Nocturnal Wonderland has always been one of my favorite SoCal events. I’ve gone so many times I’ve honestly lost count. I’ve seen Nocturnal evolve from being held at NOS Event Center for a 1 day event to a full 3 nights of dancing for the 20th anniversary last year. I wasn’t sure how anything could top last year but somehow Nocturnal Wonderland took yet another piece of my heart and replaced it with unforgettable memories!
This year I was fortunate enough to be able to camp with my festie bestie @beartatos! I am pretty inexperienced with festival camping so the premiere camping option was a lifesaver! This package provided an already set up tent, air mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, a lantern, and upgraded bathrooms and showers in a secluded campground called Acorn Village. We brought an easy up canopy, decorations for our campsite and plenty of food, snacks and wine. We snagged some community bean bags to lounge around in during the day too. I highly recommend camping at Acorn Village for Insomniac events!
Day 1
On Friday we decided to dress to match the Unicorn crew! We wore our Magical Unicorn Crop Top, with Tie Die Velvet Bottoms, Lavender Leg Wraps, and Solid Lavender Fluffies! We headed out to Main Stage to Check out Valentino Khan and got our complimentary coconuts! Those coconuts were incredible! We made sure to start out each night with a refreshing coconut all weekend long! Through the crowd I spotted a pair of ears and of course it was none other than @plurrabbit! It’s always a pleasure seeing Jose and what crazy outfit he’s decided to rock for the occasion.
We made plans to meet up with the Unicorn Crew for 3lau b2b Audien! We walked onto the field at Wolves Den and suddenly there were 7 of us girls prancing around in matching outfits and dancing the night away! I busted out my fiberflies pixelwhip and sang my heart out to the set with the girls. Between the company and the music this set was definitely one of my favorites of the weekend!
After that we headed over to Sunken Garden to meet up with @jakeryanduh and @forbiddenkitten! You won’t have trouble finding Jake with his signature head dresses and Janelle was dressed head to toe in rainbow. These two are always a blast to be around. Their energy is always contagious and positive.
After we left sunken garden we met up with a few more friends to check out Mat Zo’s set. I’ve been skeptical of Mat Zo’s recent sets since but I really enjoyed this one! He even played Motzart, a throwback song which I absolutely loved! Me and Katie got some lightshows in during this set with our Levi Wand and Zero Orbit!
We ended out night wit Above and Beyond! To our delight we ran into @raveselfies, @edm_hermann and his lovely fiancée and @missnatalieclaire! Natalie was there with her mom who was attending her first rave. It was such an adorable sight to see! We had such a blast singing to each other all night. At the end of the night my friend invited us back stage after the set to meet Jono from Above & Beyond! I couldn’t imagine a better way to end my night than meeting 1/3 of my all-time favorite DJ group!
Day 2
@beartatos and I really wanted to check out the water park we’s heard so much about! We headed out with @duucky and @sky_nymph to cool off in the water. The waterpark was actually pretty big! It had a ton of grassy areas to nap in, a big pool, waterslides and a giant mushroom fountains! The Unicorn Crew joined us just in time for a group photo from one of the photographers. A second after this photo was taken a huge splash party erupted!
For the second day of Nocturnal we decided to do an Alice and Wonderland theme. I was Alice and Katie was the White Rabbit! We headed to the festival and started off the night with another complimentary coconut and hotdog! On our way to Sunken Garden for the Ajnuadeep takeover we ran into our Washington Unicorns @xoxkail & @butterfly_xo. I was so excited to see these girls at a SoCal rave and they seemed to be very excited to be there too! After that we headed over to the Smirnoff house and got a couple polaroids taken for us for free! I was loving all the freebies this year.
We decided to check out drum and bass legend, Spor, over at the Labyrinth before chilling out at the Anjunadeep stage for Yotto. Here we met up with @emazingbrian and his wife @kang_star and our good friend @alexjennison from INTO THE AM. These faces are always a pleasure to see while at work since our company is like family, but here at Nocturnal we were rave family! I had such a blast dancing and giving lightshows with our squad during Sub Focus, Lane 8 and Odezsa. At the end of the night we met up with the Unicorns and snapped some photos before ending our night at the silent disco!
Day 3
Katie and I made sure to lounge around on bean bags as much as possible during the day. We even got a massage by the masseuse in Acorn Village! On this day we dressed up as daisy kitties are wore Daisy Cat Ears, Mesh Halter Tops, Black Booty Shorts, Yellow Leg Wraps and Black Fluffies! It was a little chilly this night so we made sure to get a lot of pictures of our outfits before it got too cold.
Our night started out with a bang with Ephwurd and Alison Wonderland. We met up with festie besties @airicamichelle and @candicealice! It’s hard to miss their Mau5heads in a crowd! We also got a chance to finally meet @edmhumor. Her and @raveselfies are such sweet girls, and we hope to see more of them at future events.
We caught some of Hermitude before meeting up with @mobsterkitten for Flux Pavillion and Bassnectar. Here I got to meet and trade with a lot of ravers. Everyone loved my pixelwhip and wanted to try it out. We ended our night by checking out Chromeo with @forbiddenkitten before meeting the Unicorns at the silent disco.
The Silent disco was INSANE the last night. It was more packed than any night I had seen all weekend! I hung out with a couple of the @iheartravesunicorns, @sky_nymph_, and made some friends at the disco. We played around with our lights, dances and drank wine. They decided to play music on the speakers instead of on the headphones which got the crowd really pumped. My friend was closing out the Silent Disco and invited me to hang out on stage with him for a bit. I didn’t want the weekend to end but the sun was rising, so I said my goodbyes and returned to the tent to get some rest.
This year was full of so much amazing music, old friends, new friends, and new memories that I’ll cherish forever. Nocturnal Wonderland will always be my favorite SoCal festival and even though it just ended, I’m already excited to go back next year!
Catch Minnie, Mama Unicorn and I at Life is Beautiful!
