Lansing’s Common Ground Music Festival has been going through changes over the past few years. Growing pains – a transitional period, one might say. Once known for hosting an array of hairy classic-rock bands, the 15-year old festival has ushered in more alternative rock and mainstream pop stars over the past couple years.

On a vast estate of wooded property in Rothbury, Mich., the annual Electric Forest Festival, held June 25-28, once again illuminated the rural stomping grounds and tall pines with grandiose light displays – creating a haven for hippies and ravers partaking in the psychedelic experience. One of the many totems held by the fest goers read: “F***k Real Life” – a punchy way of letting you know the forest is meant to be an alternate, sometimes hazy, dimension. 

The summer is so chock full of festivals that it can get overwhelming. On any given weekend, you can go somewhere in the West Michigan region and find fun, food and music. We hate to break it to you, but you're just not gonna get to them all. That's why REVUE has compiled a short list of West Michigan's classic festivals. These are the events that have been going strong for years, and your summer is essentially incomplete without them. So, check out the list and plan accordingly.

In August 1970, Michigan hosted the mother of music festivals at Goose Lake in Leoni Township, a park 70 miles east of Kalamazoo. The three-day orgy of music, drugs and, inevitably, sex, makes today’s tightly controlled, corporate-run music festivals look like a day at the mall, which is really what they are, given the non-stop product pitches and sponsorships.