Gem and Jam Festival: 5 Reasons Why Every Raver Should Experience This Sanctuary for Experimental Art

Gem and Jam Festival is a sanctuary for experimental art and for those seeking celebration in self-expression, reflection, transformation, and the beauty of the human experience. This festival is popular for its different and liberating atmosphere dripping in EDM with no border or edges, ultimately defying genres to create an instrumental and spiritual camping experience in the Sonoran Desert. A place where the freak flags fly, iEDM hopes you can attend this intimate and underground event every raver should attend at least once.

Check out iEDM's 5 Reasons Why Every Raver Should Experience Gem and Jam Festival below! 

Superlative Lineup of Experimental EDM + Instrumental Artists

Year after year, Gem and Jam Festival presents new expansions of experimentation in regards to lineup curation. Every year's lineup is a surprise as Gem and Jam shows no creative boundaries and curates artists that underline that notion to which every attendee is inspired to love by the end of the expressive three-day getaway. The lineup curation has continuously demonstrated the beauty of instrumental artists specializing in guitar, piano, drums, banjo, saxophone blended with electronica and its many subgenres. These performances are awe-striking to say the least as attendees will always remember a performance in which saxophone and basslines from a computer join forces. In short, Gem and Jam is widely known for providing sonic profiles like funk, jam, trip-hop, dubstep, trance, house, and a mix of it all! Gem and Jam is a home for special sets and LSDREAM is presenting his ambient music project, LIGHTCODE this 2023. 

Community of Artists/Art-Lovers + Craft Vendors

If you're seen at Gem and Jam Festival, chances are you already understand the empowerment and sacredness of art. Artists (and lovers of art) pushing the envelope yearn all year for this event! With tastes in unorthodox music bringing people together, you will meet others with similar interests, dance moves, beliefs, and love for the art bestowed upon you during the three days. Live painters grace the outskirts of every stage, waiting for you to gawk as you travel to the next stage. By the end of the festival, many painters finish a masterpiece before your eyes! Gem and jammers reunite to create and appreciate the love brimming from art itself. Work exchange workers, craft vendors, performers, and attendees bring their most creative and uninhibited selves leaving Gem and Jam more enriched than before.

A Flow Arts + Perfomers Galore

Speaking of community, Gem and Jam Festival is flow prop-friendly first and foremost! There are no regulations prohibiting flow props of any kind! It's disappointing when some venues don't allow LED gloves, but Gem and Jam welcomes you to bring your flow props no matter how big or small. Flowing to the heat's desires at every Gem and Jam are clowns, stilters, stilt acrobats, fire dancers, aerial artists, hip-hop dancers, and LED hula hoopers. Finding a performer (professional or not) to give you a late-night show is effortless in this environment!

One-of-a-Kind Workshops (+ Gem Show)

Of course, yoga seems to be included in every festival and it seems to be overlooked due to its popularity. To combat any monotony, Gem and Jam Festival seeks to provide stimulating workshops and lectures surrounding self-reflection, expression, healing, friendship, transformation, but most importantly, fun. Because Gem and Jammers have adored the drumming sounds workshops over the years, these workshops in particular contain sacred story, the ancient art of making music, meditating with fire and connecting with the heart. A sensory and sex workshop with Erin Voss (Sex & Neurodivergence), a harm reduction workshop: The New Abolitionists - Harm Reduction, Drug Policy, and the Fight for Human Liberty, and a psychedelics/mushrooms lesson are taking place this 2023. 

Because you can't have Gem and Jam without the gem, a gem and fossil exhibition occurs at the same time of the festival in case you'd like to take a break from watching performances. Calling all gemstone lovers to admire these crystals or display them, these are otherworldly natural sights you can't find anywhere else. 

An Inclusive Festival for ALL Ages

This festival excludes no one! Come one, come ALL! Gem and Jam Festival is known to attract audiences of all ages and entire families with its progressive lineup curation! It's not unusual for children or elders enjoying the Arizona sun and workshops dedicated for the family to bond. In fact, there is a space located on the festival grounds dedicated for families known as The Family Zone. The Family Zone holds events and playgrounds for families to explore performers, guest speakers, and other activities to entertain any one.

Photos courtesy of Gem and Jam Festival

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