Written by Elizabeth Windham and Matthew Demarko

To close out Imagine Festival weekend, we had a lovely bout of self-care to start our Sunday adventures, reminding us of a years past Imagine that hosted a cute little section for yoga, chakra workshops, and meditations. Once we had recovered from the weekend’s late nights, we headed to DEF’s second party to close things out incredibly strong and incredibly loud.

We were so excited to see the upgraded Health Activation Stage, Noa | Aon. This stage was planned to have sound baths, yin yoga, sets to help you sleep (which is nearly impossible to do at an EDM Camping festival), trap yoga, Ecstatic Dance, Reiki healing and so much more. One of the offerings was something called Technolini, a combination of Kundalini Yoga and Techno music, made possible by Technolini creator Br33zzyy. And just like the DJ’s who stepped up after the big show was cancelled, Br33zzyy found a venue to bring her healing to the A. Having flown in from LA and not knowing the city, she was even able to recruit crystal vendors and others who sold jewelry, yoga mats, herbal cigarettes, vintage t-shirts and more.

We started our Sunday morning setting our intentions for the day with a cacao ceremony, sipping delicious hot chocolaty morning magic from Guatemala. We then got to experience Technolini. Even though this version lacked Br33zzyy spinning on the decks, her bluetooth guided playlist was powerfully grounding, leading us with soft beats to start and building up to the middle of the yoga session with the heaviest techno imaginable.

As a practitioner of Kundalini, our co-writer Elizabeth found the heavy techno beats mimicking our heartbeats to truly elevate us spirit, body and mind. It also made the peace of the final rest and Shavasana that much more powerful.

Having received our Spiritual Guidance for the day, we were ready to head back out into the city wonderland of shows. Just like a festival, we had discovered our favorite stage, and DEF was the host. Gearing up to experience DEF’s Underground Sunday show with a bass heavy lineup, we grabbed our earplugs and made our way back to the cement ravers playground.

Changing things up for Sunday, DEF put the stage in the middle of the dancefloor at crowd level, a dope changeup intended to make the experience about the music and the crowd and not about watching an artist. We were met with DJ Molokai spinning with a crowd circled around him, separated by short metal fences. The smiles from the DJs being surrounded at crowd level were so entertaining to witness. Everyone was having a GREAT Sunday at the Underground. The lineup on Sunday brought some of the same faces we saw on Saturday but also a new wave of bassheads, pashminas, and hoopers.

As the night fell, on one particularly devilish drop, Integrate (composed of Vctre + Black Carl!) the lasers blasted on and the crowd swelled. People were not slowing down anytime soon. While we had to leave, we heard the gates had let in only 800 of the 2000 tickets sold, as our eyes went wide looking at the line around the block.

For the entire festival weekend, the energy of the crowds we witnessed every night was contagious. We felt ignited with how much music we were inhaling. With the smart scrambling and ambitious work put in by all the promoters and party throwers, we were able to tap into that “can’t stop won’t stop” beam of Universal flow that festivals give us. And we most definitely, 100 percent felt the need for a recovery day on Monday.

Though we were heartbroken and maybe even shed a tear or two hearing the cancellation of our city’s EDM festival, we were inspired and in awe of the resilience, collaboration and determination that ensued. Every day waking up it felt like EDC Vegas, raging from dusk till dawn. We met amazing people each day; people who traveled from Miami, New Orleans, Nashville, and as far as Taiwan. Thank you to all who made this weekend so special. We are in awe and inspired by the creative force of the festival community and our city #ATLHOE.

All photos by Matthew Demarko