As mentioned on my previous blog post, I have attended many music festivals around the world.  I love trying new music festivals and love trying new things in general.  I have never heard of Imagine Music Festival until an ad for it showed up on my Facebook.  I noticed that this festival does offer camping options and I really wanted to give it a try but wasn’t sure how and if this was even possible.  After talking to Chad from the Imagine team, I felt so much better and had to give camping at a music festival a try. With support from everyone at Unity Travel and Accessible Festivals, it was a total success and I loved the whole camping experience that was added on to the already awesome music experience of a music festival.  Read my previous post to see how my camping experience was as this post will be about the music festival itself and the accessibility of the venue: Atlanta Motor Speedway.

I was just in Atlanta four months ago for another music festival called Shaky Beats and can’t believe I am coming back already for another music festival.  I had a lot of fun then and I really did love the city and am actually really happy to be back so soon.  Imagine Festival is a 18+ 3 day event held the 3rd weekend of September and this year they added a late night Thursday with Dj’s playing on one stage.  This allows campers who have an early Thursday camping and festival wristband to set up their camp area before the Friday rush.  Me and my buddy decided on arriving Friday afternoon since I wasn’t sure about the camping and wanted to test out 3 days instead of 4 days.  General Admission for the 3 days cost about $249 USD plus taxes and fees, while GA camping spots start at $99 USD.  The 2019 edition of Imagine Festival features headliners including DJ Diesel (AKA Shaquille O’Neal who replaced a cancelled Diplo), Rezz, Above & Beyond and Marshmello .

Camping Or Hotel?

Normally, I have just stayed at hotels for music festivals, but since Imagine Music Festival offers camping options, it was something I really wanted to try for the first time.  If you prefer to be onsite for a more immersive festival experience and don’t want to worry about commuting back and forth to the festival, I highly recommend camping.  It was really ADA accessible compliant and was not as scary or challenging as I initially thought.  Disability or not, there is no excuse to miss out on this cool experience.  I recommend hotels for those who hate camping and prefers the luxury and comfort of sleeping indoors in a room with maid service.

Getting There

For those not camping onsite, there is day parking, taxis and rideshare options to get to the festival.  Official shuttles can also be booked on the Imagine website.  Just be wary about rush hour and certain times as roads can be slow.  Since we were camping, it was a lot less time consuming and easier to get to the event.  The main entrance into the festival has many stairs to get inside so there was a special flat entrance for those who can not do stairs.  The speedway is so huge and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) entrance is quite far on the opposite end of the track.  An ADA and info booth was really close to our campsite and any time we needed to get to the festival, a staff member would radio another staff member to come pick us up in an accessible golf cart.

This golf cart is similar to the ones used at EDC Vegas when I went back in 2015 and 2016. Again, we always had great smiling staff come and pick us up.  Yes, there are tie downs to secure the wheelchair and the ride is only a few minutes long to get to the ADA entrance by one of the other medical tents.  This was also the same location to get picked up by the accessible golf cart to bring us back to the camp site.

Atlanta Motor Speedway

The speedway itself was pretty wheelchair accessible.  Since it was on a race track, there is a lot of smooth pavement to wheel on.  Surrounding the track were grass and field sections.  Again, all areas were flat and easy to roll on.  Since the speedway is so huge, it can be a bit of a struggle to get from one end of the speedway to the other.  We never really had an issue because people were courteous in letting us wheel by…. even during set changes. Food trucks, shop vendors and other booths were easy to get to too and weren’t as crowded as I have seen at other music festivals.  Wider wheelchair accessible porta potties are located at every section of porta potties.  The gate hours to the festival were 7.30pm to 11pm on the Thursday, 4pm to 3am on the Friday and Saturday, and 4pm to midnight on the Sunday.

 

5 Music Stages

There are 5 music stages at Imagine Music Festival.  The main stage is called Oceania, while the next biggest stage is called Amazonia.  The third stage is named Disco Inferno with the next 2 smaller stages being called Six Feathers and Techyes. 

We tried looking for the ADA accessible viewing platform of Oceania on our first day (which was the Friday) and even tried asking other staff members where it was, but no one knew even though the festival map showed it was supposed to beside the VIP area platform.  We went to the VIP section which had a ramp and a raised viewing area and got the person monitoring that section to radio someone from Accessible Festivals.  For some odd reason, the ADA viewing platform was forgotten and one corner of the VIP area near the entrance was then designated for ADA guests.  We couldn’t even wheel up close to the front of the platform because there were couches and tables reserved for bottle service.  Being the main stage, we were spending most of our time at this stage, and the slight mishap did not dampen our mood.  We could still see really well all 3 days at this stage.

Amazonia stage was only open on the Saturday and Sunday and is quite a far distance from Oceania stage.  Again, there was an issue with accessibility at this stage.  For some reason, this ADA viewing area was not raised up and if I was close to the front of this area, I could not see a thing due to tons of people blocking the view.  I was told that this area was supposed to be raised and next year the staff will make sure it will be raised.  Both of the main stage ADA viewing areas had wheelchair accessible porta potties right behind it which was really helpful.

Disco Inferno was the largest of the 3 smaller stages and features a fire releasing globe or flower.  It got pretty warm everytime fire blasted out with the music but the whole set up was cool.  This stage along with Six Feathers and Techyes did not have any ADA viewing platforms and these stages were not as crowded as the other 2 main stages, so it was easy to get up closer to the stage.

 

Miscellaneous

Another thing that is worth metioning was that this year, there was a Vegas style pool party held on the Saturday from 1pm to 4pm.  There were no big name DJ’s playing music but just some local DJ.  This was fun regardless and definitely made me miss Vegas.  The weather was just so hot for the pool party just like the rest of festival.  Everyone just have to remember to keep hydrated as there are free water refill stations everywhere for your water bottles or hydration packs.  Also, since the music festival ends at 3am the Friday and Saturday, the only after parties are at the Silent Disco by the camp area or just people partying at their tents.

 

Again, Imagine Music Festival was another great, amazing and fun experience.  With the addition of a positive and memorable camping experience, this festival SHOULD be on your list for next year.  Even with the minor issues with the ADA accessible viewing platforms at both main stages, that did not affect my wonderful time at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  The venue itself was quite accessible and using the accessible golf cart to get to the ADA entrance worked flawlessly.  Big thanks to everyone at Imagine Festival, Unity and Accessible Festivals for one of the best weekends ever and I am hoping to be back next year whether it moves to Chatahoochie Hills or stays at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  Either way, with all those that are involved at this festival, I know it will be another great success and ADA accessible enough for those that need that service.