Electric Forest is one of a kind — but if you have experienced it and want to find similar energy elsewhere, or if you are waiting to attend your first EF and want to explore comparable events in the meantime, there is a growing landscape of US camping music festivals that share its spirit of immersive art, community camping, and genre-diverse music programming. This guide covers the closest equivalents to Electric Forest across the US, the Michigan EDM scene, and the broader Midwest festival calendar.
If Electric Forest itself is what you are after, our complete Electric Forest festival guide covers everything about what makes it unique — from the Sherwood Forest art installation to the history, capacity, and what to expect on-site.
What Makes a Festival ‘Like Electric Forest’?
Electric Forest has a specific combination of characteristics that sets it apart and defines what people mean when they look for festivals like it:
- Camping-integrated: the camping experience is central, not just logistical — the campground is part of the festival
- Art and immersive environment: large-scale art installations and an environment that feels transformed beyond just stage and crowd
- Genre diversity: electronic music, jam bands, and alternative genres coexisting rather than one genre dominating
- Community culture: repeat attendees, a strong sense of shared values, creative expression in camping and attire
- Nature setting: woodland, forest, or natural landscape rather than urban or parking-lot environment
Not every festival that shares one or two of these characteristics delivers the full Electric Forest experience — but the ones below come closest across the different dimensions.
Festivals Like Electric Forest: US Picks
Resonance Music Festival — Ohio
Resonance is one of the festivals most consistently cited by Electric Forest regulars as the closest equivalent in feel and community. Held in southern Ohio at a rural campground, Resonance is a smaller-scale camping festival with a heavy emphasis on community, art, and a carefully curated lineup that skews toward electronic music, funk, and jam-adjacent artists. The intimate size — significantly smaller than EF — creates a festival where you genuinely know most faces by day two.
Hulaween — Live Oak, Florida
Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida hosts several camping festivals, of which Hulaween is the most Electric Forest-adjacent in its Halloween-weekend timing, forest setting (the Suwannee music park is a dense woodland venue), and jam band + electronic music blend. The Spanish moss-draped trees of the Suwannee park create a genuinely eerie and beautiful natural environment for the Halloween-themed festival.
Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival — Florida
Okeechobee is a larger-scale camping festival held annually in Okeechobee, Florida that draws a diverse national audience with a lineup spanning electronic music, hip-hop, rock, and jam bands. The festival has a strong art installation component and a well-developed camping culture that makes it feel more community-oriented than a standard stadium concert experience.
Dirtybird Campout — California
Dirtybird Campout is a camping music festival produced by the Dirtybird Records collective, focused primarily on house and electronic dance music in a campground setting. The camper community at Dirtybird is tight-knit and heavily repeat-attendee — the festival’s emphasis on activities, games, and interaction between sets gives it a camp-style energy that resonates with the Electric Forest community ethos.
Arise Music Festival — Colorado
ARISE is a Colorado camping music festival with a strong sustainability focus and a lineup that blends electronic, world, folk, and jam genres in a mountain setting north of Fort Collins. The natural environment — high altitude Colorado plains and mountains — gives it a distinct visual character from EF’s woodland setting, but the community values and genre diversity share significant overlap.
Midwest EDM Festivals and Events
Michigan EDM scene
Michigan has a meaningful EDM and rave culture that extends well beyond Electric Forest, centered primarily in Detroit — one of the birthplaces of techno music and home to the Movement Electronic Music Festival (formerly Detroit Electronic Music Festival / DEMF), held annually on Memorial Day weekend in Hart Plaza downtown. Movement draws international techno and electronic acts to the city that created the genre.
- Movement Electronic Music Festival: annual Memorial Day weekend, Hart Plaza Detroit — the most significant electronic music event in Michigan
- Magic Stick and El Club in Detroit: the leading mid-size electronic music venues in the state, booking touring electronic acts year-round
- Mid-Michigan and West Michigan have a more scattered club and event scene, with Electric Forest in Rothbury being the dominant large-scale annual EDM event for the region
Midwest EDM festivals
- Spring Awakening Music Festival — Chicago, Illinois: one of the largest EDM festivals in the Midwest, held each June in Soldier Field area
- North Coast Music Festival — Chicago, Illinois: Labor Day weekend Chicago festival with electronic and hip-hop programming
- STS9 — based in Georgia but tours frequently through Midwest venues; live electronic act with a strong Midwest following
- Decadence — New Year’s Eve festival in Denver, Colorado; not technically Midwest but draws heavily from the Midwest festival crowd
Forest and Woodland Festival Experiences
For those specifically drawn to the forest/woodland environment of Electric Forest rather than the music lineup specifically, a handful of events offer similar natural settings:
- Enchanted Forest (Oregon): a long-running amusement park and themed experience rather than a music festival, but the name frequently comes up in searches — not a music event
- Sherwood Forest Faire (Texas): a Renaissance fair held in a woodland setting near Smithville, Texas — visually evocative of the EF Sherwood Forest aesthetic but entirely different in character
- Faerieworlds (Oregon): an annual gathering celebrating faerie mythology, fantasy, and world music in a forest setting — shares Electric Forest’s emphasis on art and community in a natural environment
Camping Music Festivals Across the US
| Festival | Location | Vibe | EF Similarity |
| Resonance | Ohio | Intimate community camping, electronic + jam | Very high |
| Hulaween | Florida | Halloween forest camping, EDM + jam | High |
| Okeechobee | Florida | Large camping festival, diverse genres | High |
| Dirtybird Campout | California | House music camping, activities-focused | Medium-high |
| Arise | Colorado | Mountain camping, sustainable, diverse genres | Medium-high |
| Burning Man | Nevada | Art and community camping, no performances per se | Different but shared ethos |
| Movement | Michigan | Urban EDM, no camping | Music similar; environment very different |
Best Raves in the US for Camping
The term ‘rave’ in the US context has evolved to encompass both single-night club events and multi-day camping festivals with electronic music programming. For camping-specific electronic music experiences closest to Electric Forest:
- Electric Forest itself remains the gold standard for camping electronic music in the US Midwest
- Dirtybird Campout for West Coast attendees seeking the camping rave experience
- Hulaween for Southeast attendees wanting a forest setting with electronic programming
- Resonance for those wanting the most intimate, community-focused version of the experience
For the full list of US camping music festivals and independent festival reviews, see Festicket’s US festival guide. For the Michigan and Detroit electronic music scene specifically, see the Movement Electronic Music Festival.
The broader US camping festival landscape has grown significantly in the years since Electric Forest established the template it follows, and there are now genuine alternatives across every region — but none have quite replicated the specific magic of Sherwood Forest at 2am.
Explore the festivals listed here for your off-years or your friends who are not yet EF converts, and use them as a way to extend the camping festival experience beyond the single June weekend in Rothbury.
But when Electric Forest is on the calendar — prioritize it. There is nothing quite like it.
October EDM Festivals and Late-Season Options
For those who cannot attend summer festivals, or who want to extend their festival season into fall, October EDM festivals have grown in number and quality across the US. Hulaween in Florida is the most prominent Halloween-season camping EDM festival, but several other events offer late-season festival experiences:
• Hulaween (Florida) — late October; the most established Halloween-weekend camping EDM festival in the US
• Suwannee Hulaween (Florida) — same event; Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park hosts multiple camping festivals throughout the fall
• Camp Bisco (various) — camping festival with jam band and electronic programming; has moved between venues across years
• Imagine Music Festival (Atlanta, Georgia) — large EDM camping festival held in late August/September
What ‘Rave in the Woods’ Actually Means
The phrase ‘rave in the woods’ or ‘rave in the forest’ covers a wide range of events — from small, permit-less gatherings in actual woods to fully produced, multi-day camping festivals in woodland settings. Electric Forest sits at the legitimate, fully produced end of this spectrum, with professional security, medical services, sanitation, and the full infrastructure of a major festival operation.
Smaller, less-organized forest raves exist in various regions but carry significantly different risk profiles — no guaranteed medical services, variable drug harm reduction resources, uncertain permitting, and less predictable crowd dynamics. For most attendees, a produced festival like Electric Forest, Hulaween, or Resonance is the recommended way to experience the rave-in-the-woods concept safely.
The community that forms around camping music festivals like Electric Forest is one of the enduring gifts of the experience — connections made at the campsite or in Sherwood Forest regularly extend into genuine long-term friendships, and the EF community in particular maintains a warmth and openness that makes every edition feel like a reunion as much as a new event.
Whatever festival you attend next — whether it is Electric Forest itself or one of the alternatives listed in this guide — bring the same openness and community spirit that the EF culture embodies, and you will find it reflected back to you wherever you go.
The camping music festival scene in the US has never been healthier or more diverse — and wherever you find yourself camping and dancing under the stars this summer, know that the community spirit that makes Electric Forest special is alive across all of the events listed in this guide.
Happy festival season.
Michigan’s position in the US festival landscape is anchored by Electric Forest in Rothbury and the historic Detroit techno scene — two very different expressions of electronic music culture that between them give the state a festival identity well above what its size in the national conversation might suggest.
For Midwest attendees building their annual festival calendar, the combination of Electric Forest in June and Movement in Detroit on Memorial Day weekend covers both the camping festival and the urban electronic music experience within a single state.
Start there, and branch out from both.
The festivals in this guide cover every region, budget, and preference within the camping music festival world — from the most intimate 1,000-person community events to the 40,000-person Electric Forest scale.
The right festival for you is the one where the lineup, the setting, the community, and the timing align — and for a significant number of US festival-goers, that alignment happens most completely in Rothbury, Michigan every June.
Wherever your festival journey takes you this year — enjoy every moment, connect with the people around you, and know that the camping festival community across the US is rooting for every attendee to have the experience they came for.
Bottom Line
| Most similar to EF overall | Resonance Music Festival (Ohio) — closest community and vibe |
| Best for Southeast attendees | Hulaween (Florida) — forest setting, EDM + jam bands, Halloween theme |
| Best Michigan EDM event outside EF | Movement Electronic Music Festival, Detroit — Memorial Day weekend |
| Best Midwest EDM festival | Spring Awakening, Chicago — largest Midwest EDM event |
| Best for pure house music camping | Dirtybird Campout (California) |
| EDM raves in Michigan | Detroit’s club scene (Magic Stick, El Club) + EF in Rothbury |
Frequently Asked Questions
What festivals are similar to Electric Forest?
The festivals most similar to Electric Forest in community, genre diversity, and camping experience include Resonance Music Festival in Ohio, Hulaween in Florida, Okeechobee Music and Arts Festival in Florida, and Dirtybird Campout in California. Each shares Electric Forest’s emphasis on community camping, art-forward environment, and diverse electronic and genre-crossing lineup.
Are there EDM festivals in Michigan?
Yes — beyond Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan’s most significant EDM event is the Movement Electronic Music Festival held annually on Memorial Day weekend in Detroit’s Hart Plaza. Detroit is one of the birthplaces of techno music and has a year-round electronic music club scene centered on venues like Magic Stick and El Club.
What is the best camping music festival in the Midwest?
Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan is widely regarded as the premier camping music festival in the Midwest, offering a unique combination of immersive art installation, diverse music programming, and a devoted community camping culture. For EDM-specific camping festivals in the Midwest, Spring Awakening in Chicago is the largest single-genre electronic music event in the region.
What are the best raves in the US for camping?
The best US camping rave experiences include Electric Forest (Michigan), Dirtybird Campout (California), Hulaween (Florida), and Resonance (Ohio). Each offers multi-day camping with electronic music programming and a community-oriented camping culture that goes significantly beyond a standard day festival experience.
What is the Michigan EDM scene like?
Michigan’s EDM scene is anchored by Detroit, which has a historically significant techno heritage as one of the genre’s birthplaces. The Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit is the state’s most prominent annual electronic music event. Outside Detroit, Electric Forest in Rothbury is the dominant large-scale EDM event in the rest of Michigan, with a scattered club scene across mid-Michigan cities like Grand Rapids and Lansing.