is actually a festival full of hippies; but it's not just for them anymore. The location on the reservoir is truly something unique, and the stage design is nothing short of majestic, rivaling even the major productions far-removed from the boutique festival game. The music still features a stage of psy-trance every night, and many people galloping around to wobbly artists like Griz, but even this year with bookings like Four Tet, Max Cooper, and Bob Moses signifies a shift in the scene.

This is not to say that the end of a camping festival is not sometimes rough. The pack down on a come down, the very empty aching stomach, and the brutal drive back to civilization and cell reception is really like a whirlwind journey coming to an end. A great camp-out will make you feel things. You'll feel attached to the family that forms, causing your recently transformed self to believe that you've been a part of something new. Many of these festivals are considered Burning Man spin-offs, so maybe they just exist to give you a taste of the bigger burn.

It's starting to be more apparent that young ravers are ready to ditch the parking lot raves for a more immersive, transformative festival experience. The uncomfortable police presence, 50,000 plus people, traffic jams and 11pm curfews at those monolith events is the opposite of "vibes". It's safe to say, camping festivals are here to stay in California, so grab a skin-tight leotard near you and get ready for the longest, deepest festival season you've ever experienced.

Carré Orenstein is Mixmag LA's Managing Editor, follow her on Twitter

Alex Jenkins is a freelance illustrator based in London, follow him on Instagram here

Photos: Jamie Rosenberg