Lightning in a Bottle 2026: Best Photos From the Fest Featuring Tinashe, Empire of the Sun, Zeds Dead & More

SoCal’s beloved Lightning in a Bottle festival returned this past weekend (May 21-24), with its 23rd edition thrown in the event’s characteristically loose and groovy style.

Drawing roughly 25,000 people to the Lake Buena Vista Recreation Area near Bakersfield, Calif., the sold-out camping festival featured one of the highest-profile lineups in its history, with headliners Mau P, Sara Landry, Empire of the Sun, Zeds Dead, Chase & Status and Barry Can’t Swim all pulling up to play in addition to a swath of other acts across dubstep, drum & bass, house and beyond. LiB, as it’s called by its regulars also hosted nightly stage takeovers by venerable L.A. party-mongers Respect Drum & Bass, A Club Called Rhonda and Baile World.

It was, straight-up, hot as hell over the weekend, with temperatures that hit upward of 95 degrees, making the site’s lake all the more crucial for the many attendees who floated around on inflatables shaped like ducks, unicorns and sharks during the day, with the music being played on shore adding to the hot and heady vibe.

As always, along with the music, the fest hosted workshops on food, art, intimacy, health, spirituality and more, along with loads of yoga. There was a sacred fire, there was a gong tent, there was a giant telescope where you could line up to see the famous Butterly Cluster of stars, there was LiB’s brilliant Mixtape area, where DJs played off cassettes and everyone danced in an area designed to look like the basement of your parents’ house after a rager in 1998.

It was, as always, fun and meaningful. These are some of the best photos from the weekend.