Elements Music & Arts Festival, August 7–9 2026, Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, PA

In 2018 I wrote that Elements was the best festival I'd ever attended in my life, and I meant it. I'd been to Dozens of festivals and Elements still took it. But when I go back and read that piece now, the thing I notice is that I barely wrote about the music. What I wrote about were the micro-moments.

Sitting on our cabin porch on a Saturday night, warm and cuddly and laughing uncontrollably for an hour while it started to drizzle. Going out at 6pm on Sunday and coming home as the sun came up when we weren't even trying to stay out late. Camp counselor Rawb Lane appearing on my porch dressed as Peter Pan to tell me to "never grow up, but also clean up."

None of that was on the lineup poster. All of it is why I'm still going eight years later.

So here's my 2026 preview, organized around my favorite part of the festival: where the micro-moments are going to be.

First, the obvious: this lineup SLAPS

If you are coming for the music, you will not be disapointed!

Phase one brought Porter Robinson (DJ set), Above & Beyond, Excision, Subtronics, Chris Lake, Sub Focus, and Of The Trees, with CloZee, LSDREAM, SVDDEN DEATH, Ganja White Night, Louis The Child, Opiuo, A-Trak, I Hate Models, Cloonee, KETTAMA, and Ivy Lab underneath. Phase two added fifteen more and genuinely rounded out the weekend: Charlotte de Witte, Boys Noize, Tiga, ATLiens, Big Gigantic, Mersiv, Ray Volpe, Nikita the Wicked, YDG, Wankdat (Crankdat B2B Wooli), plus Dirtwire, Tractorbeam, Chris Lorenzo, and Matroda.

but wait, there's more!

Music highlight #1: GRiZ, Sunday, chasing the golden hour

In April, Elements dropped a surprise addition to the weekend: GRiZ is bringing his "Chasing The Golden Hour" set to Long Pond on Sunday, August 9.

This is the one of the festival's sunset sets, alongside CloZee, Ganja White Night, and Louis The Child. And a sunset set at Elements is simply magical, you don't want to miss the transition from day to night.

Music highlight #2: they tore down the Fire Stage and started over, and Earth Stage got updated too

The single biggest production change this year is that the Fire Stage is being completely rebuilt from the ground up, designed in collaboration with international designers, and described by the festival as "a living temple of sound ancient, explosive, and deeply ritualistic. Not just a stage, but a shared moment of release, where music, architecture, and energy collide."

The Earth Stage is getting a redesign too, along with new creative concepts throughout the Vibe Villages and a fresh batch of art installations. There's also Glitter Tongue, a new vintage candy and soda shop, which I personally cannot wait to see.

Elements takes stage design seriously and they've never treated the four elements as decoration. The water, air, earth and fire stage all have different types of music and vibes.

Water: Water is the one you go to when the afternoon gets brutal, all flowing melodies, bass music and deep grooves with shade! I usually end up at this stage for the first set of the day.

Air: Air is the one you never plan for and always end up at, full of roaming performers and color and small surprises, where having no schedule is the entire point and the best thing that happens to you all weekend happens on the way to somewhere else. Last year the best set of the weekend for me came from missing a huge headliner to see Nimino! I'll never forget it.

Earth: Earth is the one that puts you in the woods, tucked into forest and art installations until the trees and the crowd and the sound stop feeling like separate things. The new design looks really freakin cool with a Deer Spirit in the center.

Fire: has always been the one that runs hardest and latest. Past builds had literal fire to keep you warm late at night. If they're rebuilding it, plan a night around finding out what it became.

Activity highlight: the Fun Factory, and the return of the Funtender

Here's the part I'm most excited about, and the part that will not appear on any lineup graphic.

Rawb Lane is back as the official Funtender, running the Fun Factory.

If you're new: Rawb is a House of Yes mainstay who has been the connective tissue of this festival since the Lakewood days as Director of Fun, Activities Coordinator, the guy behind the Lost Vinyl Scavenger Hunt (a scavenger hunt, but with actual vinyl records hidden through the campgrounds), the barter-only no-limit blackjack table, the costume parades, the rowdy relay races. In 2019 he told a reporter that what he looked forward to most was "having an excuse to be silly again, to be able to just play without any reason or reward and just play for the fun of it. That's why I base a lot of my activities around just playing, not winning."

That is the entire thesis of this festival delivered by one man in an improbable wig.

And this is my actual advice for the weekend, the one thing I'd tell you if you only listened to one paragraph: at some point, skip a set and go do something stupid at the Fun Factory instead. You will not remember the fourth bass set of the day. You will remember losing a relay race at 2pm in the woods to a stranger dressed as a lobster. Every single one of my Elements micro-moments came from saying yes to something that wasn't on the schedule.

What To Wear: JSD Drip in the market

JSD Drip is vending at Elements this year, and if you're doing any shopping on site, start there.

Jess makes handmade, small-batch rave athletic-wear out of Brooklyn. Zero-waste, designed by festival, burn, and party professionals who understand what it takes to still be dancing at sunrise. Which is the whole reason to buy from someone who actually goes. Her Summer 2026 collection is almost entirely new silhouettes, and it's built for exactly this weekend:

• Hotpants in Electric Sky Sparkle ($50) — the daytime answer for an 85-degree afternoon, and the sparkle does real work under lights after dark.
• Breaker Tank ($80) or the Peekaboom Tee ($80) in Psychedelic Sunrise — breathable up top matters more than anything else you'll wear.
• Mars Remix Skort ($85) — a skort is quietly the correct festival garment. You get the silhouette and you get to sit down in the dirt without thinking about it.
• Garter Legging ($85) — my pick for the 2am temperature drop and, not incidentally, for tick coverage. These are the woods. Nobody puts this in festival guides and everybody should.
• Peek-O-Boom Set in Neon Wormhole or the Romper in Wonderland ($130 each) — one piece, nothing to adjust, nothing to lose in a dark forest.
• VMA Zip-Front Catsuit in Crystal ($150) — the statement piece, and full coverage sounds wrong for August right up until you're standing in a field at 4am watching the sun come up.

Everything is made in small batches, so if you want something specific for August 7, order ahead rather than the week of — or find her booth on site. jsddrip.com / @jsd_drip.

And if handmade festival fashion is your thing, there's a fashion show for it this year: sustainable streetwear brand SOULVISION and designer Cassidy Carballo are hosting a runway of fits that are thrifted, upcycled, handmade, borrowed, or bought from small businesses — Saturday, August 8 from 6:30–8pm at the Pitstop in Northside Camping. All models get a trinket for participating.

Practical stuff

Layers. Early August in the Poconos means humid 80s in the day and genuinely cool nights — often 55–60°F by 3am. The most common rookie mistake is dressing for the afternoon and having nothing left for the later sets.

Rain. Assume it. Poncho, plus a second pair of socks and shoes for the weekend. For the love of god don't forget to bring your shoes into your tent at night.

Terrain. Forested ground, not a field. Closed-toe shoes you can walk miles in beat anything cute. Bring a headlamp, the paths between stages and back to camp can be dark.

Water. Drink it. Sing the "It's water time" song every hour to all your friends and really make it a thing. Dehidration is the killer of late nights, drink water while you dance the night away.

What I'm actually hoping for this year is something I can't plan and won't see coming: a stranger handing me something ridiculous, a set I wander into by accident, a conversation at 4am with someone whose name I'll never learn. That's the stuff I'm still telling people about Elements. Along with the biggest lineup ever, the Fire Stage back from the studs, and Rawb somewhere in the woods having too much fun for no good reason.

Go find your micro-moments. See you out there.